Thursday, September 7, 2017

Tomato Invasion

Last week the boys and I took Friday off, and traveled to Branson, Missouri. We didn't have a vacation this summer because of Travis' art residency and my surgery, recovery, and Aspirin Desensitization. It was good to get away.

Before We Left:

Our garden is putting out more produce than we have time to process. Travis and I processed acorn squash, squash seeds, tomatoes, and cucumbers before we left. Then we had and have to process more once we got home! Yep during the time we were gone a few tomatoes juiced, and fruit flies occurred. Boo!

We have lots of cabbage, Spaghetti Squash, and kale as well. The Spaghetti Squash and cabbage I use in dishes. The kale we steam for breakfast. We're getting to the point where kale will be washed, dried, and ground for winter smoothies.

Tomatoes:

Travis picks tomatoes. I line the red ones up in 1 window, the 1/2 red ones in another window, and the green ones in yet another window. I rotate them. Once I have about a gallon of tomatoes I boil them, give them an ice bath, peel them, and deseed them. I make the boys help. Isaak's always been a pretty good helper. Mica on the other hand...well we struggle.

Travis pours the extra tomato juice in ice cube trays for vegetable juice. Once we have quite a few gallon bags of tomatoes we can them. We usually just can jars of tomatoes. Then we can use them for whatever recipe we want to down the road.


A 24 Quart Pot Ready to Can:


I've been making Sun Dried Tomatoes with the Cherry Tomatoes. 

Sun Dried Tomatoes are Really Easy to Make:
  • Set the oven to 200 degrees
  • Spray a pan
  • Wash and cut the tomatoes in 1/2 
  • Deseed the tomatoes
  • You can season them how you wish - basil, salt and pepper is usually what I use
  • Bake for about 5 hours, stir, check on them every hour after that - usually they end up baking for about 8 hours
Storing Them:

I just put them in a closed container in the refrigerator. I know people store them in oil to. 

Use Them:

We use them in eggs, on cheese toast (melt the cheese over them), and on salads.



I think I'm finally caught up on reviews. I got a ton of products to review all at once it seemed. The reviews were all due when, or right after I got back from vacation. Some of them I cut pretty close to their deadlines. That's not like me.

This weekend it's time to can relish. I want to try cinnamon pickles. We have lots of dill, and bread and butter pickles.

What would you make with lots of tomatoes and Cucumbers?

6 comments:

Theresa Mahoney said...

I am so jealous of your tomato bounty. My crop failed this year, simply because I think some fat critter pounced on the stems when they were wee little things, crushing most of them. They never recovered :( My peppers too. I only got a handful off those plants. My herbs did exceptionally well though.

I have never done sun dried tomatoes, but yours do look tasty!

An Apel a Day said...

Theresa that sucks that your tomatoes and peppers haven't done well. My husband does most of the work with growing things.

Ai Sakura said...

wow I love how you have your own garden to pick fresh vegs off.. even if I had the space for one here in Singapore, I don't think my fingers are green enough! :p

Never knew sun-dried tomatoes were so easy to make. I will try them one day..

Ai @ Sakura Haruka

mail4rosey said...

Those dried tomatoes look good. We don't have a yard anymore, we're living in a gated community (apartment building). I have a love/hate relationship with no yard. I miss growing things in my yard (especially flowers) but I don't miss the work (at all!).

Lisa @ Two Bears Farm said...

Gardens are a lot of work. I still have some dried tomatoes from last year. I canned the tomatoes I got this year. My garden was more flop than not this summer though.

Indah Nuria Savitri said...

I love sun dried tomatoes! It tastes good with almost everything..I put them in all soup I eat :)

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