Today I am thankful for...
abundance.
A very large quantity of something. A very large quantity of tomatoes. Not tomatoes that we grew ourselves, but still they are local chemical free tomatoes. Our several tomato plants are providing us with enough for dinner every night, but not enough for "putting up the harvest". So my husband came home with two bushels on Saturday - about 100 pounds of tomatoes. Pointing to one of the bushels, the little babe asked, "What's that?" and my husband replied, "Abundance." Very true.
So we spent all day Sunday making salsa, ketchup, tomato sauce, and oven dried tomatoes. I actually only did a bit of chopping, entertained the little babe, and handled clean-up duty (my forte). My husband is the canning man in the family and he slaved in front of the hot stove all day. The little babe loves ketchup, so we'll see how she likes our homemade version. I'm really excited about the oven dried tomatoes. As of when I am writing this, they are still in the oven. The one website said they can take about 10-20 hours at no more than 200 degrees, so it is a slow process. Having the oven on for so long drives me nuts, but I think it is still more eco-friendly than buying them in the grocery store. And did you ever stop to think that the "sun dried tomatoes" that you buy are really not dried by the sun at all? What a marketing sham. Anyway, I plan on packing mine in oil and am really excited about them. We still have 1/3 of a bushel left, plus the tomatoes we're getting from our own garden, so tomatoes are on the menu for lunch and dinner this week!
I am also thankful for my "surrogate" family. They happily gave up a sunny summer Saturday to help my brother move. There was a steep grass hill at the old apartment and 19 steep cement steps at the new house. You guys are awesome!
What are you thankful for today?