Since June 15th, thirty-five pounds of beans have been picked from my twelve-by-fourteen plot out at Tonopah Rob’s Vegetable Farm. A few days ago Rob gave me a small rough-neck of carrots, I thought I could put them to good use, it didn’t even look like it was that much anyway. Turns out there were fifty-one pounds of carrots in there. Add to that my seven and a half pounds of garlic I have hanging up in my closet that was picked on June 2nd and you know I needed to hurry up and do something with them quickly accumulating food. Up until this past week, we were able to eat our way through the smaller harvests but with a few pounds of beans still in the fridge and the almost fourteen pounds I picked yesterday, it was time to get busy. I busted out the really large pot and got to boiling water. With the sink full of ice water I was soon blanching the beans and carrots. Into quart size freezer bags I stuffed beans and carrots and then added some fresh sliced garlic, quartered red onions, and chopped green peppers. For the next six months, Caroline and I will have a steady supply of mixed veggies ready for the steamer.

Here come the tomatoes. I left Tonopah Rob’s farm with about 25 pounds of them today, next step – get rid of them. I started with about 15 pounds. washed them, chopped them, put them in the pot. Grab some onions, basil, celery, carrots, bay leaves, horseradish, and Worcestershire sauce, toss in with the maters and bring to a boil. Food mill the stuff and voila – V8, or darn close to it. And that’s how I spend the better part of a day when it’s 110 degrees outside and don’t feel like I have enough humidity inside!