At it again! Wednesday, 8/09/17

I didn't know what to title this post, though I considered several ideas. Jimmy and I are home in Nevada City this month, preparatory to a long trip beginning next month. And it's high summer, full of fresh produce with its promise, via preserving, to carry us through winter ... at least in part. We gathered no crops last summer when we were Out and About in Tergel and then in Alabama with my dying brother. But this year, well, our cupboards are stocked and the freezers are filling up. That's a good thing, and it makes us happy.

We've been helping out at our friends' farm (lotta labor, whew!) a few miles away, and in return we've been fortunate to gather wonderful organic fruits and veggies. Tomatoes are IN now. We've "put up" stewed tomatoes, made salsa, and now it was time to make a mouthwatering Marinara sauce. One of my ideas for this blog title was Canning 101, tho truthfully, I think Marlene suggested it first. 😀 😄

Fran, our across-the-street neighbor/friend, couldn't make it to the marinara sauce undertaking, although you see her in the foreground picking tomatoes.  Marlene is at the far door.  So many tomatoes!  The dang things are breeding in that high tunnel like they're being paid!  There's peppers and melons and other goodies under that domed roof, too.

The buckets aren't quite full, but they are heavy.

Marlene is just adding more to the 'mater pile-up in the kitchen.

Oops, missed the opening.  Bad shot.

Look at the purty Marinara sauce.  I netted eight two-and-a-half cup freezer bags full of delish sauce (one bag was accidentally left out, below).  Marlene canned about the same. Maybe more ... she had no shortage of tomatoes!

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At the farm a few weeks ago, this lovely lady (an Ameraucana hen) decided to fly the coop, so to speak, and lay a clutch of eggs atop a stack of hay bales five feet high under a shed overhang.  A rooster had been introduced into the yard not too long before ... so ... one can imagine her eggs were fertilized.  Or, she could've been fooled.  We waited.  She'd peck your eyes out if you tried to look at her eggs.  She rarely left her position, but once when she did, Marlene counted the eggs and tried to see, uh, something (below).  Couldn't determine a thing.  Then ...

Two mornings ago, Marlene heard a "cheep cheep" as she neared the shed.  Aha!  The rooster knew what he was doing, and so did this fine lady.  Of course, it's the wrong time of year to hatch eggs, but they're new at it and probably didn't know this fact.  As of this photo, three cute (CUTE) li'l chicks were peeking out from beneath Mom's feathers.  This evening Marlene texted me to say there are now seven!  Good job, guys!

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Another possible heading for this post was:  Farmer Jones is in the house! I ix-nayed that one, as you see.  I've always had a garden, even if it was postage stamp-sized -- planting runs in the family.  My dad was a chemical engineer by trade, but a gentleman farmer was his real calling.  So, I offer no apologies for blogging about tomatoes and canning sauces and such.  Oh, wait a minute, I have a bucket of tomatoes on my counter, cajoling me, calling out to me to turn them into Tomato Confit.  Take a guess on how I pronounced that the first time?  Hint:  It was not correct.  Confit is on the schedule for tomorrow morning.

Their corn is near-about ready. I walked through the row, listening to the loud humming of hundreds of buzzy bees. Another good thing to have on the farm -- bees to pollinate. That corn reminded me of another peppy little verse I penned over twenty years ago. Enjoy! Click on it to enlarge it and use your back arrow to return to this post. I'm hitting the couch!

Our Golden Smiles are Sugar Sweet

We're the Ones you Want to Eat!

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