Hi, everybody! I've got to stray from commenting on the last few verses of 2 Peter for a day or so. Lots of other stuff got in the way....like tomatoes! Clint and I both had to make trips to Centreville today--me to pick up my now proofread manuscript of "A Sturdy Fence,"--and he to meet with a family concerning an upcoming funeral. So because we were combining our trips to save gas, I had to hurry and scurry to have the tomatoes at a point where I could leave the process. I asked him to take a few pictures, but his morning was consumed with studying in the book of James to prepare for tonight's Bible study. I could not take pictures, get the two big loads of laundry hung out, wash, cut, cook, and juice tomatoes plus be ready to go by 11:30! My real, true intent was to post pics of the tomato juicing process. Well....
I got all the tomatoes cooked and juiced in time and left the hot juice in a big cooker awaiting my return. This afternoon I'll cook it down, add tomato paste, spice, etc., and then can it. It may mean I miss prayer meeting tonight. But with the last two days of this week occupied, I guess it might be hard to avoid. The canning is certainly more difficult these days since my good help is no longer available! Rhiannon is working in the corn and just isn't available most days. She loved the canning and was excellent help. They are in the middle of harvest and she's putting close to 12 hour days. Last night she was teasing about the corn sorting process and how it has so much spiritual application. I asked if she'd like to be my guest blogger for a few days, take pictures of the amazing process that goes into producing quality seed corn, then post them complete with spiritual comments (bad seed needs to be removed, etc), but she said she's too busy! Sorry! I'm sure you would have found it all interesting. It's truly an amazing process. We don't often realize what all goes into things we take for granted--things like the availability of good quality seed to the farmers of this nation.
Today as I was starting the tomato canning process, I thought again about the availability of water. I am so thankful for running water! No kidding! I often think of that and breathe a little prayer while I'm doing some task where water at the touch of a faucet handle is indispensable. Making spaghetti sauce or any kind of food processing is just such a task. It forced me to consider what it was like for grandmas as they canned back in the day when all the water used had to be hauled from a well or pumped by hand. And they didn't have the option of deciding not to can, it was a lifestyle and a necessity if you wanted to eat over the winter. I recently read an entry in some notes my dad's mother left for the family describing a fire that occurred in their house back in the early '30's. She was looking at the new catalog (a really big deal!) with the neighbor lady while her green beans were canning on the stove. A spark found an open spot in the chimney and started a fire in the wall. Soon grandma saw the smoke and the rush to rescue the house was on. She told how a neighbor man rescued her cooker full of beans. They all sealed and everything was fine in the end, but she really emphasized how that guy was bent on saving those beans!
I always kind of dread the canning process. It's not one of my favorite tasks, especially spaghetti sauce--probably because of the many steps involved. But today I'm thankful that I have good equipment, no chimney to worry about, and running water to clean up all the mess! Thankfulness.....it's a good thing. Blessings, LORI
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