Monday, September 8, 2008

Monday Weekend Review

The Bag Lady has been a busy little bee this weekend. Along with a multitude of other things, she turned these:

Into this:

And this:


Into this:


Here are her tomatoes:

And a few more:

When they ripen, she will make some salsa and pizza sauce, and probably just can some of them to use during the winter. Some of them will be pink, and some of them will be yellow, but most of them will be the traditional red. She still has a lot of gardening yet to do. She needs to do more of this:
But there is no rush. The weather has been unsettled, and the Bag Lady was getting tired of covering her tomatoes in case of frost, so she decided to pick them and get it over with! The potatoes can stay in the ground for quite awhile yet. As can the onions and garlic and carrots and turnips, which is pretty much all that's left. Oh, except for her exceptionally hardy spinach, which is still producing, and she is still picking it every day and dehydrating it. It takes a long time to get enough dehydrated to fill a bag........ but she is getting there.

Finally, here is some cuteness for you!


30 comments:

Penny said...

Wow, that's a LOT of tomatoes! And are those peaches? Did you make jam? Amazing productivity!

Those cows are so cute but I keep wondering what we could turn THEM into....mmmm, pies.... (sorry, I spend most of my life provoking my vegan boyfriend, so it's my natural train of thought when I see a farm animal)

TA x

Anonymous said...

DAMN.

you do more in a weekend than many of us do all year.

seriously.

weather where I am? fine.

mamwhereIam? THAT'S WHAT'S UNSETTLED :)

happy monday.

Crabby McSlacker said...

Love the cow chorus line!

And I gotta agree with mizfit--how the heck do get so much done??!!!

Do you have a secret Bag Lady clone?

Leah J. Utas said...

That's a hell of a whack of tomatoes. Everything looks so good and it looks like you were very busy. But did it keep you out of trouble?
Speaking of trouble, I wouldn't turn my back on those cows if I were you.

JavaChick said...

that is a lot of tomatoes...also, cute cows. :)

Missicat said...

Wow...you definitely were busy! Cute little critters...
We had nasty rain Saturday, but beautiful weatehr Sunday....

Hilary said...

A Cowrus Line!

That's a huge load of toms there, Baggie. You must just go, go, go from dawn till dusk.

Anonymous said...

Tomato invasion!

Tell us more about dehydrated spinach. How do you dehydrate it? and what do you do with it afterwards?

(I have so much that needs to get done, but none of it involves food. Wanh!)

Mary Anne in Kentucky

Scrumpy said...

Goodness, do you ever slow down?

The cows are so freakin' cute!

Terrie Farley Moran said...

df Bag lady,

I am tired just from reading the post and looking at the (gorgeous) pictures.

You are the energizer bunny!

Terrie

the Bag Lady said...

TA - those are called Pluots - they are a cross between plums and apricots. I had never seen them before, but optimistically bought a flat. They weren't tart enough for my taste, but they turned into fabulous jam!
Oh, and some of those calves will be turned into pies or something, but some of them were heifers, so they will turn into mamas.

Miz - it was a very productive weekend. Had to get caught up after goofing off last weekend!

Crabby - damn, my secret is out. I just sit on my ever-expanding butt and order my minions around (you noticed, didn't you, that there are never any photos of the Bag Lady actually doing the work!? :)

dfLeah - actually, for once, I stayed out of trouble this weekend!
And don't worry, I don't turn my back on those calves - they are full of mischief!

Javachick - the challenge now is for those tomatoes to ripen at the right pace so they can be used in various recipes! :)

Missicat - our weekend was actually quite pleasant. Today is rainy, though. I'll have to get some inside work done now. Damn.

Hilary - that cracked me up! Cowrus Line. Hehehehehhe.
And dawn came a little later around here today - must have overdone it a little yesterday! Don't usually sleep that late.

the Bag Lady said...

