Hope and Hard Work ~ Appreciation

The other day, our Army daughter stopped in for a porch visit.  She told me, "Mom the only thing I want for Christmas is a jar of pickles."

It's the thing a hard working, gardening, self-sufficient mother wants to hear from her kids - an appreciation for home grown food.  

The problem with health issues today, in my opinion, stands on the fact convenience kills (when it comes to food).  I can only hope that my kids will understand the importance of eating real food.  Even if they have to buy it vs. grow it.

I should have done this with the tomato soup (much chopping involved), but I'll entertain some folks with the art of making tomato salsa.  Mind you this is only one thing to can with tomatoes.  Imagine all the work into our 500# this year.  This shows you how crazy us homesteader/self-sufficient nuts are, ha ha!

First:  You have to prepare the garden, till it, weed it, plant it, weed it some more, then wait for the bounty.  Then harvest those beauties and wash them first with a vegetable scrubber and cold water.  Then fill a large pot with water and bring it to a boil.....oh and for me it involves planting, weeding and harvesting of the hot peppers, garlic onions, pre-making the tomato paste from our tomatoes, and growing the cilantro.

Moving on:

What to do with all those tomatoes?

I faced another 8# of ripe tomatoes yesterday, and will be today.  In fact, I told Hubby dinner will be very late.  I'm on a mission to put up all of my ripe tomatoes.  Ha!  

I took time, after the tomatoes were all boiled and ice bathed, and draining, to eat breakfast on the porch.  It was nice to get some Vitamin D.  Then it was back to the sink and stove.  By the way, that was leftover sweet potato/black bean frittata (Mmmm!)