December Harvest

[robby]

We haven't had freezing temperatures yet in the San Joaquin Valley, and today, I picked lemons and about 6 quarts of Roma tomatoes.
I always pick tomatoes at the pink stage, and let them finish ripening indoors. Birds seem to almost always get my bright red tomatoes. I have 4 cats on patrol in the garden to help and they do catch pesky birds, rats and gophers.

Did you know that tomatoes and peppers are perennial plants in warmer climes? I'm sure that here we'll eventually get a freeze, but I'll let them grow until then.

The lemons are Meyer lemons, which are technically sour oranges. I'm going to juice and can this first batch.

Comments

[via_ostiense]

Meyers are great! I used some to make a vinaigrette this week. What are you going to do with your canned juice?

[robby]

I make about 30 quarts of lemon marmalade from whole lemons, and then juice whatever lemons are left. When you pressure can the juice it seems to stay fresh.

In the summer, I'll drink water with a dash of lemon juice. I also add lemon juice to increase acidity when I can tomatoes.

[zesty_pinto]

Ha, oddly appropo, I made some preserved lemons a week ago to gift to someone. I'm only mentioning this because they mentioned that meyer lemons are specifically the type you want to use for this ingredient for your Middle Eastern cooking.

[robby]

Did you salt them? I did that once.

[zesty_pinto]

Absolutely, the recipe I got was pretty much: cut lemon, salt lemon, store lemon, squeeze lemon, salt lemon again, repeat until full. This is a first time for me, so hoping it does the job as I wait for it to preserve properly.

[bridgetmkennitt]

Congrats on your harvest!

[robby]

I may be picking tomatoes until January. This is the latest that I've seen.

[tielan]

Ooh, Roma tomatoes! Are you going to make passata, or just can them?

[robby]

I do both. A batch I picked earlier is going into a big pot of chili tomorrow.

[tielan]

Sounds tasty....

[gumbogumbo]

so nice! so much fruit!

[jottingprosaist]

I saw the lemons and my mouth started gushing saliva for citrus. In the absence of lemon marmalade, I'll have to buy some Xmas oranges and wish I knew what these "warmer climes" were. TT