T Stands for Tuesday & Tomatoes-& More Tomatoes

  Happy T Stands for Tuesday everyone. This is our weekly gathering and sharing of a drink related post.
  Our hostess is Bleubeard and Elizabeth just click on the button in my right hand column to join us.

  If you have not seen my last two posts you will find my two updates with the corn husks papers-I am very pleased with the results-now to decide how to use them. 
    My friend finished harvesting the rest of her sweet corn from her garden and brought over a huge bag of husks. Since I am in the middle of canning right now, I don't have the time to play with these-so I went through them and saved a big bag full and put them in the freezer for later.

   Also on one of my last posts I shared my huge batch of homemade canned salsa. This batch turned out soooo delicious. I also shared photos of more tomatoes and peppers from the amish country auction that my friend had picked up for me last Friday.
   My friend had gotten me two heavy boxes of canning tomatoes-that ended up being so much nicer than the tomatoes I had bought from a different amish stand and were allot less expensive too.
   Sooo today was the day they were ready to can. I have never seen such large canning tomatoes that were not the roma or paste tomato variety that I am familiar with and these were solid "meat". I wish I knew the variety name of this tomato. 
   Yesterday I canned up 5 quarts of tomato-soup-juice. This tastes great and it is also a great base for tomato soup. I don't add any thickener when I can it. (first photo is of the tomatoes-garlic-basil-peppers simmered til soft then strained out and canned)
   Today I decided I could get more jars of tomatoes canned at a time in my pressure canners in less processing time too ( 10 minutes) opposed to 40 minutes in a water bath canner where I could only get 7 jars in at a time. I ended up with 3 canners today.
   I filled one canner with 14 wide mouth pints, and at the same time filled another canner with 8 more pints. I still had a few more tomatoes that would finish this project up so I decided to go ahead and process a third batch this time with quarts.  The quarts are now cooling down in the canner.
   I think my joints are already hollering at me lol  Extra  boswellia herb for me tonight for sure.

photos will enlarge just click on them

Where I live here in the ozarks growing a veggie garden that will yield enough for canning and freezing is a real challenge. Unlike where I grew up and lived in northern Indiana and Illinois where the soil and weather is perfect for veggie gardens.  About an hour or so drive away from us in different directions the ground is better and there are numerous amish markets or auctions for produce. I think next year I will rely on those more for what I want to preserve than trying to grow produce.

  Tomorrow I will check my cucumbers and see if I have a couple more in the garden to add what I have. I want to make one more relish with the cucumbers and banana peppers.

  For my relax time in the evenings I am still spinning bison fiber and loving it. I am also re reading Peggy Henderson's Yellowstone and Teton series of books to refresh my mind on the characters and stories before her last book in the series comes out. 
    She is writing it now while she is living in Yellowstone with her husband for several months-while he works on restoring wood work in the Old Faithful Inn. I think that is so cool to be able to live in Yellowstone for that length of time. They hike every day early morning and evenings I try not to ever be envious of others-but this is the exception-lol 
   I did just get a package in the mail of items that I purchased from the Yellowstone Forever store. A calender for next year, a book, another mug, and a lainard for a spinning gauge tool-so that made me happy dancing.

   For my drink tonight while I type this post-I am enjoying a coconut beverage-I really love this brand and they have several flavors. this one is molokai coconut.

  The bag is full of spinning fiber, and the drink is sitting on a book I just got in-making papers with silk.

update: here is a clickable link to the Leadmine Produce Auction with map