Saturday, September 19, 2009

Canned Plums and Even More Tomatoes

I canned 6 quarts of plums from the batch we picked from our tree earlier this week. I love their magenta color only second to the golden yellow of peaches when canned. Unfortunately, it was dark when they got out of the canner and I couldn't get artificial light to shine through them at the right angle, so no picture.

We picked another 10 1/2 lb. of Romas today and I simmered it down to sauce while I was working on the plums. Since the canner bath was already hot I decided to can this batch rather than freeze it - 4 more quarts of sauce.

I only have 18 empty quarts and 8 empty pints left and I'm trying to decide how to use them. Probably 14 quarts of peaches and the rest as applesauce. We've already drunk half of our apple cider so another couple boxes of apples wouldn't go amiss regardless. It's just so satisfying to share a bottle with dinner.

I was playing with tomato numbers today. We have four plants this year and I think they're going to give us about 40 pounds altogether. (Assuming frost and cool weather don't prevent the rest of my harvest.) My tomato needs are almost met right now. I used 175 pounds that we bought and 25 that we grew or were given, so I need around 200 pounds each year. That's 20 plants? Seems impractical in the space we have...perhaps I'll have to continue to support my favorite local farm. It would just be nice to know that they were all organic from my yard. I also don't know if I'm under or overestimating how many pounds we'll get off the plants. There sure are still a lot of pink tomatoes on those vines, even after today's picking.

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