Full Harvest Mode
September 3, 2012
antry stocking is going on at a frenzied pace. Today on the winter preparation menu, I’m churning butter, roasting tomatoes for sauce and salsa, freezing cauliflower, canning beans, making herbal salve for Jane, that’s in addition to all the weeding, watering, harvesting, worrying, and other daily farm chores. Here are some pics from the past few days.
Veda’s Purple Podded Pole bean.
Himalayan blackberry 
CheddarF1 cauliflower.
Heirloom tomatoes for soup, sauce or salsa…
Herbs for Jane’s salve.
Dragonfly in the greenhouse.
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Food Renegade
Simple, Green, Frugal Co-op
We bought another freezer today as ours is full to overflowing. Sometimes it is just plain easier to put in the freezer than to try canning things. Mind you the type of produce we are getting this year may just be better frozen anyway.
Joanna, definitely! Some things just don’t translate well canned.
I might have spent two years in the US, but still I don’t always get it right
looks great! my tomatoes slowed down a bit after the hot weather a few weeks ago. i think the houses were too hot during the triple digit days and it impacted fruit set. i mudded the plastic (gtf style) and that helped, looks like the plants are setting fruit again so hopefully we’ll get another round of heavy harvests! i didn’t grow any determinates this year and that was a mistake, i could use a concentrated harvest so we can actually do some serious canning!
Ben, my neighbor had the same problem, no roll-up sides and a semi-quonset with an east west orientation. My has so much more ventilation, she was just here lamenting the difference yesterday. We have the same tomatoes, planted at the same time, and the only difference is the heat factor, so I think you’re right on.
I’ve already pulled the determinates which is nice, so now I can get to work on the big guys. Gotta work up a post on tomatoes, me thinks.
i have roll ups, which are great normally, especially since its so windy here you can roll one side up just a few inches and it cools off nicely. the problem is that when the temp get really hot the wind stops blowing. my soil isn’t great either so i;m sure that exacerbates problems.
Ooohh, blueberries! Color me jealous.
BC, I just declared open-season on the blueberries, the freezer is stuffed and now we can just graze!
I am curious about the salve for Jane –what do you use it for and would you be willing to share the recipe?
Susan, here is a good tutorial on salve making:
http://twofroghome.com/herbal-healing-salve/
I’m using this on Jane’s udder sore which has diminished in size from about 3″ x 9″ to about 1″ x 3″ – my ND friend made this for Jane and I’m just following her lead. A quick walk about gave me Self Heal, Narrow leaved Plantain, Comfrey, Calendula and Rose with a drop of vitamin E for a preservative. It’s really a good healing salve to have around anyway and easy to make with common “weeds” and flowers in the garden.
You’re harvesting dragonflies?
The tomato roaster pan looks great.
HFS, nah, we shooed him out before closing up for the night.
Hey, I have a high tunnel question. I can buy a hoop bender, but what am I bending? What are the poles? Aluminum fence poles? I feel a little overwhelm trying to figure this out. Any help you can offer is appreciated.
Svetlana, I think they recommend buying the bender and buying local fencing (chain link fence top rail) to save on shipping the pipes. Here is Johnny’s recommendation:
http://www.johnnyseeds.com/p-8417-quick-hoops-high-tunnel-bender.aspx
Do you (or maybe some of the other readers?) have a salsa recipe that works well for canning? I haven’t been satisfied with any that I’ve tried.
Here is my recipe:
http://matronofhusbandry.wordpress.com/2008/09/16/salsa-time/
Make a small batch to see if you like it this way or not. Salsa is a pretty subjective item, and one that shouldn’t always be home canned due to the mixing of low acid vegetables with higher acid tomatoes. One thing about salsa you don’t like, it can always be added to a stew to add a Tex-Mex touch so it’s not a total waste
Beautiful photos! I’m busy canning and freezing too. I’ve canned whole plums in light 10% syrup, plum jam, blackberry syrup, apricot jam, red currant jam and green tomato chutney. I’ve frozen rhubarb, blackberries, sour cherries, peaches, beans and pesto. I still intend to make some salsa and peach butter and applesauce. We’ve had a bumper fruit year here in Colorado, I’m guessing next year there’ll be slim pickings!
Diana, I LOVE this time of year! The colors and tastes are so intense! I’m thinking we too will have a slim year next year fruit wise, the trees are laden this year. Yum!
Do you do pressure canning? I’m new to canning and want to put up low acid foods and read I need a pressure canner to do it safely. Any tips? Presto, All-America, Mirro?
Love your blog – informative and homey at the same time!
Victoria, yep today I’m canning green beans (well actually they’re purple) and summer squash, and freezing cauliflower
You do need a pressure canner to can low acid foods. I have two Prestos and they are great. All-American is supposed to be top of the line and doesn’t need gaskets, so if you can afford it that would be nice. But there is nothing wrong with the gasket type easier, I’ve never had any problem with mine.
Thanks for the kind words!