Tomatoes in real time and My Summer Kitchen

I had several epiphanies this year in regards to tomato sauce making and just canning in general.   The biggest one was the day I decided to do the canning work in a makeshift "summer kitchen".  Yeah-so what if it was just two sawhorses and some boards.

I have a lovely large, centralized space to work, instead of utilizing small bits of every counter around the kitchen (and then walking back and forth from one to another a million times.)

I can enjoy the beautiful sunshine and last warm days instead of being cooped up in a kitchen, pining for them.

I can keep a better eye on my twenty-mile-an-hour children when I am outside with them.

AND

All the seeds, juice and mess that inevitably splash all over the kitchen happily splashes in the grass-where I do NOT have to mop.

It has worked splendidly well for every every canning occasion thus far.  I can't believe it has taken me this long to figure it out.



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You know what braids and bandana days mean...

Me without makeup.  Brave girl.

 I noticed earlier this month that my tomato plants got late blight and began rotting.  I gathered up as many tomatoes as I could and set them to ripen away from the garden. This photo was from a week ago or so~ most of them were ready for saucing today PLUS, I was able to get a whole other batch (several large bowls) of tomatoes from the garden one last time.  Busy, busy.

I had help, you see.   Made things so much more pleasant.  Even if he made me wet.

 

Chickens love canning days.

The two other things I figured out this year were:
1)  If you freeze your tomatoes first, they go through the strainer so much more easily!  Also- you can choose when to can without fearing them going bad--meaning, you can wait for a cooler day when you want to warm up the house.  The other benefit, of course, is that if you have smaller batches, you can continue freezing until you have enough for a LARGE batch.  I would rather get everything out for a large batch then to get everything out several times for smaller ones.  Finally, the water in the tomatoes separates so you can strain the pulp without nearly as much water, leaving a lot less water to boil down!

and

2) My green peppers always fizzle out before my tomatoes are ready so I would always buy green peppers to put in my salsas and spaghetti sauces.  THIS year, however, I dehydrated my peppers!  Then, when it was time to make sauce, I threw a bunch in and by the time my sauce was thickened, the peppers were rehydrated and lovely.  And no need for storebought!

I don't know why it has taken me so many years to reach these conclusions.  I am a slow learner, apparently.

This picture right here is of the kind that are nothing special, but you just KNOW are going to melt your heart twenty years from now.  Or even ten.  Awww, little bitty  Judah.   I love you so.

Ahhhh....it felt good to sit down and write this post.  I'll be back later with my to-do list for today.

How is your day going today?  What'cha up to?