Canning

Since it is my birthday week I thought I could indulge myself with some childhood memories. Well, first of all, these are the tomatoes that were canned and the salsa that was made out of that very friendly basket of tomatoes. So much about the tomatoes but really, this is the first year in 12 that we have lived here that I have successfully been able to grow tomatoes. I guess they need really great light something that this yard never really had so Yeah for the red jars.

Ok, here is the memory. When I was about 8 -11 we used to live in Ohio and we had a large garden on the farm of a farmer from church. We would drive out to the country several times in the summer and well, really I would go swimming with my brothers while my parents tended to the garden. It was close to a creek and there were vines that we would swing off into the water. I loved this about going to the garden. I don't really have any memories of helping harvest or plant or weed but the cool water and the Swiss Family Robinson adventures with my brothers swinging, swimming, finding rocks and climbing up the slippery muddy bank are really clear. It was the end of the summer that all the canning took place. It was my job to watch the younger daughter of a friend while she and my mom would can tomatoes, make pizza sauce (the best to this day that I have every had), pickle cucumbers into Bread and Butters and Dills and Sweets in large ceramic crocks that sat aside in the kitchen for weeks. Just a memory.