Tear-free Salsa

Salsa is the first thing I tried to can, three years ago. I enlisted my husband to help and put Chloe in front of the TV for what ended up being an all-day process. It was a HUGE mess, it was a TON of work, and all I got from it was two stinkin' quart-size jars of salsa. I don't remember why, but I remember crying. Out of frustration, not from chopping onions.

I tackled salsa again today and I'm happy to report that I did not cry (except when I chopped the onions, but Cora hugged me and it was alright.) I now have nine pints of absolutely delicious salsa plus about a cup leftover to snack on with chips tomorrow.



That should be plenty of salsa until next year, along with the peach salsa I canned last month. Now if enough tomatoes would ripen at once so I could make a decent-sized batch of pizza sauce, I'd be good to go.

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I started digging today. My intention is to double the size of the garden, use it as landscaping, and really make a work of art out of our back yard. Step one is digging and removing the Bermuda grass from a 200-square foot strip.

I keep going back and forth on whether this is the best thing to do - it's going to divide our lovely, big backyard in half. But it will be pretty and will produce more food. My husband likes the idea, so I'm going for it. I promised I would try to do it without his help.

I have to jump up and down on the shovel three or four times to even get it in the ground, but I made a bit of progress tonight. I look forward to posting end-result pictures next summer (after it's been planted.)