It's Autumn-time . . .

I think I may have used that title before, but since it is 2012, I thought it was perfectly appropriate to use it (again). After such a hot, dry summer, we have cooled down and gotten some rain. I've been pulling down the veggies and preparing the gardening bed for winter (and trying to kill the bind weed that still lingers). I've been trying to eradicate the raspberries and blackberries from the netting that I put on to protect the fruit from the birds (and neglected to take off or loosen). Hopefully the brambles will survive. I've also tried to freeze or preserve whatever remains from the summer harvest.

The past week I've been inundated with green tomatoes. We had four plants, and the summer heat/dry weather meant that we didn't get a lot of fruit. But the plants were fairly hearty, especially the Roma which took over the side of the house and tried killing the lawn. With frost threatening, I pulled the plants out. I was amazed at the root systems. I had never seen tomatoes with such extensive root systems. Even though I threw many a green tomato into the compost pile, we had oodles of green tomatoes. So I canned.

Green tomato salsa.

Green tomato chutney.

Green tomato bread.

Red tomatoes in juice.

Dehydrated red tomatoes in oil.

I couldn't bring myself to try green tomato cake or pie or anything that tried treating tomatoes like apples. (Call me a purist.) I'm glad it is almost done so that I can put everything away and start enjoying the cooler weather.