So Long, Tomatoes

The grand total came out to 45 quarts of tomato sauce. I haven’t decided what to do with the other ten bags of tomatoes in the freezer. If we need the space for pork, I may end up giving them to the chickens. If not, I’ll leave them and make salsa next month. I don’t have time for any more canning until the end of October.

Some of this week’s production waiting to be labeled and filed in the pantry:

I inherited Margaret’s collection of canning jars when she moved from Montana to Indiana. (Bless you, Margaret.) Every so often a really nice vintage one comes through the rotation. I’m pulling and saving those when I see them. The difference in quality between old and new canning jars is huge—and sad.

If anyone needs or wants extra tomatoes, let me know. You can have the ones from the freezer. The turkeys are eating the tomatoes that are left in the garden, although I pop out there every couple of days for cherry tomatoes for our salads. I still have to bring in all the butternut squash and the pumpkins but I am waiting for a frost. I can’t believe I am saying that on September 23, although the mountains got a dusting of snow this week.

I cleaned yesterday. The amount of fine, gritty ash that comes in with these forest fires is staggering, and if I don’t stay ahead of it, it will just circulate through the house all winter. I worked on our bedroom. That is the only room that has windows open during the summer—I keep the insulated shades on the upstairs windows all year now to help keep the upstairs cooler—so it needed cleaning the most. I stripped the bedding, took down the curtains, moved all the furniture, and vacuumed and wiped down all the surfaces. I emptied the tank of the Dyson vacuum twice. The air scrubber was running the entire time. It looks and feels much cleaner in there now. At some point, I’ll have to do the same thing to the living room and kitchen. I did them earlier in the summer but they need it again.

As part of yesterday’s cleaning festival, I worked on purging some stuff out of my closet. I am keeping my Liz Claiborne pieces, of course, but my goal is that everything else be made by me. My wardrobe is a lot more colorful now. No more muddy earth tones, and black is reserved for a few key pieces.

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I’ve got a pants class in Spokane on the schedule for November. I haven’t decided if I want to teach the Jalie Renee pants or another pants pattern. I scheduled it right after the Lark Tee class in Missoula. I wasn’t kidding when I said I was going to arrange periodic teaching circuits around the Pacific Northwest. If I am already in Missoula, I might as well drive to Spokane. I was hoping to squeeze the Farm and Food Symposium in between the Lark Tee class—which is on Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday morning—and the pants class, which is scheduled for Friday, but the symposium is on Wednesday and Thursday. I may see if I can take some a la carte seminars at the symposium on Thursday. If not, I can find plenty of ways to entertain myself in Spokane.

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I’m teaching a serger apron class today at the quilt store north of town. We have had a lot of trouble filling classes at this store. I expected to have to cancel the class because no one had signed up as of Monday, but when I called the store yesterday to check, the staffperson said a couple of people had signed up at the last minute. I don’t like to cancel classes, so I will teach this one.