Garden time

It's garden time again. It's finally here. I've been eyeing a couple orange tomatoes and waiting..waiting..waiting..
The darn things just won't turn red. Guess I"ll have to harvest something else. How bout some carrots. Okay.

Aren't they purty? They looked real good in the basket. Then I washed them up. Oh my. There were a few worm holes. That's what my good knife was for though. I took care of that.
Now they look like this:

Whew. All the jars finally sealed. I love listening for the "ping". Sometimes they all seal real quick. Ping, ping, ping. Sometimes it takes forever. Ping........  ping. Occasionally a jar will seal real quiet like. You don't hear a thing. Next thing you know, you look at the jar and it's sealed. Whew.
I dug a few of these up today too..

New potatoes. Too bad my peas all died. I didn't get one pea. I was so excited over my asparagus finally growing that it didn't bother me at all. It does now. Peas go real good with new potatoes. Oh well. I just up and canned them too. Now they look like this:

I have a routine. A canning routine. My mother-in-law taught me how to can years ago. Our southern friends call it jarring instead. Makes me think of jawing... like talking a lot. I can't do that while I'm canning. I might mess up my routine. It's my own routine. It's occasionally adapted. Not very often though. It's comforting in an odd sort of way.

Sometimes I have two canners going. Today I just had one. Sometimes there's just so much to do I have to start early in the morning to get it all done. Today was a good slide into the routine day. It just took most of the afternoon.

I love to line the pantry shelves with jars. I like to organize my jars by content and color. I may have a sickness. I'm not sure.
In another few weeks I"ll be really tired of the vegetables and the mess. It's a love/hate relationship. When it starts to get cold out I'll really love it all again. Because it's over.
The eating part is the very best part. There's nothing like opening a jar of peaches or tomatoes in the middle of winter. It just tastes better.
For now I'll just keep canning. I know my family will keep eating. They're like that.
I'm still waiting for that red tomato. Just one. I have at least 20 tomato plants. One red tomato shouldn't be asking too much.
Maybe I can  can something else while I"m waiting......