It's like I fell off the face of the earth the past week or so! I know you are thinking I probably sent the kids away to some reform school and I'm at home eating chocolates and watching soap operas, but I've actually been canning, every day, all day...
the tomatoes were relentless!
This has been the harvest weather pretty much every day -
add to that high 90's and swarms of mosquitoes and I'm really ready for fall.
The mosquitoes are worse than usual, EEE (for those that don't know that's Eastern Equine Encephalitis) has hit our area really badly this year. We always have reports of it here and there every year, but this year pretty much all the mosquito pools being sampled are testing positive and it's putting a lot of people in the hospital this season. I'm covered in bites just from picking peppers this morning, and I even had pants on. About 5-7 minutes outside is all a person can take, and everything is now so wet it just doesn't dry out before the lightning and thunder starts in again.
I'll spare you the many tomato harvest photos, just take the one above and repeat every 48 hours. Below is this morning's pepper harvest though!
I would love to let all my bells get nice and red, but I'm finding that their quality is all downhill from green this year, so I'm picking them at green while they are still thick walled and unmarked. They are much smaller than other years, also. I will get enough into the freezer for the family for winter however so I can't complain.
The tomatoes are just about done. I can honestly say I'm overjoyed about this, since I have plenty put away and the bugs and heat are intolerable now. I will probably pull everything out there except my jalapeno plants soon. I'm eager to try and replant beans soon since the heat limited my summer production and I only have about half of what I like to have put away for winter.
Lather, Rinse, Repeat... (insert this photo daily!)
Another reason I've been off the map is that hubs & I were asked to speak in church last Sunday on disaster preparedness (him) & food preparedness/growing & canning (me). That caught us a bit off guard and I spent the better part of last week preparing that and just stressing out in general. Turns out everything went fine and nobody was shooting spitballs or heckling us LOL, but the nerves of preparing to speak before a large group can wipe you out mentally for awhile, I think I'm ready to be an introvert for awhile and just crawl back into my own kitchen and hide out. (I can see my mom's eyes roll as she reads that, me - an introvert?!)
After being eaten alive this morning picking all these peppers I managed to get them all squirreled away into the freezer for my stir fry obsession. The big bags in the front are my jalapeños, I'll use them for stuffed jalapeños later, I just didn't have the energy to deal with the canner today. Note the small bags of pepper strips... I realized that the next deployment is approaching fast and so started freezing them in smaller portions since without hubby here we use much less - the kids aren't exactly tripping over themselves trying to get to the vegetables yet. After about January, I won't be able to count on the hubs to help me eat all those peppers!
I don't want to sound ungrateful since I know so many aren't getting their normal harvests this year, but I'm ready for fall. I haven't really had trouble getting a harvest, I'm just having a different harvest. More tomatoes and less of everything else, strange. What is definitely different is the way the garden looks - it's absolutely horrendous! What a mess, but it's just too hot to care as long as it's giving me food this year. It's not like I'm out there sipping lemonade and enjoying it this summer, more like donning long sleeves against the bugs and running out with a bucket and running back in as fast as i can. Anyone else longing for fall? I sure hope we are all able to get into that fall mode and bake, sew, read and do all the "extra" projects we have been wanting to - seems like the past winter and summer have really annoyed more than just me :)
We had a "cool" day today and I baked and baked and baked. I was in SUCH a good mood. Hubby noticed it too. I've always hated summer (and I garden??) and this one was really the pits. I'm sorry you have bugs there so bad. It's not a problem here but the heat can go now.
ReplyDeleteSue, that sounds divine!
DeleteYep, I'm ready for fall, too. Lots of things in the garden were disappointing and I'm ready to put it all behind me. I'm not even going to attempt to start a fall garden. Instead I'll amend the soil and give the whole shebang a rest...
ReplyDeleteAnke, I admit I'm thinking the same thing about fall. I think I'll save myself the trouble of brassicas and all that and just try to get another bean crop and lettuces and THAT'S IT!
DeletePoor Erin! I guess you can have too much of a good thing (tomatoes & peppers) as well as too much of a bad thing (heat and mosquitoes). I would commit hara kiri before I'd give a speech in front of a crowd. I honestly couldn't do it, and I admire those who can. We're expecting 102 degrees by Sunday :-(
ReplyDeleteGran, haha yeah, my church loves to have people speak! It's great and uplifting when all you have to do is listen to others but geesh, when it was my turn I wasn't ready at all LOL. I'm so over these 100 degree temps!
DeleteWow you are sure getting lots of good stuff out of your garden. After last year's huge tomato harvest we are probably not going to get very many at all. Sorry to hear your heat and bugs have been so bad. We are into our normal hot dry summer with temps being 35C+ every day. Our weather forecasts are just days of sun with a few clouds thrown in for fun.
ReplyDeleteI'm yearning for Fall too.
Sparkless, I really can't complain - I'm wondering how much more I would have had to deal with if I HAD taken care of the garden this year! The food bank would have been rolling in the tomatoes :)
DeleteYeah, what is it about so many of us ready to send this past winter and summer packing? I know here last winter was so snowless and mild that it enabled all kinds of baaaad insects to move into the area. Which has made our gardening season a real challenge. When we walk across our yard now, so many grasshoppers are set in motion (and land on you . . . eeeuuw!) that it's creepy. But I'll take them over your evil EEE mosquitoes any day.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure the talk you and your hubby made at church was super-informative and very well received. But I know it took a big chunk of your time to prepare for it.
