And boy, are we glad we did get a good harvest, despite the weather and we are so glad we live way up north. We really feel for folks who were hit with the hurricane! Will has been busy “pounding” dry bean pods in a bucket with his trusty oak baseball bat. He gently pounds the pods, releasing the dry beans. Then he sifts the top empty pods out into a bag. They make great kindling! He pounds again until there is nothing left but dry beans and some chaff. Taking the bucket outside on a windy day, like today, he winnows the beans from one bucket to another, letting the wind blow away the lighter chaff. After a few passes, there is nothing left but clean beans to put away. We’re almost done with all of our varieties of beans now.

Will pounding beans. (Don’t look at the mess behind him!)
Winnowing the dry beans in a strong wind removes the chaff.
After cleaning, we put the labeled beans away safely.

Meanwhile, I’m keeping on seeding out tomatoes. I started with 15 crates and am down to one. Whew — I’m gaining on it! Yesterday I canned up some diced tomatoes without skins. The leftover seeded out tomatoes, I cut the stems and cores out and toss them in the blender with onions and peppers, making either salsa or tomato sauce. I’ve done a whole lot of tomatoes and am about tomatoed out! Son, Bill and his family, are coming up Sunday to get some leftover tomatoes to can up. There are some left in the garden and our friend, Sherri, is going to bring some of her last ones. We have some cold weather coming after Thursday so need to get everything cleaned up.

While Will was pounding beans, I was canning up more diced tomatoes.

— Jackie

12 COMMENTS

  1. Tomatoed out” good one 👍! I too have finished seeding out the seeds, salsa, ketchup. But so enjoyable to open up this winter. Alas, Will has me beat on the dry beans. My project for the next few days. 36 this morning. Praying for The South.

  2. Jackie, you are my inspiration. I’m down to 3 buckets of apples. I started with 8. Those remaining will be cider and applesauce. Have just a few tomatoes & peppers in the garden. After frost, it will be horseradish.

  5. Hi, Jackie:
    Thanks, as always, for teaching us in your blog. I am subscribed now to Self Reliance magazine. Will it carry your column of Ask Jackie?

  6. Busy,busy,busy! This time of year is a race with mother nature for sure. I had 35 this morning. I am so dreading winter this year. I love canning tomatoes. It smells like summer in a jar when I open them in the dead of winter. So worth the effort. Will sure looks like he’s having a good time smashing those beans, lol. Sending prayers for a blessed week.

  7. I’m so glad you guys are getting it done before Mr. Frosty comes calling! I can’t even imagine dealing with that many tomatoes, Congrats on a bountiful year despite some hiccups along the way. :)

  8. My harvest is nearly complete. I have peppers, cabbage, and the remnant tomatoes. I’ve started garden clean up. What destruction the hurricane has brought to our Southern neighbors. How can any of us in the Midwest complain about the weather. I’m happy your crops did well.

  9. You guys are inspirational in your harvest efforts and the results! I have a ton of green tomatoes and hope we don’t get a frost too soon here is Spokane. We had such a cold spring that no insects were out so the fruit didn’t get set until much later than normal. I am at least enjoying the slow gradual ongoing harvest as it is. Your canning looks marvelous and yummy too.

  10. Don’t you love it when something is a two-fer? Red Elm can be stringy but the strings make good kindling (as do the inevitable pieces of wood that decide to not split as expected). We get a lot of sticks/twigs in the yard so I’ll pick those up for kindling too. Good exercise and cleans up.
    When you’re eating salsa or using that spaghetti sauce, you’ll have all but forgotten how tired you were of tomatoes.
    We might have some weather quirks here in the upper Midwest but I think it is the best are in which to live these days.

    • We love using everything we can. We let our corncobs dry and also use those for kindling. Just like the old timers did. Why split kindling when you have plenty of dry cobs lying around??
      With all the crazy weather, country-wide, we’re very happy that all we have to deal with is snow in the winter. Very grateful folks here!!

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