Bumper crop

Holy Romas. Somebody decided it would be a great idea to plant TWO plants this year. I'm not saying who that may have been.

And the Romas all ripened within a week. Oh, there were steadily 5-6 lusicous, deep red beauties a week from August on, but now we're talking buckets full within the last week.

Romas have been frozen. Romas have been put into soups. Romas have been put onto pasta. Romas have been made into lasagna sauce. Romas have been sliced and sprinkled with salt and pepper and eaten standing in the kitchen. Often.

But what to do with the rest, lined up on the kitchen counter, piled up in bowls, stacked up in a basket, gleaming red in the peak of Roma ripeness? "I'll bring in my dehydrater for you," Mom said.

Slicing took a while.
Drying took a while, too.

And it all came down to this one little bowl
of gorgeous little tomato rings,
dried while the summer sun was still in them.

I guess it's the last of harvest time for me. There's still a tiny bit of basil in the garden. The Farmer's Market will close in couple of weeks. I'm thinking of buying a chest freezer and visiting the Farmer's Market next year and planting even bigger, in the interest of locavore behavior and organic eating.

In the meantime, thank goodness for frozen corn, vats of pesto, preserved tomatoes and squash.