Labor Day…Rest from your labors…RIGHT!

Saturday I was so very blessed to be given a big box of tomatoes. My sister’s in-laws grow a huge garden and I was lucky enough to get some left overs. I didn’t get home until late on Saturday night and since the next day was Sunday I had to work on them Monday or I would lose the whole box.

Monday morning I send Dadzoo out to get me a couple more boxes of tomatoes, I figured if I was going to do it, I might as well can a whole grundle of them. He found a vegetable stand that was closing down for the season and was selling two boxes for 25$ dollars, he snagged me two!

The big box in the back in the one I got from my sister (they were beautiful, red and ripe) and the two in the front Dadzoo bought.

I added a few tomatoes from my sorry patch of tomatoes, they are the long skinny romas, the big round ones are my gifted tomatoes.

This summer my sister cleaned out my parents garage (a feat in itself) and I was given all my mom’s old quart bottles. They were a blessing too, I didn’t need to buy any new bottles or rims! This is about half of what I was given, I am going to fill the other half with sliced apples and apple sauce.

My kitchen was a mess and I think I stood there all day peeling and cutting tomatoes. Luckily I have a wonderful husband who took care of pretty much everything for me so I could can like a maniac.

Here we go, 30 quarts of stewed tomatoes, just the way I like them! Next year I would like to do double. Dadzoo and I are working on a plan to increase our tomato yield……

I was exhausted, but strangely there is something very satisfying in bottling your own food. I figure each bottle cost me about a dollar and there is no added sugar, salt or preservatives!

It was also kind of funny to have Dadzoo around. I have bottled before, but usually the bulk of the work is done while he is gone for the day. He kept complimenting me and telling me how “cool” he thought it all was.

I like is when he thinks the things I do are
“cool”