Harvest Time

Despite the cooler temperatures this summer, Gretel's 2010 garden was more fruitful than any garden we have yet grown. For the first time in our lives we had more tomatoes than we knew what to do with! After nearly filling our huge freezer with roasted tomatoes, frozen whole tomatoes and dried tomatoes, we started pickling and canning the green ones that were still on the vine. These are incredibly delicious!

Here are the plants nearing the end of the season.

And below, one of the many tomato harvests......

Gretel with a huge heirloom.

In addition to the fruits and veggies coming from the garden, our chickens are laying like crazy too. Most days we get 5 or 6 eggs!

Casey has begun a fruitful new hobby as well, fishing. Here are two big salmon from one fishing trip. We freeze a lot and smoke a lot of this meat as well. Having smoked salmon on hand whenever you want it is a treat indeed!

This is the first year we've done any canning, and it has turned out to be really fun. Here is our cellar with fig jam, pickled trombolina squash, jalepeno salsa, tomato salsa, and lots of pickled green tomatoes. Now that we understand how easy it can be, I imagine we'll be doing a lot more of it in the future!

Gretel does her part to help with the harvest. Here she is with a green tomato in hand, fending off the chickens!