Garden update 8/9/11

I'm still getting quite a few tomatoes daily.  I have five eggplants out there growing.  They aren't growing very fast, so not sure how that's going to turn out.  I think I already told you that I've pulled all the beans, peas and green beans.  I'm still getting a few cucumbers, probably 2-3 per day, which is a HUGE reduction from what it was before.  Jalapenos are doing fine, they like the heat and dryness.  Zucchinis are coming to an end soon, I think.  I get a couple every few days, but the plants are looking pretty ragged and the stupid squash bugs have arrived, so I may just go ahead and pull them soon.  I have a few melons growing out there but it's August already, so not sure how big they'll get during the rest of the growing season here.

I made more spaghetti sauce the other day because I had probably 10-15 pounds of tomatoes to use up.

It finally happened

As I've mentioned, my husband's grandmother lives with us.  She's lived with us for over two years now.  As you can imagine, there have been ups and downs along the way.  I'm happy to say that when she moved in with us she was on 8 prescription medications as well as several OTC meds.  Today she's on two prescriptions meds and one OTC as needed.  It's amazing what having someone (me) make you eat regularly and take your meds on schedule (and without overdosing, which is what she was doing) can do for your health.  We've been very happy seeing her physical improvements since moving in.  It's a battle as she doesn't want to eat unless it's sweets and I have to tell her to bathe every few days, getting her to get up and walk around (she's VERY stable, no walker or cane) to keep her strength up is another battle, but there are plenty of laughs to counter balance those issues.

When we moved her in with us, she had been living in low income housing.  We moved her stuff to our house one truck and carload at a time, cleaning out obvious trash as we went.  She had a very hard time turning loose of things, as older people sometimes do, but we were able to convince her that she didn't need the clothing she wore 20 years ago when she was 100 pounds heavier and other things like that.

I wish I had thought to take a picture, but she had what I deemed the closet of coffee.  For some reason, she had bought can and after can after can of coffee.  The big cans, the ones that are like 30-35 ounces.  I have no idea how many cans were in there, but there were a LOT.  We gave a few to her neighbors, we gave some to family members, we gave some to family to take to work, we gave some to our neighbors, we gave one to the mail lady, we put them in unlocked cars in random parking lots, and we kept some.  We moved to a new state and some came with us.

I should say, she's the only one in this house that drinks coffee.  She drinks one to two pots worth of coffee a day which sounds like a HUGE amount, except you have to realize that she brews it SUPER strong.  The smell will knock you out.  She puts enough scoops of coffee to brew 10-12 cups but then only puts enough water for 2-4 cups.   She uses quite a bit of coffee daily, as you can see.

Well, it's been over two years, with tons given away, and she FINALLY ran out of coffee from the closet of coffee.  I saw that she was out and knew she'd have withdrawals, so I bought her some more the day after she ran out.

A few days later she tells me she thinks she's getting a cold because she's had a horrible headache the last few days.

*DING* goes the light bulb over my head.

Mawmaw, why didn't you make you some coffee?  You're having headaches because you haven't had any caffeine and you're addicted to it.

How would I make any coffee?  I'm all out.

I bought you more the next day!

I never saw it, honey.

That's because I hid it so well.

Weight loss update

Got on the scale today.  I'm down four pounds.  Yay!  Now, a gazillion more to go!  ;)

I know, one day at a time.  I'll get there.

Answer

Canning jars!  Mostly pints, but there are some quart jars in there, too.  I got seven dozen jars for $21.  I'll save you the quick math, it's $3 per dozen.  They are between $9-$10 per dozen in the stores here, so I am VERY happy with my score!  

Three guesses

I answered an ad in the local newspaper and I'm thrilled with what I bought.

Want to guess what's in the boxes?

Ketchup!

OK, this time I didn't forget about the seeds!  Yay!

Private #2 really wanted us to make ketchup, so ketchup it is.  Here are some photos I took during the process.

We did a small batch, so we needed six pounds of tomatoes from our garden.

You have to get the skins off and the seeds and cores out.  You get a pot of water boiling and put the tomatoes in it. 

After a bit of time, the skin will split open.  Sometimes (on the smaller tomatoes, usually) the skin doesn't split.  That's fine, just leave them in there for roughly a minute or so then take them out and put them in a colander or a bowl to cool off.  Save this pot of water.  Some of the nutrients from the tomatoes will be in the water and your houseplants (or any other plants) will love it after it's cooled to room temperature.

After that I peeled them.  The skin comes off VERY easily (like pull it with your fingers easy) after having been in the boiling hot water.  I then cored them and tried to get all of the seeds out.  I admit I did not get every single seed.  The kids won't die, they like tomatoes, they probably won't notice.  I probably got 98% of them, close enough for me.  I ran the tomato pieces in the blender on the liquefy setting just to make sure there were no tomato piece blobs.

Then it goes in a pot to thicken.

I'm sure you won't be surprised at all to know that I got busy and forgot to take a picture where I added the spices, vinegar and sugar.  It looked like the above picture only a bit darker and thicker.  Sorry!

After it was done cooking I processed it in a water bath for 40 minutes.  

Ketchup!

The kids all tried it and deemed it yummy.  The recipe said you'd get five pints of ketchup but, as you can see, I ended up with 2 pints, 2 full jelly jars and (in the refrigerator) a 1/2 full jelly jar full of ketchup.  

Now I can no longer say I've never made ketchup!

Yesterday's garden gathering

Yesterday I meant to post pictures of the tomatoes and jalapenos that we gathered but I forgot. So, here you go.