Grapes, pumpkins and tomatoes over taking my dreams.

I have made so many grape pies in the past week, I swear my fingers will be stained until Spring. From deep dish grape pies to these wonderful muffin pan size mini pies. I even have my own secret recipe after messing around with a few I found online. Tweaked and played around until I come out with my own much less sugar recipe- about 1/4 cup to 5 1/2 cups pure unadulterated Grape juice and a few other little things.Shhh..

Our stove has been used nonstop for days now. After getting the great hook up on grapes last week I fell into another. While chatting about the upcoming Northeast Ohio Solar home tour with a friend (whose home is on the tour & I was invited to set up my breads and such at their place during the 2 day event), We spoke of grapes and she mentioned she had grape vines which no one picks or tends to. Organic grape score DEUCE! So I ventured out and discovered some bigger then the last grapes growing high into a choke cherry tree. I walked away with around 60pounds or more.
Between the Long Pie Pumpkins and these grapes, my Oven has been put into overtime:

While I was there, I picked a decent amount of Grape leaves for winter time Dolmas- I know the normal grape leaf picking is in the June July time frame so they are more tender but I am the only one besides Frog who enjoys a good Dolma. In the top left corner you can see the jar of about 50 leaves fermenting before they go in the fridge for a month before use. I posted the recipes and the link source for the method I used over on my Luna Gardens Blog.

And with all those delectable long pie's (also known as Nantucket pie pumpkins), I found myself with more pumpkin seeds then one can eat. So I decided to whip up some seed packets of my own and put a minimum of 10 seeds in them(average about 13 but put extra in the case of any non sprouting). Heirloom variety pie pumpkins and of course grown "Naked" in our garden.

I thought these would be cool to sell next to my Pumpkin empanada's which are made from scratch right down to the, of course, Long pie pumpkin filling.

I have been working on a few aprons, plan to do some of those local school craft shows and such.

I have San Marzano tomatoes (the sun dried type) in my dehydrator and need to switch the trays with fresh tomatoes. I have about 45-50 lbs of San Marzano's total for drying. Not bad at all for plants started well into growing season and will from now on be the ONLY red tomato I grow.mmmmm. Sun dried tomato Italian bread and flavored oils...

I ADORE Sun dried tomatoes and will enjoy this harvest bounty very much.

So much to do and so much going on right now. Looks like the fest I planned for tomorrow will not be happening due to family personal issues. Not sure if I will ever go into it, but know I have taken control and making sure everything will be O.K. I am still pretty numb at this moment and wonder where the reverse and fast forward button is on this thing....

Sweet dreams,

~Tammie