Freezing Tomatoes

We are about to take off to hiking in the Northwest for a week and so we’re gathering in some more of the harvest before we go.  The soups, sauces, and tomato supper dishes were not keeping up with the influx so we’ve taken to freezing the tomatoes.  Much like we do with blueberries, the tomatoes are simply cored and spread on a cookie sheet to freeze and then we take those rock solid red tennis balls and put them in plastic bags.   Then at some point we will add those tomatoes to tomato-based sauces this winter.

One of the fruits reaching the harvest point right now are the Japanese Pears.

Japanese Pears fully ripe

This a tree we often call Josh’s miracle tree for the spectacular recovery it made from a near death experience.  The full story will be told at a later date…  Suffice it to say for now that this is a consistent yielder of fully organic, no-need-to-spray fruit.  The flavor will never match a good Doyenné du Comice Pear, but you can’t have everything…

The Japanese Pear is a prolific bearer every year

I should have mentioned earlier that the early mums that we get every year are doing their thing and have been out for at least a month.  Don’t know why they come so early but we won’t complain.

Early blooming Chrysanthemum

This is a good time of the year for butterflies and dragonflies.  I noticed one odd looking dragonfly the other day and I now realize that it’s quite common.  In fact it’s known as the ‘Common Whitetail’.  Nonetheless it is quite distinctive to look at.

Common Whitetail (Libellula lydia)

We’ve just had two days of rainfall (finally!) but I went out one of the hot dry days before that and dug a new Iris bed.

Tilling a new Iris bed

I really went for overkill but who knows what else can go in this sunny spot before we get enough Iris to fill it.  At the moment we only have an additional 9 Iris from Schreiners and several from our Boston connection but once I was into digging I had to complete the row.  It was very dry but I persisted with the plow attachment on the roto-tiller and then filled the trench with water and repeated the process.  I think I could have used the sweat from my drenched tee-shirt to soften the ground as well.  I followed by filling the new trench with compost and then doing it all over again.  Even with all of that it would probably be good to let the remainder lie fallow and do it again next year but we shall have to see what else needs planting in the interim…

On the bird front we had a cute little visitor the other morning.  My guess is a Yellow-Throated Vireo but I’m open to other interpretations.

Yellow-Throated Vireo? (Vireo flavifrons)

And let me close this post with another image of the Northern Sea Oats.  The world can simply not have enough of these beautiful plants which look different in every kind of light.

Northern Sea Oats (Chasmanthium latifolium)