This year was a good year for me and tomatoes. I grew a lot and was able to put up about 13 quarts and several pints of tomatoes. I also found a quick way to make tomato sauce and when I had too many tomatoes I would take the ones getting too soft and cook them up in a sauce pan with about 1/4 cup of water and some garlic. When the tomatoes were mostly liquid I would pour the sauce into a food mill removing all the seeds and getting a nice thick sauce. Last week was the last of the tomatoes and I was able to get about 4 pints of sauce. 

I drove up to Brightwood to put my car away last weekend, I kept looking for fall colors. A lot of the trees are still quite green except for this bright red tree, when I saw it, it was almost like it was on fire…the tree really stood out against all the green. 

I also made a couple more zipper bags from the free class on Craftsy with Kristin Link from SewMamaSew. It takes me about 45 minutes from start to finish. They are really handy for pens and pencils, sewing supplies or just a small zipper case for all those things that roll around in the bottom of a purse. The pattern uses a 13"x10" piece of fabric for the outside and the same for the lining. So it's very  easy to use up scrap from other projects. 

It's very windy here today….so far we have had a branch from the walnut tree drop in the back yard and our car port blow over landing on our truck in the driveway. Thank goodness there is no real damage. 

Preserving!!!

I love to can, mostly I like to make jam. Sometimes I have too many tomatoes and I make tomato sauce.  I have found that my husband does not always use the tomato sauce so this year I caned whole tomatoes. I have a lot of tomatoes. Today I preserved 7 pints of whole tomatoes and garlic. I still have a lot of tomatoes to preserve. 

Later in the evening I used my Ball FreshTECH Automatic Jam and Jelly maker to make a quick batch of jam. Blueberry and Strawberry jam in 30 minutes…It's wonderful, some of the strawberries are from our garden. I'm still getting strawberries this late in the year. 
  

I also pickled some Onions from my garden and some beans that a neighbor gave us. The beans are called Dilly Beans. 

There is something rewarding about preserving things that you grow yourself.