I like pickles yes I do, I like diced tomatoes too!!

Well I have been having quite the adventure this week on my weekends. My oldest son, Matthias, thought it would be beneficial to plant 15 hills of cucumbers because he wanted me to make him some pickles. Well, boy did the harvest come in last weekend, so I thought they are freshly picked, I better make some pickles. Recipes on the Internet said pickle them fresh or they are soggy so, being it was my anniversary last Sunday, and 23 years at that to the same man, who would of thought!! I decided to make 12 quart jars of pickles and see how it went. I put in about 3 cloves of garlic, some fresh dill and dill seed and proceeded to load up the jars. I thought it was real easy and went quickly.  I thought this was great! I remember as a young teen my mom making pickles. I remember it differently though. I remember the strong smell of apple cider vinegar, lots of steam, heat! Sticky, humid heat and my mom breaking out a sweat, and it seemed to take forever, but boy were those pickles good!! Well, I got my jars ready and did the deed loading them and then the water bath, boy does that take a while to get it going right, especially with an electric stove. Anyway, I ended up with the pickles and everyone wanted to eat them right away. I said they  had to sit for 3 to 4 weeks. They were all disappointed. The funny thing is, the pickle boy, went back to Ashland University in Ashland, Ohio tThursday to start school on Monday and....wait for it.....he left with out any jars of pickles!!! How ironic is that? Anyway, my youngest son, Eliah, went cucumber picking, didn't get as many pickles today, but I managed to make 7 more jars of pickles!!

Then a friend of mine, who knows my garden is ailing, Mrs. Kim Bauer, called yesterday saying her brother had tomatoes a plenty and was wanting to give some away. A big Thank You goes out to her and her brother!!! So, I called and they were very generous to give them to us. My husband, Mike, went and picked them up today, and the canner is now filled with 5 quarts of diced tomatoes for Chili for the winter. There is nothing like the taste of Summer, garden fresh tomatoes, and that is what canning your own tomatoes tastes like. I guess I have been the happy homemaker the last 2 weekends. The nice thing is I know what is exactly in the food my family eats.