THINKING AHEAD.

It seems some sort of evil joke that the hottest weeks of the year are also the time of the biggest bounty in the garden - meaning I must spend hours and hours in a boiling hot kitchen, standing over a steaming pot,  cooking down tomatoes and canning food for winter. Each time I think I am done, I head out to our wash/pack shed and fine MORE tomatoes. Bins and bins of beautiful, ripe tomatoes. And I cannot let them go to waste. My future self calls out to me through time, telling me how much she is enjoying having tomatoes on a cold, snowy day. I hear her, and I obey. I can some more, I shuck and freeze corn, ball the leftover melons. Thinking and planning ahead, providing for our family and trying to make a little bit of this summer feeling of abundance stretch into those lean winter months.I am starting to get a little bit burned-out on plain old tomatoes, though. Last night I canned ketchup, and next, I'm thinking about sun-dried tomatoes. How do you preserve your tomatoes? Anybody tried freezing them?-Hannah.

FRIENDS AND TOMATOES.

We were so lucky to have a dear friend of Jesse's stay with us last week, and while he was here, he helped us finish stringing up our tomatoes in our garden by the cabin. The garden is looking lovely, and the tomato plants are doing well. We have been dreaming about tomato sandwiches for weeks now....thanks for the help Aaron!

GROWING.

Soil blocks everywhere!

IN THE GARDEN.

This past week, we:Started the sweet potato slip bed. We save the best shaped sweet potatoes all winter, bury them under sand and then cover it with wire mesh and a plastic tarp. Once the bed heats up and the potatoes start to sprout we will remove the plastic. These little sprouts are what we plant to get sweet potatoes! We potted up tomatoes into 4 - inch soil blocks (since they are getting too big for the smaller blocks, but it is still too cold to plant them). Jesse and I put up plant variety markers in our own garden. We cut up our seed potatoes and planted nearly a quarter acre. Yukon Gold, Kennebec, and Red Lasoda. And tonight it is supposed to FROST! Oh, spring.- Hannah.