Trains, Tomatoes, and Watermelon?

Somehow the train tub made its way upstairs recently.  With that, the kiddos have been playing daily with the tracks.  This has to be my best track design to date!

Once Julianne went down for her nap, Dallas and Reba volunteered to help process tomatoes!  Dallas cranked almost the entire time and Reba place almost every tomato into the funnel.

After work, Daddy decided it was finally time to pick the first watermelon!  We were all so excited to sink our teeth into that heavenly juiciness...

Until next time...

How Sweet it Is

Daddy brought home the first ripe ears of sweet corn tonight!  When I got the text that said he was bringing it home, I quickly changed the menu for supper.  You GOT to have BLT's with sweet corn; and as luck would have it, I had picked a few red tomatoes from the garden a couple nights ago!

This was Sugar's first time with the delicacy.

She wasn't sure what to do at first, but after watching her brother and sister...she quickly understood.

After supper, we all sat down to break the first picking of green beans!

Notice the little one "behind" the bucket?  Yep, she's eating the beans and not really breaking...

Until next time...

Kitchen Helpers

This year has been one of the best ever for the tomatoes in my garden.  With that being said, I have tomatoes upon tomatoes to process and can!  Thankfully, I have a couple of very willing helpers.

Reba did a wonderful job of helping washing the tomatoes before I would chunk them.  She then, placed every single piece in the funnel of my Sauce Master.  (She tried cranking, but decided she didn't have enough muscles for that)

Julianne thought she needed to help to, but I think we'll let her wait another year.

We have enjoyed many BLT sandwiches, and this winter we will be enjoying homemade spaghetti sauce, pizza sauce, tomato sauce, chili base, salsa, and tomato soup!

Until next time...

It's Harvest Season!

While it may not be the traditional harvest season, it is the start of garden harvesting time!  Here's what I found in the garden yesterday...

The first of my tomatoes are ripening

First pull of radishes

First head of broccoli

First green bell peppers

First apple at fell from our tree

It's a little on the small side, and it wasn't ripe

And the part that Doug, my kids, my dad, and my sister have been waiting for...pickling cucumbers!

Until next time...

Fun Friday Fotos

On Friday, August 16th, while Dallas was at school, Reba helped me put the tomatoes through the sauce master before heading out of town for the weekend.  She loved being able to wear her apron like Momma, and she was a great helper putting the tomato pieces into the funnel for me.

She even tried to crank the handle, but quickly decided to give that job back to Momma!

In the end, we had enough tomato juice to make 5 more quarts of spaghetti sauce and 3 half-gallon jars of plain tomato juice.

Until next time...

Fun Friday Fotos

Last week the kiddos finished up swimming lessons for the summer.  We celebrated by going out for pizza with friends

Ciara, Mattison, Carla, Reba and Dallas

The kiddos LOVE helping in the garden.  We have to watch Little Miss very carefully because she would pull every slightly red tomato or the tiniest bell peppers!

One afternoon, we got stuck in a traffic jam in our little town...luckily, I knew a way to cut through the country to get around it.  About 10 minutes after we got home, we watched the cause of the back-up roll by the house.  The electric company was having to go ahead of the rig to lift up (or in some instances take down) the wires going across the road.

The kiddos sat on the front porch and watched.  They even pumped their arms and got the truck driver to blow his air horn!

A while back I bought Dallas some new socks.  He was so proud that he was able to get them on by himself!

Finally, last weekend, Doug helped me put up 24 pints of salsa and 10 pints of spaghetti sauce!

Until next time...

Glimpse into my Garden Galley

Here are some snapshots of what's been going on in (and out of) my kitchen lately...

The kiddos loved helping shuck the sweet corn

Even Charlie tried to help...

Ears of sweet corn are piling up...

waiting to be cut off the cob

Big Bertha and her apprentice, Stainless Steel Suzie

Tomatoes going through the Sauce Master

5 Quarts of Chili Base and 3 Quarts of Tomato Juice

10 pounds of cucumbers soaking in pickling lime...

...makes 7 Quarts of Dill Pickles! (that puts me up to 21 Quarts for the season thus far)

2 LARGE zucchinis shredded

My first 3 loaves of zucchini bread

I was able to make 4 more loaves from what remained of those 2 zucchinis!...my chickens need to start picking up their production rate so I can bake some more yummy-ness :)

Until next time...I'll be canning up some more goodness from my garden!