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Around here Fall brings much colder temps. I dont like it. I have been doing garden clean up for a couple weeks now and in amidst this came the last batch of vine ripened tomatoes. 
My friend, gnightgirl, has been raving about her slow roasted tomatoes. How they are so fantastic and that she uses them all winter long in chili, pasta sauce, and pizzas(just to name a few).
Okay. Well I need to try that, too. So, along with my last harvest of san marzano tomatoes, I get out all that I will need.
Once you have washed your tomatoes, you slice them in half. Straight down thru the stem.
Then, you coat them in olive oil and whatever herbs you desire. I used basil and oregano.
After that, find a baking sheet and place them cut side down. I actually sprayed mine first with some cooking spray.
Place in a 250 degree oven for 6-8 hours.
This would mean that mine would be done at:
In the meantime, my basil that I have been drying is all set to be stored. See how it looks kinda brown and crispy....thats good.
My trusty kitchen helper has offered to help. But first, he had to get his stool.
And drag it into the kitchen.
We put the dried basil into the food processor.
And grind it up. You can grind it as coarse or as fine as you prefer. G? He would have preferred very fine, I think...for as much as he liked to push the button on the processor.
Then, after you have it all ground up, you transfer it to an airtight container.
Voila!
Between this small tray and what I had drying downstairs we ended up with about 6 cups to use over the winter.
Back to the tomatoes, tho. When they are all done they will look like this. (At the end of the cooking time you can remove the tomato skins if you want to. I found that to be a bit time consuming, so I just left mine on.)
Now, you can pull them out of the oven whenever you prefer really. You dont have to let them roast the whole time. It really just depends on how you like them. I didnt want mine super dry and leathery, so I took mine out early. In fact, my tomatoes were pretty small since it was the end of the season and all...so from start to finish I think it only took them about 5 hours to get to where I wanted them to be.
He likes them, too!
As far as storage....well, this was my first time making these. I was worried that since my tomatoes were still a bit moist that when I went to freeze them that they would all stick together in a big clump. S suggested I flash freeze them. I had already been allowing them to cool on sheets of wax paper. So, I simply put my tray of tomatoes in the freezer for a few hours. At that point they were fully frozen and I took them off the wax paper and put them into a freezer bag.
Now, just like gnightgirl, I can have yummy, roasted tomatoes all winter long. And this will make her happy cuz then I wont have to ask her to share.
We have had some pretty mild temps here lately, but it has been super dry. Overall the garden seems to be slowing down, however, it definitely has some plants that are still hard at work.What used to be the lovely bed of pumpkins is now quite empty.
The pumpkins started going downhill quite a few weeks ago, due mainly to powdery mildew, I believe, but also I think some insects made their way in as well.
Sadly, what began as about 15 pumpkins initially, dwindled down to these 6. They are very pretty little guys, but time will tell if they got mature enough to actually cook with them.
You can see several of these sweet, little melons still laying around.
And there are even lots of little flowers popping up to make me think that things are still trying to make it.
But, when you look at the overall picture, the plants just dont seem to have it in them any longer.
The basil beckons me with its lovely aroma every time I walk past. I think thats its way of reminding me that I need to make it into pesto before it goes to seed. Its on my list of things to do this week. I have already made one batch. But clearly, I have enough to make much more.
The green beans have really slowed down.
I did get a handful this afternoon.
And this row of beans was one that we planted a month or so ago when we noticed that our initial batch of beans was beginning to taper off.
When I looked today they had some very pretty beans waiting for me.
Quite a few it looks like. I hope we get a good harvest off of them before the first frost arrives.
And wow. I have really enjoyed these peppers. They are very prolific plants and the peppers are very sweet and crispy. And really? I chose them based solely on their name. "Lipstick Peppers". How can you not like that name?
My pickling cucumbers look really bad.
But still seem to want to share their love with me. I have been very, very happy with this variety, "Diamant".
And, of course, not to be forgotten, are my tomatoes. The San Marzanos have proven to be a great sauce tomato. Very meaty and not too many seeds. BUT, Im just not sure that I want to deal with the BER(blossom end rot) every year.
I leave you with this great little cherry tomato called, Isis Candy.
And is it ever sweet. The little guy just loves to pop these in his mouth as we are out harvesting. This will for sure be in my garden next season.
The green beans are super yummy.
The garlic was planted by the previous owners, so I dont have any idea what kind I have, but I do know that this particular one came from a group of hard neck garlic.
Hence, the scape you see. I left the scapes on this season. Not for any real reason other than I just didnt cut them off.
Imagine my surprise when right next to the little hard neck garlic I found...I unearthed this puppy.
Look at the size of this guy.
Now look at the little guy.
The size of that big guy just amazed me. And he wasnt the only one in there. I think I came away with about 10 of those big guys. The main difference between the 2 heads of garlic (besides the size) was that the smaller guy scaped and the bigger guy did not. So, is the bigger guy a soft neck? Did the absence of a scape make the garlic larger? I just have no idea. 
And itty bitty it is.
The actual plant on the other hand is a huge sprawling thing. 
Can you see how different it is growing compared to my more upright tomatoes? 
This gardening season has been full of surprises for me. And even tho the weeds are making me crazy...I am in love with all the fresh produce that I am harvesting every day. It makes me very, very happy to be able to walk to my garden and bring in such plentiful bounties. 
