Long Week

We've been working hard here all week.  We have been ripping out rooms in our pole barn.  When we first moved here we lived in the pole barn.  We ended up being there much longer than we had planned.   Some think 9/11 happened in NY and Washington DC But the aftermath of it happened all over.   First responders, travelers, soldiers, so many paid a price and still are.  My husband was called up with his guard unit and spent the next 8 years mostly gone.  It took a good long while before we got our home.

So now we are reclaiming the pole barn for parking and storage of machinery.  It's been a long week but we have gotten all the rooms removed except the kitchen.  One more day of cleaning up and it will all be history. 

This last week also brought a regional hard freeze.  I was able to get 2 boxes of tomatoes.  So I've also been working those up.  I canned ripe tomatoes and juice.   I was going to make green tomato relish but my family wanted ripe tomatoes and and fried green tomatoes.  So I've wrapped many of them in newspaper and set them on a shelf in the basement just like my Mom always did.  They will slowly ripen of the next several weeks and we could have ripe tomatoes as late as Christmas time depending on how green they are.  

Now the rest of the green tomatoes I am slicing them and then blanching them (dropping in boiling water for 30 seconds) and then breading them in a flour salt and pepper mix.  I spread them out on paper lined trays and freeze them.  Then I bag them up into freezer bags.  I had 8 quart bags so far and will finish them up on Monday.  the summer squash worked so well I just had to try the green tomatoes.  We tried just one tomato over night and then fried them up and we all loved them.  It will be great to have fried green tomatoes all winter!  

We also discovered hot Epsom salt baths really do revive sore aching muscles.  A new item to have in our storage!  Good for the garden and us too!

Cherlynn
brchbell@yahoo.com