Interesting Books

It's a Long Road to a Tomato, by Keith Stewart

This book is full of essays, about a man who quit his job to become a farmer.  Very interesting to read.  He even kept track of the types of birds he found on his farm (and listed them in this book).

Tomatoland by Barry Estabrook

According to author Barry Estrabrook, many of our out-of- season tomatoes come from Florida.  I found this book extremely interesting.  The author points out that tomatoes are "picked green" and "artificially gassed with ethylene in warehouses until they acquire the rosy-red skin tones of a ripe tomato."  

This author writes a very important book regarding how are foods are not the same as they were back in the 1960's.  For example, he states that our commercial, store purchased tomatoes contain "fourteen times as much sodium" today as they did back in the 60's.  

If you are getting tired of those tomatoes in your garden, be sure to read this book.  You won't complain about growing them, nor stocking up on them anymore.  If you are not growing your own organic tomatoes (or any other food/meat), you will want to, after reading this book.


Here's another fun one I found at the library - 

Cooking Up a Storm,

Edited by Ken and Janice Tate

This book even has a section for Biblical baking recipes.  If you are looking for old-time recipes and fun reading, you'll really enjoy this book.

And one more to share:

I have found that Mary T. Bell's books are great for recipes and information on using my dehydrator.  This book even has pet treat recipes.  Pet treats, if you buy natural ones, are very expensive.  Guess what I'll be making soon?  Yep.  Why not, it's on the journey to self-sufficiency. 

P.S. If you are wondering when I found time to read, I read in between water bathing jars.  Tomato sauce takes 40 minutes to boil seal.  I have to steal free time where I can these days.

Letters from. . .

In the process of slowly cleaning clutter, in between gardening and stocking up, I created a way to preserve the letters my 10 year-old daughter writes to me. 

Over the years, she has written me many letters.  I tend to put a note in the kid's lunches when I can, and add a small piece of candy.  In the process of that, she started to write me letters and put them all over the house. 

In the past she'd pop popcorn, and put a "treat" down inside the bowl.  We'd enjoy the popcorn, and she would pretend to be surprised when we got to the "treat" at the bottom.

Each of my kids have a unique personality, and I just could not throw these notes away.

I purchased an inexpensive photo album with the pages that peel back.  I inserted the letters so I can re-read them like a book.

For the cover, I mixed 50/50 of white glue and decoupage, and covered the front with a piece of scrapbooking paper.  I don't scrap book very much, but do journaling and create fun journals.   

Here, I will write "Letters from ...." and will add pocket pages on the inside.  Those pockets will hold the very long letters she has written me, and pictures she has drawn me.