Red Jewels...53º

Imnaha Roma Tomatoes

Twenty five miles to the east of us and much lower in elevation, Imnaha (a small hamlet) rests deep in a canyon and is a haven for vegetable gardens and orchards....And I almost forgot, some very eccentric characters live there and occasionally a convict looking for a place to hide...Most of the farmers, ranchers and gardeners, in residence, count the family generation back to the first Wallowa County settlers...Jerry who grows and delivers these red beauties told me yesterday that he has lived there some 70 years...Imnaha is a place of rugged canyons, rivers that rage in the spring and the ever present rattle snakes...The nearest doctor and hospital is about 30 miles away, as are major grocery stores and high schools...Larger cities and freeways are over 100 miles away...On Imnaha's main street (the only street) sits the tiny postoffice, grade school/ library and the Imnaha Store and Tavern, a few miles out of "town" is the Community Church...These people pride themselves as being self-sufficient, are leery of outsiders and make the trip to town only when absolutely necessary.

Jerry had the back of his pickup loaded with tomatoes yesterday...He dropped 200# of roma's at our house and went on to deliver about 400# of slicers to other customers...He said his biggest day was earlier in the week when he and Lou picked and delivered 1000# of slicers...It has been a good season and should continue through the middle of September...

I shared some of our fresh garlic and my "Roasted Tomato" recipe with Jerry and Lou before they left to finish their deliveries, then back to the canyons to tend their garden and store their own veggies and fruit away for the winter.

The tomatoes need to ripen for a few days while I make plum jam, start some more sauerkraut and make buns so we can have BLT's for dinner...(We still have a few ripe tomatoes from Walla Walla)...Our warm weather is slated to last a few more days, Herb just left for the log deck to cut more wood and I must get moving as I plan to listen to music this afternoon at Juniper Jam taking place at the fairgrounds in Enterprise....That's life on Barton Heights...Hugs to all..OWAV:)