You Know What I Did Last Summer

My preciouses

Can you tell what I've been up to in my first summer in Oregon?

It turns out if you put 12+ tomato plants in your garden, you best be ready for the tomatoes. Despite a historically hot and dry Summer 2018 here in Multnomah County, our Early Girls, Oregon Springs and San Marzanos thrived.

Being "job free" this summer had its perks. After breakfast and feeling fully caffeinated, every other morning I'd take my best garden assistant, Loretta the pup, for a walk to the community garden at Gresham City Hall. I'd tether her to a garden stake under a tree and give her a bucket of water, and she'd turn full Goat, nibbling at the weeds along the border of the nearby garden plots.

While Loretta grazed and supervised as my personal Garden Security Guard, I'd water every plant twice, filling up the "dirt collars" Scott built around each plant, which served as nice trenches for water. Then I'd pick off the ripe or nearly ripe tomatoes from each plant.

The only variety that didn't produce much for us is the big boy, beefsteak, brain-shaped "Mortgage Lifter," which started strong in the heat of the summer but tapered off now that the evenings are dipping into the 50s. The others - particularly the Early Girls and Oregon Springs - produced 2-3 pounds of tomatoes every other day.  Sadly, our cucumber vines grew hearty in June but wilted and grew yellowed by mid July, so I only canned about five pints of pickles. And as I mentioned earlier this summer, Scott's okra attempt was all for naught - the sole plant to survive barely grew above our knees and didn't produce any pods. So no pickled okra to can this summer!

One thing that contributed to our bumper crop of tomatoes this year was not losing any to pests. Scott smartly made water trays for birds, rabbits and other garden visitors from a large plastic laundry detergent container fished from our apartment complex's recyclables collection. Cut in two, it made perfect trays for water. and was an excellent loss prevention measure. There's nothing worse than going to pick a lovely ripe tomato, only to find the bottom or sides gouged out by a hungry or thirsty bird, bunny or rodent.

I'd lug the tomatoes back to our apartment, where they'd be washed, dried and sorted. Then once I reached critical mass -- around 8-10 pounds or so -- I'd set up my canning pot, sterilize my jars from my aunt Betty and my late Grandmother Carrie that I brought with me from North Carolina, and went to work. I made 10+ jars of crushed tomatoes with a dash of salt and a few tablespoons of lemon juice, three quarts of Cathy Barrow's Spicy Vegetable Juice, six pints of Ball's Fresh Salsa, and six pints of a new-to-me recipe of Vodka Rosemary Pasta Sauce (too sweet but I'll add salt when using it).

Because our apartment doesn't have A/C, and with several burners raging at once and tomato recipes often requiring 45+ minutes of water bath processing time, I'd have our place steaming. I'd run all the fans we own, and open our back patio door, and Scott would still get the vapors every time he came home while I was canning. I kept reminding him that the sticky hellfire would be worth it later on this fall and winter when we tuck into chili, soups and other warm comfort foods made with those ruby-colored jars of tomatoes.

If the weather cooperates and stays mild, we'll still have a couple weeks left of harvesting tomatoes, so my canning days aren't over. Shortly after Labor Day we planted Lacinato and Red Russian Kale, Spinach, Leeks, Beets, two types of Carrots, Arugula, and Scott's favorite, Broccoli Rabe.

No matter the season, the garden is always our happy place. And if it helps to keep us fed, even better!

 Hope the first days of fall are treating you well, and if you did any canning or preserving this summer, I'd love to hear all about it in the comments below.