A Full Freezer

Well, I haven't posted in quite a while.  Have been busy.  My garden was a bit of a disappointment this year.  We have many tomatoes, but they are getting moldy on the top very quickly.  I am told this is because of so much rain.  I had visions of making jars and jars of homemade tomato sauce and stocking up my pantry.  It has been very hard to get the tomatoes to ripen all at once.  Last week I stopped at an Amish farm and found a wonderful treasure -  a whole big box of roma tomatoes - all for just $4.00!!  I quickly grabbed that box.  Saturday found me literally up to my elbows in tomatoes.  This was my first experience with both making homemade sauce right from tomatoes, and with canning them.  What a long process, and what a mess I made of my kitchen!!  After boiling down all those tomatoes I ended up with only three quarts of sauce.  I decided that it wasn't worth canning them.  Canning takes about two hours and a lot of cooking fuel.  Too much for just three quarts.   So, I decided to simply freeze the sauce.  It sure smelled good, even if it didn't look as pretty as it would have in mason jars. 

Our carrots didn't get too big, but I picked and froze those, too.  Our green beans did great, and those are all in the freezer.  I am still a bit intimidated by the canner.  We didn't have the variety of vegetables I had dreamed about having last winter.  The garden just wasn't big enough.  But I still wanted to have fresh vegetables without chemicals and pesticides.  So, I am doing the next best thing.  I am buying in bulk at farmer's markets and roadside stands and freezing the veggies.  I bought some really nice cauliflower for $2.00 apiece as well as some broccoli for $1.00 a bunch.  Also, zucchini and yellow squash.  My freezer is getting full.  My goal is to not have to buy any vegetables from the stores this entire winter.  I have a great start so far!!