equinox

"As autumn returns to earth's northern hemisphere,
and day and night are briefly,
but perfectly,
balanced at the equinox,
may we remember anew how fragile life is ----
human life, surely,
but also the lives of all other creatures,
trees and plants,
waters and winds.

May we make wise choices in how and what we harvest,
may earth's weather turn kinder,
may there be enough food for all creatures,
may the diminishing light in our daytime skies
be met by an increasing compassion and tolerance
in our hearts."-   Kathleen Jenks, Autumn Lore

Tomato Envy???

I have been a little envious of my friends & coworkers who live down in sunny Sacramento. They have been bringing tomatoes in to work for over a month. As for me, I think 2011 is going to go on record as the worst tomato year ever in El Dorado county. We had lots of rain & cold weather well in to the last week of June. Not great tomato conditions. I did eventually get some planted and have some success. This last weekend I finally had enough ripe at one time to do something with them other than just eating them :)

I took the very full bowl to the sink in the milking shed for an initial washing before I brought them inside. They looked so pretty I just had to take a picture....

Sitting on the milk stand dripping.

tray one ready to go in the oven

That one bowl filled two large cookie sheets

The finished product; which were then bagged up & frozen. 

One of my favorite quick & easy dinners is pasta with roasted tomatoes & my home made feta cheese. So it is nice to have plenty of feta in the fridge & plenty of roasted tomatoes in the freezer. Hopefully there will be enough ripe tomatoes next weekend to get some sauce and/or whole tomatoes canned, too.

I must say, however, that I am not real happy with the varieties I planted this year. Next year I will go back to the ones I fell in love with last year. I did not repeat them this year because between kidding season & the  crazy weather this year, I did not get seeds planted & had to rely on the varieties available at the local nursery. Good but not great.