Tons of Tomatoes, We Had Tons of Tomatoes..

We didn't really have tons of tomatoes but over the course of the last several weeks we have purchased and canned 200 pounds of the juicy, red buggers. This is worse than peaches! I will make a disclaimer that the photos in the post are not in proper time/date format because of the way I up loaded them. However, in this order they give a better perspective of what we did with the tomatoes. This is only one of several boxes of tomatoes we purchased.

Everything involving tomatoes calls for the tomatoes to be peeled. The are first put into boiling water and then tossed into ice water which causes the skins to come off easily. My fingers are pretty damn cold after doing this with 25 pounds of tomatoes at a time.

Here is close to 25 pounds of tomatoes, peeled and ready to be used.

We made salsa,,,some hot,,,some medium and some with lots of extra onions and garlic. I have no idea which type this is,,,but wait, there's more!

We made chili mix,,,or is this the pasta sauce?? I'm not sure but we made some of both. Good thing Mike labeled them this morning.

We canned plain tomatoes and then put some jalapenos in others and,,,,

We canned more tomatoes with jalapenos.

What we ended up with is 2 cases of quart jars of plain tomatoes, 1 case of quart jars of tomatoes with jalapenos, 14 pints of hot salsa, 7 pints of chili mix, 7 pints of pasta sauce and 7 pints of medium salsa and 7 pints of medium salsa with extra onions and garlic and then one pint of plain tomatoes.

But Wait, There's More,,,,

I used to work for this great man who loved to buy stuff on-line and then show all of us in the office. And as we would look at it, he would talk about the ad and then add the words,,,,"but wait, there's more". So here is my version of "but wait, there's more." You've seen the garden photos and the peach photos, now look at some of the other stuff we have been doing. Who ever said retirement was boring does not have anything to do. Mike and I have been frequent visitors to the Piedmont-Triad Farmers' Market. We bought a 1/2 bushel box of pickling cucumbers and I made my 14-day Crisp Pickles.

Then we bought a bunch of red cabbage and made 2 batches of Pickled Red Cabbage. There will be more red cabbage later in the summer.

Next up, blueberry jam. But wait,,,,there's more!

We made blackberry jam,,

We picked figs and then peeled and froze them.

We bought another 1/2 bushel of pickling cucumbers and made my bread & butter pickles.

Then we picked more figs, peeled them and froze them.

And then there is more blackberry jam.

But wait, we're not done. Nope,,check out what we did with 200 pounds of tomatoes.

Late Garden Start

Due to several circumstances our garden got a very late start this summer,,,very late. One thing Mike arranged to have done was this lovely planted area out in front of the house. Now that the peak of summer is here we can watch close to a dozen swallowtail and monarch butterflies on the flowers at any point in time during the day.

We put in a tomato plant and in front of it on the left is a jalapeno bush, next to that we put in two eggplant bushes.

Behind the tomato plant there are radishes and sweet basil.

We planted our pickling cucumbers under trees where they still get lots of sun but also have something to climb.

This is our other tomato plant. As of now, 8-12-13, both our tomato plants are over 6 feet tall.

Our fig tree has already given us about 8 dozen figs and another crop is ripening.

In the orchard the Asian pears are getting big.

So are the apples.

We lost all the Concord grapes due to the dry spell we had earlier this summer.

But, while we wait for all our backyard garden and orchard crops to come in,we have been keeping the Farmers' Market going.

Nanny Goats

One day we bought a huge watermelon. After I cut it all up, I had a bucket of watermelon rind that needed to be dealt with. Since Mike does not like Watermelon Rind Pickles I needed another idea. So, what does this have to do with,,,,,,

This?????

The answer is this! Nanny Goats! Our neighbor has two Tennessee Fainting Goats and they happen to love watermelon. Molly came running right over when I started chucking pieces of rind over the fence.

This one was a bit shy, but eventually she came over to enjoy the feast.

Yummy in their tummy!

Now Mike kept insisting that I take Lili and Kele with me to feed the goats, but I refused. Lili is a herding fool and if she knew the goats were back there she might head over there frequently to try and herd them. When I got back home Mike informed me of the goats being able to "faint" when they get scared. I would have freaked out if they had fainted thinking my dog(s) had scared them to death. But now that I know,, maybe next time I'll take the girls.

Peaches, Peaches and More Peaches

Peaches,,,,sweet, juicy,,,,and wonderful at their peak. Aside from watermelon nothing means summer to me more than a perfect peach. So when I spied a roadside stand selling Georgia peaches I had to stop and buy some on my way home one night. They were simply wonderful, and Mike thought so also. What happened next was a peach party which involved lots of clean jelly jars,,

Some quart canning jars,,,,

And peaches. We started out with a few bags of them.

We wound up buying 4 boxes of them in addition to the aforementioned bags. Each box contained 1/2 bushel of the little gems.

Mike and I created a two person assembly line for the boiling, cooling, peeling and cooking of the peaches.

Our first batch of peach jam is just about ready to go in the canner.

When we finished with the jam making portion of this project we had roughly 24 jars of sugar-free peach jam.

Then we put up about 2 cases of quarts of peach slices in lite syrup.

And of course I had to make my sweetheart a deep dish, pecan streusel topped peach pie. After all his hard work in the kitchen it was the least I could do to show my gratitude.

At this point in time I have seen enough peaches for several months,,,maybe.

A Pre-Summer Storm

Back on June 13th a severe pre-summer thunderstorm came racing through our town. Lots of trees came down and we were without power for 26 hours. The storm winds pushed over our neighbor's Poplar tree and it crashed down across our driveway, just missing the back bumper of the Dodge as did part of one of our Sugar Maple trees.

It was a rather tall tree and until it was cleared the trucks and my Honda were all blocked in the driveway.

Neighbors came to help clean up the mess because Mike was in the hospital and they piled the branches on one side of the driveway so I could at least get in and out with the Dodge.

A large tree has a large stump,,,,,

The split rail fence got mangled in a few spots, here,,,,

And here.

We are blessed to have wonderful neighbors. When I got home from visiting Mike in the hospital the day after the storm, the wood had been cut into burnable lengths.

And the yard completely cleaned up, even the fence was re-stacked. Our neighbors rock!

Fetch

Men are interesting creatures and contrary to what some believe they can be trained. Here is a perfect example. Mike and I have been dating less than 3 months and "The Queen" Liliuokalani or 'Lili' has him well trained in the game of fetch. What a girl! The game starts with us all heading out to the orchard next to the house.

Mike has the tennis ball chucker and Lili is very much in tune with Mike and where the tennis ball is or is going.

Sometimes Kelekona or 'Kele' as we call her a/k/a the Court Jester tries to get in on the action.

But when Mike lets the ball fly Lili takes off like a Lear Jet.

Once she retrieves the ball she tosses it at Mike's feet so he can do this again,,,and again,,,and again,,,and, well you get the picture.