This morning I blanched, peeled, and froze a quart of the tomatoes that ripened on the counter. It would have been easy to toss these little ones into the compost, but instead it is a little kitchen ritual - each tomato I pop out of the skin and drop into the bowl will be part of a bite of good flavor in soup or beans sometime this winter. I froze them in bags, 8-10 ounces of tomatoes in each.

My ongoing goal with the garden and food preservation is to have the pleasure and good health from growing it and eating it, but what I struggle with is this: today I saved myself the cost of a couple of cans of organic tomatoes. Maybe $2. If this was only about saving money, it would have been cheaper and faster to buy the tomatoes, but it isn't, it's about the holistic process one can achieve at home. I just wish I had more discipline in all of the other little $2 here and there that get away from me.

Liz, I also need to finish more things. It has been one aspect of de-cluttering, to clear things out. But as I go through some of this stuff I'm reminded of things I want to get back to doing (more projects to start and then to finish). It is a vicious cycle!

It may seem early, but I am aware this year that if I act right now I can have something closer to the garden I really want to have. Potatoes, beans, lettuce go in now, but I have to dig and shape it first. So I have more to do than ever this winter, when I should also be working in the house during the cold weather. Oy.

SRS