Who cares what your garden looks like if it's producing for you? Love to see all the pictures of the goodies you're stashing away for the coming year.
We're still way too HOT here. Papa Pea actually got physically sick (headache, nausea and dizziness) the other day from the heat. I grump and groan about it but can still function in it, but the heat and humidity knock him for a loop. We are so, so ready for it to cool off. (Sue, I haven't lit my oven for MONTHS!) We're really hoping this is NOT going to be repeated next summer. If so, we will have to move north!
Mama Pea, yep - done, done and DONE! Soooo ready for fall! I got zero quilting or anything for that matter done last winter it seems and I sure hope this one is different. Hope Papa Pea is feeling better, one year when it was like this I tried my best to keep up on the weeding and all that and remember feeling sick many days, it's not worth it!
DeleteFall.....oh how I long for Autumn. This summer totally, royally, most definitely S.U.C.K.E.D.
ReplyDeleteGlad you and your husband gave that little talk at church, it's a good feeling knowing that you may have reached even ONE person and that person can be better prepared - and less dependent on others!
Enjoy the harvest!
CR, here's to a great fall! You know that once the seed catalogs start arriving after Christmas we'll forget all the bad stuff and get sucked right back in LOL!
DeleteI am SO ready for fall. I want to burn that garden down and all the bugs in it. Bring on the fall. I bought a new handmade long skirt that I have been wanting to wear for weeks but it is so stinking hot I cant even think of wearing it. Fall please bring on fall.
ReplyDeleteJane, you and me both! And funny you mention the skirt, I just went thrift store-ing (it's a word now!) and picked up a couple of gauzy breezy skirts for the hot weather, so maybe now it's sure to get cold LOL
DeleteI know exactly how you feel about the summer bounty. I think I have one more bout of canning tomorrow and I may be done. Your pepper harvest is fabulous. What type of bells do you grow?
ReplyDeleteAdventures - canning in this weather is awful isn't it?!! Feels so good to get it done and the counter cleared off, then 12 hours later it's a mess again LOL. I'm growing 2 varieties this year, "Charleston Belle" and Jimmy Nardello Frying peppers (those are the long red bells). The Jimmy's are nice to look at and did great the past 2 years but this year performed worse in the heat. The Charleston Belles are great in this heat though and are nicely thick walled, that was a new one for me this year from Southern Exposure Seed. I've tried 5 or 5 varieties over the years and the Charlestons are a nice heirloom that I think has earned a permanent place in my garden.
DeleteWhat a wonderful harvest! I am jealous of all the beautiful tomatoes, but certainly not the mosquito and heat.... How do you freeze peppers for stirfrying? It looks like you vacuum seal them, but do you blanch them first? Do they get mushy?
ReplyDeleteHi TS! I am happy to report that bell peppers are the easiest crop to freeze! No blanching, they are just cut into strips and frozen raw, super easy. They are also the vegetable that keeps the best texture and color-wise in the freezer. I pop them into stir frys in the winter, or throw them in with onions for yummy toppings for bratwurst or whatever, not mushy at all! The only vegetable I've found that is pretty disappointing frozen is snow peas or snap peas (the kind you eat pod and all). They are okay used in stir frys later but pretty limp and uninviting by themselves :)
DeleteWow, that heat is really tough, and the mosquitoes sound awful! Ours were so bad last summer that I gardened in heavy stiff overalls and a bee jacket with a full head net. Just wore my bathing suit underneath. Fortunately our hot weather has backed off for a while, and our drought has cut the mosquito population down to just a few.
ReplyDeleteI had always heard that tomatoes are a tropical plant that loves heat and I guess this is your year. Good for you in putting away so much of your food, and in sharing the knowledge with others too.
Trailshome, mosquitoes are pure evil! I admit to thinking about trying to stuff myself in my kid's bee suit the other day LOL but it was already in the upper 90's in the morning so the thought quickly left my mind. Nice to hear your heat is subsiding a bit, that means there is hope for us if you continue to send that front our way! Of course, our hurricanes will start up in earnest in about 3 more weeks LOL...
DeleteI couldn't agree more about being annoyed with the weather. Your tomato harvest is incredible though! And those peppers are gorgeous too.
ReplyDelete155# of tomatoes???! You HAVE been busy! The mosquitoes would do me in, I'm afraid. This has seemed like an awfully long summer - and not my favorite one, for sure. If it wasn't for the huge to-do list of things I have to do before winter, I'd be hurrying this season to its end. I am in awe of your garden.
ReplyDeleteAll I can say is "I wish." You go girl!!
ReplyDeleteWow. I have only had a handful of ripe tomatoes. I can imagine how tired you are. Sometimes I'll pull a plant just because I. Have. Had. Enough.
ReplyDeleteSounds as though you're there already.
I think you have more veg,than our farmers market!and as for EEE-you can keep it down there as I thought for a finite our state bird had escaped but ours has a deadly virus with some that are hatched from stagnate water but yours sounds worse
ReplyDeleteHey Erin, I love your pics! Beautiful harvest! I wanted to let you know about a Pepper Photo Contest I'm hosting on my blog. The winner gets a stainless steel Jalapeno roasting rack for the grill or oven. You've certainly got enough peppers!
ReplyDelete-Peppermeister
http://peppermeister.wordpress.com/
P.S. This isn't an ad, I'm just a pepper blogger with an extra brand new pepper roaster!