Just before sunrise
On Thursday morning I was up at 5:00AM as I had a lot to do before my substitute helper arrived at noon. I got a load of dishes in the dishwasher first thing then got my post up.
Next I washed up the remaining dehydrator trays, cleaned the 2 dehydrators and got that finished. I stacked the dehydrators and got out one of the big roasters to put on the porch.
Almost Autumn Equinox early morning sun streaming in
I took a rest for an hour after all the standing then got a shower and ready for the day.
I went out and harvested tomatoes. I took all the sort of ripe ones too so they can ripen away from the slugs. I sorted them out and put the ones to ripen on the windowsill.
Ready to ripen
I weighed up the ripe ones and had nearly 25 lbs. From there I could figure out how many onions, peppers, and garlic I needed.
So I went out and got what I needed from the garden. Then I went down to the cellar and got the garlic and canning equipment.
I took another rest for half an hour, and then got up to start washing tomatoes. My substitute helper arrived at noon and I set her to chopping the peppers while I finished the tomato washing and stated prepping the onions for chopping.
This sunflower was the only survivor in the cold frame and I planted it hoping it would do something. I got a pretty little flower.
I’d gotten the water for blanching the tomatoes going and the first batch in. I showed her how to do it and then prep the tomatoes and left her to do that standing job.
I remembered the food chopper this time!
I took the onions over to the table and sat and chopped them. Then I peeled the 18 large cloves of garlic and chopped them.
I got all the onions, peppers and garlic in the roaster then measured out the seasonings and got those in. The roaster was half full and I just hoped the 25 lbs of tomatoes would fit.
She finished the tomatoes and we dumped the biggest bowl of them into the roaster. They just fit! We turned it on and then went to do something else.
It was only 2PM and we had until 5PM so I went out to the garden and got a large harvest of paprikas. Some weren’t quite ripe but these were fine. So she sat and cut them in fine strips, something my hands won’t do and we talked as she worked.
She finished around 4:30PM so we went out to look at the gardens. We did the New Herb garden first and I gave her lots of samples of things to smell. I have catnip all around in the gardens, so I pulled up some for her to take home to her kitten. She also took 3 of the huge zucchinis with her.
The spaghetti sauce will simmer all night on low heat and on Friday I will have to can it. She wants to learn to do that and is hoping she can take the Friday shift and come in the afternoon.
My #3 intern is supposed to be here to move and stack wood in the morning. I have to empty the dehydrator and clean up the kitchen. There’s a possibility another substitute will come in the morning, but I’ll have to wait to see.
I weeded this walkway 2 or 3 weeks ago and this invasive stuff is back. It’s part of what I have to do to finish the New Herb garden. I’d hoped to do some more work Friday morning but it doesn’t look like I will be able to.
I have PT mid afternoon, the last session. So another busy day.