JCS Christmas Ornament & Tomatoes, Tomatoes, Tomatoes

Yea, autumn has arrived!  This blessedly wet summer was so much more enjoyable for me, things stayed green and the garden beds boomed, but I'm always ready for fall to come.

I was again honored this year to be invited to contribute an ornament to the always anticipated Just Cross Stitch Christmas Ornament edition of the magazine.  It is on news stands now or hopefully you've received it if you subscribe.

Magazine Edition

My Contribution - 'Holy Night'

This edition has lots of beautiful ornaments, I hope you'll pick up a copy and find some lovely things to stitch for the holidays!

Back to gardening :)  If you too have been blessed with an abundance of tomatoes I'll share our favorite way to enjoy them in the depths of winter and beyond.  We dehydrate them and you cannot believe how delicious dried heirloom tomatoes can taste!  Dehydration takes all their goodness and concentrates it into taste bombs! lol

Here is the before -

Some of the many trays of tomatoes ripening inside picked just before the first frost

Big chunks of tomatoes ready for the dehydrator

 And here is the after -

After dehydrating, where did all those big tomatoes go?  Into tomato taste bombs!

All the flavor of those delicious tomatoes concentrates into these little tomato 'chips' which we store in the freezer.  They are sooooo very good added to soups, stews, sauces or rehydrated and put into jars of vinegar and oil to be used on pizzas or in pasta salads.  Though it is a wonder any of them make it into storage, you can't believe how good they are to just eat out of the dehydrator, the aroma of them drying is out of this world.

And the last news from Gracewood is that 'Tussie-Mussie" has been completed and sent off to Just Cross Stitch magazine for their May/June edition next year.