So... Terribly... Dry.

Done some drying lately. Made sun-dried (well, ok, oven-dried) tomatoes.

Into the oven you go, cherry tomatoes!

And back out again. Submerged in oil and put in the fridge.

Also dried some peppers. These were a gift from a friend, not from the garden. Maybe next year I'll have this kind of bounty. The habaneros didn't get completely bone dry, so I tossed them in a jar and put them in the freezer.

Habaneros before...

...and after.

Drying

Dried and ground

And relabelled.

One of our Cherokee Purple tomatoes out front just went nuts. Tons of tomatoes, but since it wasn't properly staked I missed out on most of them, chipmunks and squirrels and slugs got them first as the ripened. I pulled what was left on the plant (8 or 9? Picked 6 or 7 a week or so ago). Frost probably soon.

Loads of green Cherokee Purple tomatoes.

Winding Down

Things seem to be winding down. The lower leaves are dying off in most everything. Some nice peppers.

Serrano

Anaheim (New Mexico chilis)

The Serranos were a little hot, but not as hot as I expected. I roasted the Anaheims in the oven and gave them a place of honor atop some green chili bacon cheeseburgers. Planting more Anaheims next year. That's the one thing I miss about living in New Mexico.

Tomatoes are still coming in. Done a few different things with them. Right now got a tray of cherry tomatoes hopefully turning into sun-dried tomatoes in the oven. Oven dried? Faux sun-dried?

Pound of mostly Sun Golds.

Tomato Jam

Homemade bread and butter pickles, olives (storebought), pickled banana peppers (not my peppers, but I did pickle them - very crunchy), and pickled black cherry tomatoes (so good).

Pumpkins and sunflower heads. Pumpkins were pretty small, but we got about 9 of them.

Pumpkins and sunflowers

The Zucchino rampicante is starting to die off like the rest of the zucchini, but I did manage to harvest this.

Zucchino rampicante about 13" long

Zucchini on the vine

Basil is starting to go south. The lower half of most of the plants are getting much lighter green and developing dark brown spots. So I harvested everything and made over a quart of pesto. Recipe:

• Loadsa basil
• Lotsa walnuts (pine nuts are crazy expensive)
• Lotsa parmesan
• Buncha garlic cloves
• Some olive oil

Blend it all until smooth.

Can't really go wrong with this one. Make it plenty thick, you can dilute it later if desired.

The basil harvest.

Mmmm, basil.

Half pound of fresh basil = 1 quart of pesto

Next year will grow more basil, gave a bunch away and more people were interested.

Pumpkin Harvest

Picked a few of the pumpkins, the vines were dead.

Delicious pie pumpkins

Also picked 3 lbs 9 oz of tomatoes. Highlight was 45 Black Cherry tomatoes totaling 13 oz. I think they've earned a return spot next year.

Black Cherry, Red Cherry, Sun Gold, and Gold Nugget

Pickled a bunch of them.