Muffy Vhay: Assessing, and juicing, your garden

How did your garden do this year? It's time to take note - what worked, what didn't?

We'll have a hard freeze soon, and this year's garden will be history. It's fun to keep a calendar or notebook of your planting and harvesting times.

Keeping track of varieties too will jog your memory when it comes time to order or buy seeds next spring.

Most of us in this area have had a really late harvest (if they got one at all) of tomatoes. Corn, cucumbers and raspberries followed suit, though not quite so dramatically.

Why? There are lots of theories - and the reason is probably a combination of all of them - cool spring, especially June. We had several late freezes or almost-freezes, and fairly cool nights most of the summer.

We had snow flurries here on May 10, and frost in the fields the third of August! According to our local cooperative extension agent, Wendy Mazot, cool soil temperatures meant late blossoms, then a few really hot days in mid-July caused some plants to lose blossoms.

No wonder tomatoes had a tough time of it. Particularly in town, some microclimates did fine. Just the luck of the draw. Next year will undoubtedly be different.

Hopefully, next year will be better for tree fruit also. That late freeze did in most everyone's apples and soft fruits like peaches. The farmer's markets and Apple Hill filled in the gaps for lots of us. However we did get raspberries and enough elderberries for jelly.

Spring greens, like chard and lettuce, were wonderful and didn't bolt for most of the summer. Herbs, all the summer squash, and some of the winter squash produced heavily too.

"Hasta la Pasta," a spaghetti squash, was prolific. I think we plant it because it has such a great name!

We'll cover a few summer squash plants and try to keep them going a while into the fall, and we'll winter mulch beets and carrots and hope the voles don't eat them all before Thanksgiving.

We'll pick all the green tomatoes and when they ripen (which they will eventually) and turn them into juice - which is our recipe this week.

HOMEMADE TOMATO JUICE

Equipment you will need:

A water-bath canner with rack (if you will be canning your juice)

A food mill with fine sieve or a Victorio type strainer

A stainless steel or enameled pot large enough for your tomatoes (Do NOT use aluminum.) If I'm going to can the juice, I try to (almost) fill either my 8- or 12-quart pot. As a guide, it takes 3 to 3 1⁄2 pounds of tomatoes to make one quart of juice.

A stainless steel paring knife

Quart or pint canning jars, lids and bands, washed in hot soapy water, and kept hot if canning. If serving fresh, any clean, hot glass container.

The juice:

Firm, red, fully ripe tomatoes. Remove stem and blossom ends and any blemishes.

Cut large tomatoes into quarters, smaller ones in half. Put in pot and crush to release some juice. Add a little bit of water - maybe 1⁄2 cup - just enough to keep the bottom layer from sticking.

Bring to a simmer. Cook, stirring often, until just soft enough to pass through your food mill or sieve.

Sieve the juice, and discard the skins and seeds remaining in the food mill.

Measure the juice. For each quart (4 cups) of juice, add 2 tablespoons of lemon juice.

(You may substitute 1⁄2 teaspoon of citric acid if you don't want the lemon taste.)

Add salt, sugar and/or spices to taste. (I use about 1 teaspoon each of salt and sugar per quart)

Heat just to a simmer. Keep hot if you are going to can it.

To can or serve:

To serve, just chill overnight, and serve with a wedge of lemon or lime.

To can, fill the canner half full of hot water and heat to simmer. Place your clean jars in the canner to keep hot until filling. Remove jars from canner, drain, and fill hot jars with hot tomato juice to within 1⁄2 inch of top.

Wipe rims with damp cloth, adjust lids and bands, and place jars in canner, making sure water covers jars by 1 1⁄2 inches.

Bring to boil, turn down to soft boil, and start timing when boil starts.

Process pints 40 minutes, quarts 50 minutes (at this altitude). Remove from canner, place on folded towel to cool overnight. Check lids (they should be down in the center and not give when pressed.)

Remove bands, label and store in a cool, dry, dark place.

• Muffy Vhay and her husband own and operate the Deer Run Ranch Bed and Breakfast in Washoe Valley.