Tomatoes and Peel

Just a quick note...you remember those tomato plants I've been babying, waiting for the "big harvest". Well, it was TODAY!!

The difference between these fresh home-grown tomatoes and the things you buy at the store is HUGE!  These actually taste like tomatoes!

And you may have noticed they are sitting on my new pizza peel which I'll be using as I explore Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes A Day -- head on over to my food blog to read about my newest adventure in baking.

Insanity Never Ends - Just making it clear...

My life, like many of you, is filled from morning till evening with "stuff"! Lately, I'm up at 4am doing "stuff" before work, working during the day, and then doing more "stuff" at night until it's time to crash at about 9:30pm.  Most of it's really good "stuff" -- taking photos of family weddings and parties, having RS meetings, cleaning the church, scrapbook night with the girls, dinner with friends, Visiting Teaching appointments, Temple sessions, babysitting of nieces and nephews, etc., etc., etc.

Bear with my while I clear up one quick point for many of my friends, and many others who I don't even know, but who perhaps have single friends or family members.

Just because a person is single, and doesn't have a family, doesn't mean they have extra time on their hands...I'm just saying!

Being single for as long as I have, I've run across a lot of people who automatically make the assumption, "Oh, you don't have a family, so you should have time to do..."  I have been blessed by the Lord in many ways in my life.  Unfortunately, as yet, I have not been blessed with a husband or children of my own. However, this does not mean I am sitting at home twiddling my thumbs waiting for that blessing to come around. I'm striving to be "anxiously engaged" and so that means that my time is very valuable, as is everyones. I'm just trying to make the most of the time I've been given and hope that you are time.

*tap* *tap* *Is anyone listening?*

Enjoying the Fruits of My Labor

I partook of the fruits of my labors today...literally. I've been babying a couple of tomato plants that I started from seed last August. You're probably saying, "why in the world would you start tomato plants so late in the season?" I know, i know, but I just couldn't resist. We had a Relief Society enrichment class taught on container gardening and I brought home a bunch of tomato seeds in those peat soil pellets (the photo at the left was taken September 1st). I couldn't just toss them, they had potential!

I've been babying them along since August. Not all of the original plants survived, but 4 of them did. I put two plants in each of two pots. One pot has 2 Early Girl tomato plants and one pot has 2 Sweet 100 tomato plants. A few weeks ago the night time temperatures really started to drop so I loaded up my pots into a red flyer wagon and wheeled the plants into the garage. During the day, I wheel them out to the yard so they can soak up the sun, and then they retire for the evening in the comfy garage. They're rather pampered plants, and this is perhaps the reason it has taken them so long to come to fruition.

Anyways, my efforts paid off today. I harvested my first tomatoes...notice that was the plural of tomato. I harvested not one but TWO sweet 100 tomatoes. Behold, the plant from which I harvested my bounty.

Here are the perfect little sweet 100's which are about to be harvested.

And here I am swooping in to pluck them from the vine.

 

Unfortunately there are no pictures of me popping them into my mouth, but I can report they were delicious.

Now I'm just waiting for these beauties to ripen.