Yesterday I mentioned picking tomatoes. My friend's garden is huge and still going strong, and she just can't keep up with all the produce, so she's given me permission to come and pick whatever I want. I don't bother trying to grow tomatoes at my house, since the property is surrounded by trees and doesn't get enough sun to grow them without a greenhouse. Someday maybe that will happen, but until then I have to get my tomatoes and peppers from friends who have more sun.
It was a sunny but chilly day, and the wind was brisk. Even so, it was wonderful to be out in the garden. We were trying to pick as quickly as possible, since the big dog and the tiny rooster were in the car. I would have let them out, but my friend's dogs would have had several aneurysms each.
Once we got home, it was time to do something with the bounty. There weren't really that many tomatoes, but I figured some is better than none.
Once the stems were removed, they got dipped in boiling water to split the skins. I had to do them in small batches, and it took forever.
Seriously, forever. These are small tomatoes, and each one had to have the skin and the stem core removed. Once all that was done, they went back in the pot to get good and hot before going into the jars I had been scalding in the canner.
Like I said, I didn't get a huge harvest, but it should be more than enough to make a couple of big batches of chili this winter. Perfect comfort food!
That's my super exciting tomato story! Not quite as scintillating as taking a mini rooster into the bank, but I won't care much about that when I'm eating chili in front of the fire this winter!