what's gonna get cooked?

The earth giveth.

E and I went with our friend J to glean some tomatillos from a field leased by a friend of hers on Sauvie Island.  I didn't think tomatillos could grow well here at all, and I have never, ever seen such loaded pepper plants.

The backstory on this leftover harvest is heartbreaking to me, but I wanted to honor what the earth gives in a clear way -- by using it carefully and/or paying for it carefully.  Thankfully, I brought money with me just in case we met up with the tenant, and we did meet up with a relative of his who said she would see him later today.  I gave her $25.  It wasn't enough, but it was all I had.

I've weighed parts of this haul, and I think I came away with 10 - 12 pounds of tomatillos, 8 pounds of jalapenos, and 4 pounds of serranos. 

While there, I also found a few roma tomatoes that hadn't decayed (the rest of the tomatoes in the photo are from our vines).  Two weeks ago, that field would have been full of useable romas, too.  It broke my heart to reach toward each tomato to find that it was rotten on the other side. (Hard year for tomatoes here because of the weather, but these tomatoes would have been okay a couple of weeks ago.)

We stopped into Kruger's to get more cukes when we were out there.  The last bag I got from them turned into such fantastic pickles, that I was greedy for more.

Those cukes went into one of these holy fermenting vessels.  I got another Harsch crock!  Two!  Don't they look lovely?  See that French rolling pin there in front?  That is my new kraut packer.  Do you have a kraut/kimchi packer?  Well, I do...  tra-la-la.  It works great because it is so long and allows me (short, fat lady) such leverage.

Right now, one crock is becoming perfect garlic-dills, and the other is becoming perfect late-summer kimchi.

But back to the photo up top...  time to make salsa, yes?  Can you believe that girl?  She picked a lot of those tomatillos and peppers, too.

Comments

[Cynthia]

Wow....that's gorgeous!