Gravenstein Apple Harvest. 26 Aug 23.

 Gravensteins are among the earliest apples.  My only earlier variety is the modern, disease resistant, yellow variety "Pristine".  This tree is a dwarf that I planted about 5 years ago.  It may be alternate year bearing, based on results so far.  I missed the first dozen or so apples that fell on the ground.   Gravensteins are delicious, heirloom type apples (from the 1600s!) that are big, early, but don't keep long at all.  They also cook into a softer result than other apples.

I made a pie with the first 8 or 9 apples.

There are about a dozen more apples on the tree.  It's a nice crop this year.

Dwarf, Heirloom Tomato Harvest. And Tomato Pie. 26 Aug 23

 These are from a couple of weeks ago.

This was today.

The tomato pie I made.  I substituted Mexican style shredded cheese mix for the original type, and switched 1/4 cup corn meal replacing that amount of flour in the crust.  Also added a few chopped Jalapeños.  It made for a very tasty tomato pie.

Sauce Tomatoes. 26 Aug 23.

 I'll try to catch up a few posts from last week or so, until current posts.

Here is the first batch of sauce tomatoes.  The modern hybrid, "Supremo", had larger, earlier, firmer, meatier tomatoes, compared to my own saved seed plants of Roma VF.

I cooked down about 40% of them, reducing volume by 50%.  Pureed the result in food processor, froze in 1-cup portions.

I made most of the rest into salsa, and canned it.  The salsa also contained home grown green peppers, Jalapeño peppers, garlic, and onions all from my garden,

I'm not sure, but I think I will have a second crop, just as large, from the sauce tomato raised bed.

Onion Harvest. 26 Aug 23

 I've been digging the onions.  Very happy with the crop.

The red ones are the heirloom variety "Red Wethersfield".  The yellow are a modern hybrid, I forget the name.  The harvest is more than 100 onions, a good crop that will keep until Spring 2024.

The image with Rufus was the first few rows, a few days ago.

I'm letting them dry and cure, out of the direct sun.

Last year, my onion crop was very disappointing.  I think the difference is, this year I had much better (nonclogging) drip irrigation.  I was also able to keep ahead of weeds this year.

Red Star Quilt, Completed. 26 Aug 23.

 Here is the red star quilt that I finished this summer.  This was made mostly from upcycled men's 1% cotton shirts.  The sides and corner blocks are mainly my own design, and the body of the quilt was based on a pattern from Today's Quilter by Lynne Goldsworthy.  

I'm happy with the result.  A couple of the shirt fabrics were a more delicate weave than I should have used, and not as durable than I wish it was.  Lesson learned.  I have started cutting multicolored batik fabrics for an entirely different take on this theme.  Something to work on next winter.