Stink bugs and salsa

We had hoped for a good tomato harvest this year because we're low on canned tomatoes.  But thanks to a little something called a stink bug, that didn't happen.  I didn't take any pictures of the stink bugs; they're really not worth a picture.  I first met stink bugs on Isle Royale, when you'd bite into a juicy raspberry and would get a nasty, nasty taste in your mouth instead, due to the stink bug you'd just bitten down on.  Not fun.  Stink bugs suck the juice out of tomatoes, and poop on them, and lay their eggs on them.  Disgusting.

We ended up picking a lot of green tomatoes to make green salsa.  Then we let some ripen in the house but even then they weren't nice like other years.

Nora was a GREAT helper with the food processor.  She never got tired of pushing the button.

After doing some research on stink bugs, we decided our best bet is to rent a weed torch this fall and just torch all the vegetation in the garden.  Stink bugs over-winter in weeds (which our garden has a lot of) and then they'll lay eggs in the spring and start the tomato-destroying cycle all over again. We're hoping to kill a lot of the bugs before winter even comes and maybe have good tomatoes next year.