We have been very busy since we've been back. I just went through my email a few days ago and the messages from a month ago. Oops. Sorry people I've been ignoring, it wasn't intentional! The garden kept growing while we were gone (of course, there's no stopping it until the frost comes) and we had tomatoes coming out of our ears. We flew back on Thursday, slept and caught up life on Friday and went back to work Saturday, Sunday and Monday. On Tuesday we went out and picked all of the ripe, red tomatoes we had on our plants, which amounted to SIX bags of tomatoes. The pepper plants had been prosperous as well, so we had a whole bag of jalapeños and about a dozen sweet peppers. There were maybe a half dozen cucumbers we picked (I see cucumber sandwiches!) and found the largest caterpillar I have ever seen!
It was eating some of the tomatoes...but with as many as we had, it can have some. A friend at work asked for some club-sized zucchini and we could definitely provide! Mom even harvested the only Hubbard squash we got to grow this year (the vines kept trying to die...) and we rescued a couple of cantaloupes that weren't too far gone. The pumpkins did amazing this year so get ready for a pumpkin themed post later in October.
We took a couple of bags of the rounder tomatoes into work to share and half a bag of jalapeños, because there was no way we'd eat that many. The rest of the tomatoes (mostly romas) ended up sitting in the bags for three more days as we went back to work, which ended up being the end of some of them. But the first day off we had we canned as many as we could. There were still quite a few jars of sauce in the pantry from last year, so all of these tomatoes were stewed. Stewing tomatoes is an easier process than saucing which was good because there was still a lot. Mom started them off by scalding them and then her and I both sat and peeled and diced them up. We each filled a dutch oven full to the brim, then I took them over and added some oregano and basil and cooked them on medium heat until they juiced up a bit and boiled a short while. From there it was into the jars and then the canner. Phew! By the end of the weekend we got them all canned (though it was rough) and are 31 pints richer!
We've also been missing our afternoon teas, so we've been doing that more since we've been home. It's nice on our days off because we only usually eat two meals a day and this is a good snack sized bite to eat in the middle of the day. The cats are also glad we are back and eating at the table again (for their benefit, obviously).
The fair also started that weekend we were canning tomatoes, so we figured on Sunday we'd rest and go visit it because if we didn't, we wouldn't. I told everyone that we were going on an eating tour of the fair and they asked how you do that. Well we walked in and we ate, and walked through the house demo, then we went to the petting zoo, and then got something to eat, then looked at the quilts and watch a lady spinning wool (and got her number because she does a weekly spin and knit night at her house), and then went to the Ag building and got something to eat, then walked around the food booths and got something more, then picked up kettle korn and went home! We figured that would be our only day to go so we wanted to get all our favorite foods in. Later this last week, however, Mom found out she won two free fair tickets and free parking, so we ended up going back on Friday for dinner (a little less eating this time) and got to walk through the barns. There was also this AWESOME robot advertising some business, but it was so real you had to stand there a long time to tell if it was a guy in a suit or if it really was a robot. There was mechanical sounds every time it'd move and the voice was altered, of course, but we ended up deciding there really was someone in there. So cool!
With October coming up quickly there are more things showing up on the to-do list. I want to get the house decorated for fall, which involves cleaning and I'd like to do a deep clean and get the house in ship-shape for the inevitable lock down that is winter. We need to get a couple of truckloads of wood and eventually clean out the garden. We washed the windows outside today (a shock, I know....I don't think we've ever washed the windows on the house...) and thanks to a lovely Pinterest pin, they look amazing. And we also we got all the spider webs off the outside of the house (it's like they were slowly trying to cocoon us in here). I have high hopes for getting back on my elliptical and shedding a few more pounds before trying another embryo transfer. And walking! The weather is perfect right now for evening walks, I just have to get myself out there!
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