Crazy Tomato and Watermelon Harvest – 83 pounds worth!
This week was a big harvest weekend where we spent a whole evening picking vegetables and the entire day of Sunday making stewed tomatoes, diced tomatoes and tomato sauce. I am pretty sure that I will never need to buy tomato sauce again. This Summer we bought a mini storage freezer just for our garden and it’s about 75% full and we have a good 2 months left of gardening this year (not counting Fall veggies). I’m going to have open a produce stand, anyone want to stop by? I give veggies out for free! :D)
(I apologize for the quality of these pictures, it was already dark out by the time we got the tomatoes inside)
First up tomatoes. We picked 43 pounds of tomatoes this weekend! Wild, right?
This is a really heavy crate, too heavy for my weak arms. I picked it up, Matthew snapped the picture, I threw the crate down and then fell to the floor in weak power.
The crazy thing is there was more than a entire crate’s worth. The hardest/funniest part is us trying to get all these vegetables off the roof. This weekend we had to take multiple trips with tomatoes falling in the hallway and us chasing them.
Our cherry tomatoes this year think they’re grapes and have been growing in giant bunches like this. I’ve been stocking up on tomato sauce with these cherries.
Our tomatoes have grown so tall they are climbing up their 2nd 54 inch tomato cage now!
So this weekend I got a bit of tomato exhaustion. We made about 25 pounds worth of stewed/diced and then I let out a sigh of relief. And then I looked across the kitchen and saw a entire giant pot still full of tomatoes. Tomatoes, they’re everywhere! Here are some tomatoes that were just blanched and peeled. I’ll be doing a new post soon on what to do with tomato skins and tomato juice when you blanch so you don’t let anything to to waste!
Now to the watermelons! We grow Little Baby Flower variety every year and they always grow beyond our expectations. They sorta just take over the roof. This weekend we picked 40 pounds of watermelon! I’ve been dehydrating them like a crazy woman but I only have one dehydrator so it takes me a bit. Expect some yummy fruit leather recipes on the blog soon!
On average these watermelons grow 2-4 pounds but all ours this year grew 4-6.5 pounds. (Sorry, garden brag).
How many can you spot?
Oh my baby watermelon. Rock a bye watermelon… on the rooftop…
High 5 to a great garden weekend! What are you picking this time of the year!?
What beautiful fruits!<3 Get cooking!
WOW! Look at all of those gorgeous tomatoes!!! What a haul! I know how much work it takes to process that many tomatoes ut it is so worth it. Think of all of the goodies you have throughout the winter. And you watermelon patch….oh how I wish I were your next door neighbor. 🙂
I would definietely share some watermelons with you! 😉
Do you just slice the watermelons and dehydrate them? I have a couple huge guys from my CSA and I need to do something with them…
Congrats on the freezer! You needed one a couple years ago! 😉 FYI, and I’m sure you know this, tomatoes can be frozen whole! So if you get overwhelmed/tired/sick of them, stick a bunch in a ziplock and freeze. When they thaw, the skins peel right off and you can make easy fresh sauce!
I did that last year with watermelon and cantalouple which turned in dried fruit, which was decent tasting but I just wasn’t in love with it. This year I’m pretty much stocking up fruit leather and making a bunch of different flavors with watermelon. I love fruit rollups for a snack! I need a new freezer to throw in whole tomatoes. 😛
Awesome!! Congrats on the magnificent harvest!
Fantastic, Pamela. Homegrown watermelons…really impressive.
that’s a really fantastic yield! congrats, and know that i am jealous. 🙂
Every year y’all blow me away with what y’all grow on y’alls rooftop and this year is no exception! What a haul! I think I should say CONGRATS!!!
You guys rock! You’re getting an incredible haul from your rooftop garden. Loved this post — thanks somuch.
Oh my gosh, that is a lot of tomatoes and I thought I had a problem 🙂 I’m going to have to follow the iink to your tomato sauce recipe to use up some of mine. Here, it’s just tomatoes, peppers and cukes. No room for anything else. Well, room yes, sunny places that aren’t devoted to flowers, not so much. I wish I lived closer – those watermelons must be so delicious.
Ahhh, all that fruit looks beautiful! <3 I've only had watermelon once this summer! x_x
Beautiful harvest of tomatoes and love all those gorgeous melons. You can keep them for several weeks in a cool place well until december.
If only I had a basement Jenny! 🙁 Thanks for the tip though – one day (alongside growing mushrooms!).