Yesterday was Labor Day. It was 89 degrees when the average for Sept 8 is 70. Guess what we did….that’s right, we went out to THF and picked more rocks. Left the house at 7 am in vain attempt to beat the heat. Ron was in charge of the tiller again but he made two passes on each row and then stopped to help me with the rock picking. We drank lots of water and took breaks in the shade but the heat baked into the ground. There was a welcome break when Ron’s cousins Bill and Chuck stopped by. They were exploring to see how the deer hunting will be come fall. We talked for a bit and then they headed out and we got back to picking. By 10:30 I called it quits. We are just too old to be working so hard in that heat. We took the last load of rocks out to the gully and packed up.
I told Ron he had to stop at North Star Orchards in Westmoreland so I could get myself some of their yummy apple cider cake. I have a thing about cake and really deserved a piece after the last two days.
Our day was not over yet. Three years ago Ron had a large bounty of cherry tomatoes and he smoked them and then I dehydrated them. We stored them in the freezer and he would toss of few pieces into his lunch time salad. They would soften in the salad dressing and gave him a pop of flavor. The last couple of years we had not had much luck with the tomatoes, ending up with just enough for him and to share with friends. This year, in spite of the deer attack, we unexpectedly had enough to make another attempt.
Ron got the smoker started and once we were such it smoking properly, it was tomato picking time. We washed them and the Ron cut them in half. I got the job of sliding them all onto skewers, 17 halves on each one. That would make it easier to handle when they were done.

We had 3 trays of 13 skewers each.

Once they were safely in the smoker, it was all in Ron’s hands. He kept watch on the wood chips to make sure they were still smoking. Unfortunately, he forgot to keep an eye on the tomatoes themselves.

It was 8 pm and I was dead on my feet. But not as dead as this tray of tomatoes. Best laid plans and all that stuff. Even when you know what you are doing, you have to pay attention. This is going into the garbage.

The other two trays were looking good. Ron assured me that the last time we left them on the skewers when we started the dehydrating. I wasn’t so sure, but was too tired to think much about it.
This morning we pulled the trays out of the dehydrator and I realized I should have gone with my instinct. It was a major struggle to get the tomatoes slices off those blasted sticks. They did smell good. Makes me sad that I just don’t like tomatoes.

As I write this they are still in the dehydrator, Ron says they need more time. Still too sticky. Will see how they are in the morning.
One good thing about the heat again today, Ron decided it was too hot for us to go rock picking. Thank you Mother Nature. I needed a day off.