The other day we brought in 1700 pounds of tomatoes. And there were still more on the vines.
Mostly we have these delicious red "slicers" but we also grow paste-type "romas" and of course a variety of big yellow, orange, pink, purple, & green heirlooms.
The red peppers continue to amaze me.
And we dug up the row of Adirondack Blue potatoes! They look like rocks in this picture (and in the soil-- it was difficult to tell them apart form stones actually), but cut open they are a bright purple color. I really want to grow these next year, they are so cool.
And fall greens-- crisp and spicy. Top left is red mustard, top right is arugula, bottom left is tat soi, bottom right is golden frill mustard.
Onions...
Peppers and leeks complimenting eachother beautifully,
gigantic turnips,
sweet yellow wax beans,
the first fall radishes,
your choice of kale (red russian) or chard,
some tiny yellow squash,
one head of garlic a week as usual,
awesome heads of romaine,
sweet dumpling squash,
Oh yes, did I mention tomatoes?
We have tomatoes.
Take 8 pounds of them. Please.
Last Saturday was Community Day-- Nick drove the John Deere right through town on highway 82 as crowds of people stood by and watched. We had 2 bees on the haywagon, 1 ear of corn, 1 pea pod, and another (smaller) John Deere tractor, as well as an arsenal of tomatoes to hand out to innocent bystanders.
We were preceded by the local high school marching band, and followed by the fire trucks. It was really great. The best part was tossing tomatoes to people and cheering when they caught them. (A few of them missed.) The looks on peoples faces, and the kids running after the wagon with their arms out.
In a rushed continuation of my heirloom tomato project, I collected one of every variety I planted, to save the seeds for next year. What you do is squeeze out the liquid "ooze" from the tomatoes (I made sauce with the rest of the tomato) into a jar, add an equal amount of water & stir it up. The ooze contains the seeds, of course. Then you leave the jars out to ferment. (Yay fermentation!) After a few days they get all moldy and gross. But this is good, it breaks down the barrier on the seeds that prevents them from germinating. Then you pour off all the nasty stuff, and rinse with water a few times until you just have the seeds.
Then you spread them out on trays to dry.
I am a little concerned that I left the seeds in the jars for too long (almost a week). I was so busy with other things, I just kept putting it off one more day. What has happened I think to most of them is they started to germinate, putting out little tiny sprouts. Now the drying will probably kill them. I will test a few when they are completely dry, to see if they are still viable. If not, back out to the field to collect some more!
Mostly we have these delicious red "slicers" but we also grow paste-type "romas" and of course a variety of big yellow, orange, pink, purple, & green heirlooms.
The red peppers continue to amaze me.
And we dug up the row of Adirondack Blue potatoes! They look like rocks in this picture (and in the soil-- it was difficult to tell them apart form stones actually), but cut open they are a bright purple color. I really want to grow these next year, they are so cool.
And fall greens-- crisp and spicy. Top left is red mustard, top right is arugula, bottom left is tat soi, bottom right is golden frill mustard.
Onions...
Peppers and leeks complimenting eachother beautifully,
gigantic turnips,
sweet yellow wax beans,
the first fall radishes,
your choice of kale (red russian) or chard,
some tiny yellow squash,
one head of garlic a week as usual,
awesome heads of romaine,
sweet dumpling squash,
Oh yes, did I mention tomatoes?
We have tomatoes.
Take 8 pounds of them. Please. 
Last Saturday was Community Day-- Nick drove the John Deere right through town on highway 82 as crowds of people stood by and watched. We had 2 bees on the haywagon, 1 ear of corn, 1 pea pod, and another (smaller) John Deere tractor, as well as an arsenal of tomatoes to hand out to innocent bystanders.
We were preceded by the local high school marching band, and followed by the fire trucks. It was really great. The best part was tossing tomatoes to people and cheering when they caught them. (A few of them missed.) The looks on peoples faces, and the kids running after the wagon with their arms out. 
In a rushed continuation of my heirloom tomato project, I collected one of every variety I planted, to save the seeds for next year. What you do is squeeze out the liquid "ooze" from the tomatoes (I made sauce with the rest of the tomato) into a jar, add an equal amount of water & stir it up. The ooze contains the seeds, of course. Then you leave the jars out to ferment. (Yay fermentation!) After a few days they get all moldy and gross. But this is good, it breaks down the barrier on the seeds that prevents them from germinating. Then you pour off all the nasty stuff, and rinse with water a few times until you just have the seeds.
Then you spread them out on trays to dry.
I am a little concerned that I left the seeds in the jars for too long (almost a week). I was so busy with other things, I just kept putting it off one more day. What has happened I think to most of them is they started to germinate, putting out little tiny sprouts. Now the drying will probably kill them. I will test a few when they are completely dry, to see if they are still viable. If not, back out to the field to collect some more!
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