The vegetable of my labor

Well, it's officially over! The garden gave up the ghost this week. There are still a couple hundred tomatoes on the vine - I did not know you could pull up whole plants and hang them upside-down in the garage to save unripened tomatoes. But seriously, where in the world would I have put more tomatoes in this house? The pantry and the garage freezer are FULL. I have canned and pureed and chopped tomatoes until my fingers ached. I finally had to start putting salsa in giant pickle jars! ENOUGH!!!

I'm actually sad to see the zucchini go, though. The other night as we were sitting down to dinner, Riley said: "Mom, you forgot the quash [zucchini]" and when I told him I hadn't actually made any that night (shocking!) he said "awwww" in a very disappointed tone. I love that kid!

So this summer I canned - diced tomatoes, whole tomatoes, spaghetti sauce, pizza sauce, tomato juice, gallons and gallons of salsa, peaches, pears, jam, and pear butter. I didn't get around to canning any cherries - that was when Benjy was in Africa and I was just trying to keep it all together around here. And I didn't get very many pears canned on account of a broken toe. But still, the pantry shelves are STOCKED and I feel ready for a winter of bland-looking produce at the grocery store because I know I've got my stash back at home.

And now we're heading out to pick grapes this evening for juicing. Yeehaw! I love this little pretend-farmer life.


Middle of May - tomato & pepper starts barely visible back there

Mid-August

First attempt at growing watermelon,
something to work on

Everytime I went out into the backyard, Riley would ask
"And shall we go pick?"

This tomato plant was labeled as a cherry tomato.
I'm no expert, but...

Annie helped me with canning -
and actually WAS a BIG help!

This is how we do scrambled eggs!

Our puny carrots.

Homemade pizzas with tomatoes and peppers.

Extra vegetables turned into art projects.

This is a gallon of salsa - one of 6 batches I made.

"Quash"
(and a stay cucumber)