It’s time once again for Harvest Monday, where we celebrate all things harvest related. Last week’s harvests were pretty much all about tomatoes. I brought in paste tomatoes, slicing tomatoes, and smaller tomatoes from the garden on several morning harvest sessions. That has kept me busy processing them, and has also put them on the menu often.
big haul of tomatoes
Juliet is a 1999 AAS Winner and a long time favorite of mine. It never fails to produces lots of red ripe mini-Roma type tomatoes. I typical use most of them for processing into sauce, and for dehydrating and slow-roasting. Last week’s harvest of them weighed a bit over six pounds, and I used them in a batch of Homemade Tomato Ketchup I cooked up last week.
Juliet tomatoes
Improved Garden Gem is a cultivar from the University of Florida tomato breeding program. It makes 2-3 ounce tomatoes that are good for cooking or fresh use. These joined up with the Juliets for making ketchup.
Garden Gem tomatoes
I think making ketchup is truly a labor of love, since it takes me around five hours from start to finish. I do think the end result is worth it though, and this batch yielded eight half-pint jars of thick, sweet ketchup.
cooking down the tomatoes for ketchup
finished jars of ketchup
I also harvested a few eggplant last week along with the tomatoes. There was enough of it to make a batch of Eggplant Parm Rice casserole.
tomatoes and eggplant
The casserole is a lot like a risotto with tomatoes, layered with roasted eggplant, mozzarella, and romano cheese, then baked until bubbly. I used the rice cooker to cook carnaroli rice, then added chopped tomatoes and a bit of fresh basil when the rice was done. Meanwhile I roasted slices of eggplant in the oven until browned. Then I assembled the casserole, layering the rice mix with roasted eggplant and a combination of mozzarella and pecorino romano cheeses.
Eggplant Parm Rice casserole
We served the casserole with baked fish, and it made for a filling and tasty meal. IT’s hard to tell, but there’s a pound of eggplant in the casserole, along with about a cup of chopped tomatoes.
casserole with fish
I’ll close with a photo of some of the recent activity at our bird feeders. One day we had a Red-Bellied Woodpecker and a House Finch dining on two of the feeders. In the past I stopped feeding the birds in summer, but this year we have had so many visitors I have kept the feeders filled.
birds at feeders
Harvest Monday is a day to show off your harvests, how you are saving your harvest, or how you are using your harvest. If you have a harvest you want to share, add your name and blog link to Mr Linky below. And please check out what everyone is harvesting!
I’ll be making some ketchup soon but I freeze it in ice cube trays – I don’t make as much as you and I find the idea of canning to be a bit scary. The casserole looks delicious.
I love ketchup too (or “catsup” as my mother used to call it). Haven’t made it myself yet. I’m going to bookmark your eggplant casserole recipe, as it looks tasty and would be a good use of our eggplants.
Here’s the original recipe for the casserole Will. I cut the recipe in half and cooked the rice in the rice cooker, which is how I usually do it. https://www.theironyou.com/2016/09/eggplant-parm-rice-casserole.html
Oh that homemade ketchup. I’d love to taste that. Though neighbors are keeping me in tomatoes, I’ve yet to pick one. My first hope is black cherry tomatoes in a week or so. I’d like that casserole too.