tomato time

in which our plucky heroine maintains forward momentum...

Despite my back still really hurting, there has been more pruning of assorted foliar overgrowth around the yard (by doing it little by little, there is what feels like less wear and tear on me) I want to trim some of the very shaggy bottom layer of the japanese maple, with the thought of it eventually looking more treelike and less shrublike, and allowing the beautiful contorted branches to peep through the leaves. I also began cutting back the persimmon water sprouts, since the plan is to not have fruit growing up in the sky; the plum thicket does more than enough of that, thank you very much!

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Wednesday, at the last farmer's market of the year, I bought another 10# of organic San Marzano roma tomatoes. They are currently waiting (in one layer, on brown paper) on the chairs in my living room, for their turn to spend some time in freezer camp. This acquisition meant it was time to deal with the former 10# that have been resting in my freezer for the last two weeks. Those were all skinned and simmering down on the stove in the maslin pan for most of the afternoon, on their way to becoming tomato sauce for the wintertime pantry.

Tonight the new stockpot worked in tandem with the maslin pan for the first time: 10# of roma tomatoes = 5+ pints of homemade sauce (with lemon juice instead of citric acid*) for wintertime pantry storage... It will be a real delight to add tomato based meals to my wintertime rota.  As well, earlier in the week I finished putting up the third batch of Awesome Sauce, using up most all of the rest of the frozen tomatoes. Mmmm...

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It took a fair bit of doing, but I now have appointments for a flu shot on Friday, and for my COVID booster shot later in October.

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September SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	Greek masks block carved	rodent removal	yard waste bin
2	pillowcases printed	bicycle tube replaced	recycle bin
3	snood for Ariadne	side plum pruned	yard waste bin
4	memorial calligraphy	apple tree pruning	broken oven bits
5	tiny fox "Almandine"	moar apple pruning	old frozen food
6	fig lemon jam 5 jars	added bat embroidery	yard waste bin
7	Almandine clothing	freezer defrosted	yard waste bin
8	windfall applesauce 5 jars	pears dehydrated	recycle bin
9	Nandina blouse	more dried pears	x
10	postcard #1	plums harvested	x
11	postcard #2 and #3	x	x
12	applesauce 16 jars	x	x
13	Awesome Sauce 7 4oz jars	x	x
14	Awesome Sauce 5 4oz jars	x	x
15	5 pints tomato sauce	x	x

today's gratitude - lagniappe: along with the generous 10# of tomatoes, all their shoppers today were given a gift of one of the wee little orange pumpkins. Thank you Bethel Springs Farm, I had been wishing for one of those!


* because citric acid has a disagreeable effect on my insides, I cannot eat most commercially canned tomato products (and a whole lot of other commercially manufactured foods)