66 and a heavy dew this morning. Temps went up to about 85, not a bad day.
So today was ketchup day. I had a variety of kinds of tomatoes ripe so they all went into the ketchup. I used Mrs. Wage's mix and recipe, which is a lot simpler than the recipe I used years ago that called for 12 hours of cooking down the tomatoes. This recipe is different, in that the tomatoes are peeled, chopped up and mashed, and are not de-seeded or blended to make a smooth sauce. I did put most of them through the food processor to make it a little smoother. It tastes great, and I can't wait to give it a try on some burgers. I used 2 packets of the mix, which yielded 12 pints.
Yesterday was pepper mustard, and it came out very well. It made a lot, about 20 pints, I think.
I also made spiced pear jam today, since I lucked into some over-ripe pears that needed to be used quickly. I'm wondering if I got a little heavy-handed with the spices! I guess we'll find out.
That's another 12 pints for the cellar. I am so appreciated of a friend who decided to sell off most of her canning jars; I bought 10 dozen pints and 5 dozen quarts, and she still has a lot of half-pints to sell to me. We seem to buy jars every year; we give so much away over the course of the year that it's really no surprise that we end up needing more.
While I was in the kitchen Larry put front brake rotors on the van, a hard, dirty job but it sure needed to be done. Then he worked on the light columns he's building. He's about finished the second one. I think these are going to be so nice, and it will be good to have some light along our walk in winter. It's so dark out here, no other outside lights which is fine with me because we can see so many stars. But it will be a help when we have visitors who are not used to this darkness.
Tomorrow, I think I'll have more beans to put up, but there might be a little break in the garden flow. I kind of hope so, as I have to get to some housecleaning! Not to mention getting back to work on furniture for our booths.
