Harvest time, and it's busy

Juliette Heirloom Tomatoes

Kadota Figs

Cleaning and stemming

Roasted Tomatoes .... almost

Drying tomatoes

All the harvest seems to be ripening all at the same time, which rather puts me into a dither. Yesterday was spent gathering all the ripe figs, halving them and setting them out for drying. After 18 hours there is still a tad of moisture inside, but I bagged them immediately, and they are now in the freezer for use sometime in the winter, when I absolutely need to taste some summer on a cold, damp chilly day.

Today I did manage to gather a large basket of heirloom tomatoes called Juliette, they are medium small and quite similar to Roma. Thick skinned so it took quite a while for me to prepare them for drying. I'm trying two methods one in the ovenis roasted tomatoes, and the other method is straight drying with a new dehydrator I purchased last week.

Roasted Tomatoes - Cook at 350°F

2 lbs small Roma type tomatoes halved I used Juliette
1 bulb of garlic cleaned, and half large cloves
6 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp grated sea salt
1 good dash of red pepper flakes
Juice from whole lemon
Approx. 1/2 cup olive oil

In an large dish, combine tomatoes, garlic, sugar, salt, red pepper flakes, and lemon juice, drizzle the olive oil over the mixture.

Cook for approximately 1.75 hours, then stir to make sure they’re done. Serve over pasta, mozzarella, or put on ciabatta for a simple meal.

I am a little upset but it's my own fault there was a plant growing in the garden, actually there was three but I pulled one sadly. After the fact I found out it was a peanut plant, I was quite tickled that I had grow peanuts. So last week as I was clearing the raised beds I pulled out the peanut plant, set it aside to dry in the sun on the hopes that I could use the peanuts and sow them next year. Foiled by something I suspect a squirrel dined on my organic accident peanuts. I'm thinking they must have grown from my compost from last year. A happy accident. The first photo shows the peanut plant lurking between the peppers, and the second shows my meager harvest that was stolen by a ninja squirrel. I still have to do something with all the peppers, and of course the apples too. Wish me luck. Happy harvest to you all.