This year’s garden, thanks to the plentiful rain, was incredible! I don’t think that I’ve ever had such luck or such beautiful tomatoes. It was touch and go for a while—a sheer battle between me and the cucumber beetles, but in the in the end we both got to eat a lot.
And recently I bought a neat little gadget called a Foley Mill that is allowing me no excuses for using up all of the nearly perfect tomatoes that are being produced this year. With the Foley Mill you cook tomatoes (or whatever you’d like) with skins, seeds and all...and then run the cooked product through the hand-cranked mill to squeeze out the good stuff and leave the skins and seeds behind. Come to think of it—I think my grandmother did the same thing with a cone shaped ricer and a wooden spoon, but it didn’t look like fun. My kids are fighting over whose turn it is to turn the Foley.
More on growing…Mr. