Weekendings

This past Tuesday my visiting teacher, Sister Bell, came to visit. We talked about the usual and since her and her husband do quite a bit of gardening in their retired years, I mentioned that I made zucchini bread and how proud of myself I was and that I'd like to raise my own garden next year. We then talked about canning and she said, "Well why don't you come over sometime this week and lets do some canning. I've got a lot of tomatoes that I'd be happy to give you so you can learn to can your own." 

Friday morning I went to her house and we did just that. We blanched, peeled, cut, stuffed, and pressure cooked some italian tomatoes. I did eight jars and this is what they look like.

When we stuffed the last jar full of tomatoes there were about four tomatoes left that were blanched and peeled. I looked at her and asked, "Ok so what do you with the leftover tomatoes when there aren't enough to fill a jar?" She has such a practical way about her and kind of laughed at me and said, "Well I'm going to eat them for lunch!" Oh. Duh! I was into the canning zone and forgot that people actually eat tomatoes plain. I'm an idiot!

She had a lot of zucchini so she grated some up and sent about 12 cups home with me along with a cucumber and buttercup squash. I've never prepared or eaten squash so I made some notes on my phone and I'm going to cook it up for dinner tomorrow. I also asked her how to make homemade bread and sometime next month she's going to come to my house and we'll make up some bread. I've always wanted to learn but listed it on my things to learn as a stay at home mom. Last year for christmas Donna gave me four or five loaf pans so its time to put those to use.

I loved everything about this day, it was such a great learning experience! And I love how I learned it: from my visiting teacher who's retired and was more than happy to teach me to can and share her produce with me. Thank you!!