A Big Harvest Day

Summer has come to an end.  The mornings suddenly feel cold.  Frost is looming.  It was time to harvest the tender crops from the garden.  We tried to leave the squash as long as possible, which could've done with another week of heat, but regrettably, frost won't hold off just because we want it too.  

The boys piled squash onto the lawn, the step, and into containers.  They were pleased with the harvests from their pumpkin plants, small and large.  I pulled up tomato plants.  Since the sling baby doesn't much like the work of bending over in the garden, I set up a little work station next to the greenhouse where we stripped the fruit off the vine and separated the green tomatoes from the ripe ones.

We worked through the afternoon in the warm sunshine, when all the tomatoes, squash, and onions were harvested.  Dh was away for an excessively long workday, so I was very grateful for my little helpers.

Those boys of mine were so focused, I couldn't have got it all done without them! 

I see them getting stronger and more efficient each year.  I was impressed with how they hauled those heavy squash out of the garden!  As they participate more each year in planting and raising their own vegetables, harvest time becomes that much more meaningful.  They asked if we could have a harvest celebration soon.

I am pleased with this year's tomato crop.  There was only one section with a few plants where some pumpkin vines had grown over and created a moist shady spot which didn't do as well.  A number of those fruits had little holes or bite marks in them.

When it comes to tomatoes, I've learned not to take chances.  I tossed anything that looked like it might go bad before ripening.  It's not worth the risk of the crop to save a few extra tomatoes.

The real winner of this year's crop was a plant called Anna Russian.  It's a big, indeterminate tomato from Heritage Harvest Seed (see sidebar).  The tomatoes are pink, slightly heart-shaped, with many the size of big apples.  The plants were loaded with fruit.

Inside, they are dense and sweet, with a smooth texture.  Perfect for tomato sandwiches, but also with lots of meat for making sauce.

Another plant that deserves an honorable mention is Old Brook, from Prairie Seeds.  This is a quiet work horse of the garden.  Healthy, relatively early, loaded with tomatoes that have that a more acidic, old fashioned tomato flavour.

Old Brook doesn't have any real defining characteristics- but it's reliability and tasty tomato-y personality keep me growing it every year.  It's just a darn good tomato.

Not to be upstaged, Monomakh's Hat (Heritage Harvest Seed) has produced another 2 lb wonder this year,.

In total, from the garden we harvested about 35 gallons of tomatoes.

There are still those left in the greenhouse, and a few that we left on the vine to store.  I'm looking forward to trying the Martino's Roma tomatoes, whose plants were heavy with fruit.

I'm trying a new-to-me storage technique with some of these, which I read about in Terre Vivant's Preserving Food Without Freezing or Canning (sidebar), that is, hanging the plants, roots and all, upside-down in the cellar and picking the fruit as it ripens.  I stripped most of the leaves before hanging the plants on nails from the ceiling in the cold room.  It will be interesting to see how these come along. 

So it seems now that every surface in the kitchen is cluttered with veg!  There will be lots of canning in the days ahead, as we process the tomatoes and slowly bring in the rest of the harvest.

"Won't dad be surprised when he comes in the door tonight to see all of this squash?"

That got the boys thinking it might be funny to leave a pumpkin on his computer desk chair, and tuck an overgrown zucchini into his side of the bed.

I have no idea what time it was when he finally got home from work, but I heard him laughing quietly in the dark.