Sunday was a gorgeous fall day here in W Wisconsin and Don and I did a lot of work in the garden. We dug all the potatoes and onions and most of the carrots. It took longer to wash the veggies than it did to get them out of the ground and by the time I was finished with that, I was too tired to drag myself to the sewing room, so Gourdy's Gang is the same as it was when I posted this picture:
Maybe today I'll get some work done on it.
On Monday, I boxed up most of the potatoes and took them to the food shelf--31 pounds. So that makes my total donation 72 pounds! I'm very happy about that but I really wanted to make it to 100. Well, I guess that's my goal for next year, right?
I also returned to the garden to gather up all the tomatoes, red and green ones as well. We have a lot of trouble with tomato blight here and the plants are all pretty much dead, although the fruit is still good. It's not warm enough these days for the rest of the fruit to ripen so the plan is to wrap the best of the green tomatoes in newspaper and store them in a cool dry place in the basement so they'll ripen slowly. With luck, some years, I've had fresh tomatoes for the Thanksgiving table.
Some of the green tomatoes went into a double batch of Green Tomato Salsa which I learned of on Barbara Stanbro's blog, Cat Patches. I've never made this before and I'm not a big fan of salsa in the first place but I have so many green tomatoes that I have to do something with them. Pictured below is the double batch I made--a pint and 4 half pints. I tasted it as I was bottling it and it was pretty good but last night, after it marinated for a day in the frig, it was amazing! I had leftover stuffed green peppers for my dinner when I returned home from my trip to Duluth, which I'll tell you about in a minute, if you'll please be patient, and I put some of this salsa on the stuffed peppers and it was soooo good! Either today or tomorrow, I plan on making another double batch and that should just about use up the green tomatoes.
I had enough ripe tomatoes to make 3 quarts of pasta sauce. It's just a simple marinara sauce that I make when I have the time and energy to make it from scratch and it's really good. I hate to heat up the canner for only 3 jars, so these are topped with foil and are in the freezer, waiting for a chance to make a delicious supper for us.
Again, by the time I was finished with the sauces, it was too late for any sewing and Gourdy once again, received no attention this day. While I was waiting for the sauce and salsa to cook down so they could be bottled, I finished reading Hillbilly Elegy by JD Vance. This book--a memoir as well as a look at people who live in or come from Appalachia--is really, really good! So I'm glad I was able to take the time to sit down and finish it up.
Yesterday I was in Duluth to meet my very good friends, Bonnie and Marilyn for lunch and a good visit. The three of us have been friends since the early 70's and for quite a few years we were over involved with raising our families but now that all the kids are grown and on their own, we have rekindled our friendship, to my great joy. I think you can tell by the big grin on my face (I'm in the middle) that I'm very happy to be with these wonderful ladies. The hours I've spent with them are some of the best times of my life.
Bonnie introduce the two of us to Chaga tea which you can read more about if you like. I'd never heard of it and Bonnie says it helps lower blood pressure--a good thing in these days of political upheaval!--and better yet, it's an anti-cancer agent. The tea she shared with us was a very mild, watery drink, something I could absolutely handle. My BP is still in the normal range but Don takes a medication for his and when I told him about this, he agreed to try it for a week or so and see what happens. Bonnie recommended a half cup or so every day. I'll let you know how this goes.
So, now you're all caught up on what I've been doing over the past couple of days when I've gone missing. Today is going to be very busy. I have a pile of laundry that is in the washer as I type, I have a hair appointment this afternoon, and I have 3 mums that I'd like to get planted this afternoon as well. I've started the crock-pot to get the chaga brewing, but that takes 24 hours on low, so I can forget about it until tomorrow morning. Either today or tomorrow, I want to make a batch of soap to take with me to my son's place in Washington, and I just remembered that I'd bought fabric to make a couple of pillowcases for him, so I want to get those done as well.
With all those things wanting my attention, I guess I'd better leave this computer and get a move on!
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