Unexpected Harvest

On Sunday morning, CG informed us that she had ice on her trees, from where she had her sprinkler running all night long, and that her weather station said it had gotten down to 30 degrees during the night. She asked about our tomatoes. Our weather station, 1/10th mile away, said 36 degrees. And our tomatoes were fine. Peppers too. So honestly I didn't think much about it, and since Sunday was already scheduled as Salsa Day, I spent the morning making eight batches of salsa with all of our ripe tomatoes. I left the green tomatoes on the vines.

Sunday night, however, it FROZE for real. I awoke to our weather station registering a low of 26 degrees. Wilted tomato plants and pepper plants. I knew, after we got home from school today, we'd have to harvest every single vegetable in the garden.

We have yet to turn on the heaters in our house. We're just not ready for this kind of weather. I think I'm in denial.

Today, when we got home to school, I got to work. Wifey said all of her tomatoes, every last one, froze. She tried to bring some in the house, and they were just mush. She pulled up all her tomato plants and fed them, tomatoes and all, to the goats.

I harvested all the tomatoes that weren't mushy, and some that were. I am going to experiment with roasting them tonight into a batch or two of salsa. Roasting and salsifying tomatoes makes them mushy anyway, so I'm hopeful. We'll see. And I'll let you know.

I harvested all the peppers, even the teeny tiny ones that just didn't have enough of a chance to grow, and all the tomatillos. It seems like this is a very early freeze--it seems like I usually don't have to harvest EVERYTHING until at least the end of October, sometimes later.

We lost about half of our beautiful basil. I fed the blackened, wilted, frozen basil, stalks and all, to the goats. Another experiment: I moved the EarthBox of herbs (basil, Italian parsley, sage) in front of the windows in the addition. We'll see if they will last just a bit longer until I can at least make some pesto or dry some of the parsley. I don't see why they wouldn't last, as long as I write a note to myself about keeping the box watered.

Now I will need to monitor my bowls of tomatoes, gathering the ripest ones for salsa every couple of days. Did you know you can pick green tomatoes and they will ripen on the counter or in a bowl? I was happy to learn that several years ago--it really works!

So anyway. The salsa will continue until we are out of tomatoes...