fifty pounds of tomatoes makes one nervous

this weekend i have felt frantic but i am starting to slow down.

things have not gone according to plan but i am trying to catch up.

i've inherited a friends garden. it thrills me to no end because they happened to get things in the ground that i was unable to—namely, winter & summer squash. they have a bevy of tomatoes, tomatillos, peppers and potatoes as well. and golden beets! they have beautiful squash plants that are meandering along their fence line, sneaking under into the alley.

friday i went over and picked everything that was ripe, in hopes of encouraging the plants to keep producing. i ended up with twenty or so white patty pan squash, six cucumbers and fifty pounds or so of potatoes.

just a portion of what i took home.

immediately i began to worry about putting the tomatoes up before they spoiled, the harvest was a little akwardly timed on my part. 

nevertheless, last night i stayed home and instead of going out and dancing or drinking, i sauced, stewed, roasted and canned tomatoes. i'm now down to one large bowl of beautiful tomatoes for salad and salsa, a smaller bowl for another tray to dry and all the tomatoes i have on my plants in my own garden.

my large jar of tomatoes. i threw in a couple of cloves of garlic, some basil and covered it with olive oil. then, into the freezer! a lazy man's canning.

now i am not-quite-rested but will roll out of bed and head out to the farm to feed the pigs and pick beans. on the way home i may stop and pick peppers at my new co-opted garden, as well as cilantro and milk from the grocery store. the goals for today are: tomatillo salsa, roast peppers, freeze green beans—and play board games outside. and watch (500) Days of Summer.

my excellent note. i kept three cucumbers and several small or mid size squash, but even i have my limits some days. especially around one in the morning.

sadly my own home garden will get little attention until tomorrow. maybe some eggplant will be picked if i can find a way to put them up. tomorrow: eggplant and pickled beets perhaps?