Mary Anne - I have to credit Bunnygirl with the idea of dehydrating spinach. (I had a dehydrator sitting in the cupboard that hadn't been used in years. Have definitely made up for it this year!)
I use it in all sorts of dishes where you would use frozen spinach, (dips, etc.) and in Bunnygirls' recipe for Spinach Cheese Bread. Scrumptious!

SB - it is definitely a busy season for me - all the garden produce to be dealt with.

dfTerrie - Oh, THAT's what that drum-beat was, ringing in my ears!! :)
Actually, could use a battery change - mine seem to be a little run down today.

Melissa said...

I want a garden so bad.

I'll never forget the only time I ever grew potatoes--I was only 20 or something and newly married. We had a sack of grocery potatoes sprout in the cabinet, and since we were planting some stuff, we cut them up and put them in the ground.

They grew just fine, and eating them was a stupendous revelation!!! So this is what potatoes are supposed to taste like!

Even growing up in the country with a 1/3 acre garden, we never grew potatoes for some reason.

Anonymous said...

Fabulous! Happy Monday and thanks for sharing! :)

the Bag Lady said...

Melissa - I find that with most vegetables - the stuff in the grocery stores has been forced, or something, and is seriously lacking in taste. Having a garden makes such a difference!

Mark - thanks, and Happy Monday to you, too.

Unknown said...

Can I be you with all of your jam-making gardening lots of tomatoes and cute animals awesomeness? It all looks so enjoyable! And productive.

Reb said...

Wow, looks lovely Sis. Love the Cowrus line! (thanks Hilary!)

the Bag Lady said...

Sagan - you can be me only if I get to be you....but wish we could have switched BEFORE you went to Italy!
:)
Reb - thanks. Those calves have sure grown, haven't they?

new*me said...

busy, busy BL :)
You inspire me ;) with all your creations!
I think your cool weather drifted on south to Kansas.......brrr....it's only 55 here today and rainy!

Ann (bunnygirl) said...

It all looks great. And pluots--yum!

the Bag Lady said...

new*me - it started out rainy here today, but now we have some blue sky showing. Lots of threatening clouds around, though. Temp. 70F. Nice day.

Bunnygirl - The pluots made fabulous jam!

HC said...

Love the photos -- they make me miss the farm!

I really want to get into canning... must put that on my To Do list of life goals.

the Bag Lady said...

Haley - there's nothing like the farm life! I hope you manage to find time to do some canning sometime soon - it's so satisfying!

Anonymous said...

A dehydrator, eh? The kind with electric heat and ventilation? There's this stack of screens out in the shed that don't fit any of the windows in this house (not one of the many shapes is _that_ shape) that I've been meaning to build a fruit-dryer with, and I'm going to take them with me to the new house and keep on meaning that, but I don't think spinach would be a good first try. I thought I'd start with apples and go on to beans, maybe.
Fresh spinach is very sporadic locally, and I loovvve spinach lasagna. (I've never grown it because it has such a short season here.) Canned doesn't work right. Frozen is better than nothing, but not very good. From what you use the dehydrated for it sounds like just the thing.

Mary Anne in Kentucky

the Bag Lady said...

Actually, Mary Anne, spinach is really easy to dehydrate!
I think your idea sounds great to make a dryer out of those screens!

Anonymous said...

Easy? I guess I'll be planting a lot of spinach next year After The Move.
I think that's what those screens were doing out in the shed--some previous owner meant to use them that way. : )

Mary Anne in Kentucky

Clare2e said...

My heavens, all those tomaters! And those cute calves. Thank goodness you admitted to sleeping late the next day or I'd feel even lazier by comparison.

the Bag Lady said...

Clare - I was totally exhausted, I admit. But I'm blaming that on the bug that I seem to have caught, rather than the amount of work I did. :)

Christine said...

That table full of tomatoes is enough to make me want to kill you and take your place.

I mean that in the absolute nicest way possible.

the Bag Lady said...

Christine - whew - glad you are in Ireland.... :)