Friday I wasn’t up until 6:15AM and got the poor cat fed before he expired. I got my post up and then got the kitchen cleaned up. My helper friend did a big shopping before arriving here around 9:30AM. He got the food put away. Then I sent him to the co-op for more ingredients.
I had gone out to see if there were any more tomatoes. The eating tomatoes seem to have stalled but the paste tomatoes are coming in now.
I sorted out the ripest ones from on the window sill and started prepping them. I had enough for 4 batches of tomato soup base. I got out some of the storage onions that we couldn’t hang to cure and got them ready to be chopped. I got the garlic that needed to be used from the pantry and got it peeled and sent through the garlic press.
He was back by then and did the chopping. He can chop finer than I can so he does that. We got the pot simmering by 10:30AM. It had to cook for an hour.
I looked out the window around 10AM and saw the mulch hay guy mowing the middle pasture. He’d actually gotten here at 8AM and already mowed the back pasture. Fortunately, he did not hit any loose wire from where the bear had broken the fence. He finished the mowing about 11AM.
Back on August 12 I had started making pectin and messed it up. The next day I tried to fix it but ran out of time to finish it, so I put it in the fridge.
While we waited for the base to cook, I got it out and we finished the project. We got it reduced by half and then I water bath canned it. I got a pint from each batch, enough to make 4 batches of jelly, if it actually works.
My helper had to leave at 11:45AM so I ended up running the soup base through the Squeezo. It was pretty thin, so I simmered it a while longer until it reduced down. I got 3 pints, enough for 6 meals.
I finished it all around 1PM and was so tired I only washed up the Squeezo and left the mess. I went to bed but I was aching so bad I got up a while later. I tried to lie on the couch and read but that didn’t work either. So I ended up sitting in my chair reading all afternoon.
I was in bed by 8:15PM.
On Saturday, I have the kitchen mess to clean up, a friend is dropping off house plants until she can find a place to live, and I’m hoping to get out to the New Herb garden and finish the jobs left undone. It’s to be a nice day, sunny and cool.
Just trying to get through this anniversary weekend…