Remember when I posted about the alpaca gold and my garden? I worked quite a bit of the ranch’s compost into the soil in my garden when I planted my broccoli, strawberries, and tomatillos. Well, it’s harvest time, let’s take a look at what we’ve got!

My two tiny tomatillo plants are not so tiny any more.

We’ve got an absolute ton of tomatillos, is what we’ve got. Well, actually more like 16 pounds, but, you know.

About half of the harvest.

Now, you may be asking, what is a tomatillo? My neighbors ask all the time. They are plants with tiny, mildly tart, tomato-like fruits that have a papery covering. They are excellent in salsa verde and on salads. In South America they even turn them into a tasty juice. I made mine into green salsa. Since I had A LOT of salsa, I also did my first ever canning extravaganza!

I made four batches, which took basically all weekend. High acid foods like salsa are relatively easy to can, but it’s still quite a bit of work to sterilize everything and keep all the jars and lids hot. The kitchen was messy and the house was 86 degrees inside by the time I finished, but I’ll be reaping the sweet rewards for at least a year to come.

I’ve already given away four big jars!

I have to admit the sound of the can lids popping as they sealed is very, very satisfying. And all this tasty goodness from two plants that looked like this 5 moths ago:

I am a tomatilla plant on an island of an alpaca gold in a sea of weeds.

Gotta love that alpaca gold!