In my 21 years in Montana I’ve never seen the garden last this well into October. Normally in the Flathead Valley, it would be done by the first 
part of September in my Coram (a.k.a The Land of Perpetual Winter) garden, and the end of the month in the valley. We had a couple of light nips of frost this fall, but nothing heavy enough to kill the covered tomatoes or peppers. Well, I don’t have much confidence that we’re going to last much longer. As a matter of fact, I do think it’ll freeze tonight. It’s been rainy and cold the last few days (Praise be!), but it’s clearing off and it’s frigid.
Yesterday I picked the tomatoes. They’re bigger than anything I’ve grown out here – or in Ohio. They are beautiful., although I still don’t know how they taste since I don’t eat the nasty things. I’m definitely going to graft more tomatoes. This year’s experiment was a great success. I plan to do more of the Brandywines, plus I would like to have an entire row of Old World Paste tomatoes grafted onto the hybrid rootstock. The Old World Paste is a gorgeous tomato, but I wasn’t thrilled with production. It’s obvious from this year’s grafting endeavor will help the situation. I’m fermenting the seeds now so I can have enough for next year.
I also picked my precious Carmen peppers. They produced very well, and for the most part they’re a really nice size. I’m just disappointed I don’t 
have many red ones. That’s when they’re absolutely delicious and amazingly sweet. I’m freezing the bulk of the green peppers so I can use them in soups and stirfries throughout the winter. I think I can cross off having to buy peppers at the grocery store this winter, which is a wonderful thing.
Wow look at your ‘bounty’…Have you ever tried drying them (tomatoes or peppers)? I’ve dried some for up at the cabin but not sure how they’ll be.
Hello Rhonda! I’ve dried tomatoes in the past, but since I use more sauce and chunks of tomatoes I usually go that way. The only disappointment is we processed probably 10 lbs of tomatoe yesterday, and once it cooked down we got TWO quarts. That was it. The rest of the tomatoes will be peeled and canned. I’m such a pepper freak, but never have dehydrated them. I loe to be able to grab them frozen and use them in food. Buying them in the winter is somethig I don’t want to do. (Speaking of, I’m going to seed lettuce and spinach shortly in my heated cold frame. I don’t want to buy that anymore either.) I’m going to dehydrate tomatoes for my grandmother when I go back to visit this month, though. She was asking me how to do it so I’ll show her. Our dehydrator’s been busy drying apples. I can’t keep up with the boys – they eat them like candy! We’re going to have to do another batch tomorrow, and I think I’ll be bringing home apples and maple syrup from Ohio.
I would love having all those peppers….smile.
This is so weird… so you are a midwestern transplant to Montana, too. I would love to ask you a few million questions. Right now we’re in the Flathead Valley but husband’s job options look like they are heading toward Great Falls and I’m thinking… HOW am I going to live without any trees at all. It was hard enough getting used to the toothpicks. Please drop me a line. Please???