Summer came to a sudden end about ten days ago with a wind storm that knocked out power in all of western Washington for 1-4 days. Before it came, we were having temps in the 80's. Since then, more like 60's. The tomato plants are turning brown, and I'm salvaging fruit best way I can.
One thing I love from the less-than-perfectly-ripe tomatoes is light, fresh sauces for pasta. These aren't Nonna's deeply ripe and rich sauces, they're not the Sunday gravy sauces. But augmented with bacon, chopped fennel stalks, peppers and other end-of-season offerings, they actually create a delightful style of sauce of their very own that deserves to be celebrated for what it is rather than condemned for what it's not. I look forward to them every year.
I've put up eight quarts of ripe tomatoes this year, and there's more to come. Also nine quarts of pickled green tomatoes a la Daniel Rogov. In the freezer, a dozen raw Dungeness crab are being tested in two different freezing methods. In the fridge, I have the crabmeat from eight others that will be made into crab cakes today or tomorrow. Those I'll wrap individually and freeze for eating over the next three months.
This is probably as far as I'll go with home canning. I would be compelled to do more if I were lucky enough to have fruit trees giving me more than I can use fresh, but I don't.
Anyone else 'putting up'?