Back to Work!

The Porch Provides Some Calm Amidst The Veggies!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This morning I drove to Ada's Farm stand, an Amish farm on Golden Ridge Road.  I had stopped by a couple of weeks ago, and she thought that the tomatoes would be coming in soon, and I agreed to come this week.  I didn't really know what I find!   Wow,  I got a lot of "veg".... I literally had a bushel basket and another big box loaded into the way back of my car.  

I enjoy my visits to Ada's,  she came here from Ohio to marry into the Miller family.  She is young and eager to establish a good business with her vegetables, canned goods and other crafts.  Today was the first time that I got to see the newest baby, she had two toddlers sitting in high chairs and the baby in a type of sling.  They were taking everything in as their Mom went back and forth bringing out more vegetables that the older children had been picking.  Ada had some tomatoes put aside for me, these tomatoes are huge and she had them washed and laid out knowing that I would be canning tomato juice - she said these would be great for that.   

She was right.  I canned 11 quarts of juice, and have a few more jumbo tomatoes that I will be putting up after I finish this blog. 

The stove was put into full use.  Water bath boiling, tomatoes bubbling away, the kitchen was  a little assembly line of preserving the bounty of this season.  I put my brand new freezer to good use as well today.  I put up seven quarts of green beans, and 6 ears of corn on the cob.  

I have been reading a number of articles and posts about different ways to freeze vegetables.  The last time I had a freezer I was just a couple of years older than my granddaughter is now.  I almost exclusively canned just about everything, but when I did freeze things, they were always blanched, plunged, and more.  Who knew you could just put vegetables in the freezer raw and they would be fine.  I did spend too much time hunting around the house for a straw, it is a "tool" I will be getting tomorrow.  You put the straw into the bag to suck out the air.  I tried my best, but a straw in my house is in my near future. 

 

 I have done my best to stay away from the television or streaming the radio.  I am going to go back into the kitchen, and ask "alexa" to play some Bonnie Raitt while I do my last batch of tomatoes.  (I am going back for more on Saturday!)  After I put all the tomatoes in their jars and can them up I am going  to try to sort out what i s currently in the refrigerator that can go into vegetable soup.  Tomorrow morning plan:  canning vegetable beef soup.  Some more putting vegetables up for winter.    

The storage room in the basement is all clean.  Shelves are empty waiting for a new batch of jars looking beautiful and ready to eat.  I have a chart of what is in the chest freezer.  Despite yesterday's reluctance to acknowledge fall is almost here, here I am making sure I have good food for the winter.  

It is Monday,  it has been a whole week that I have resumed my blogging!  Still enjoying fingers on the keyboard and still have a few things to say...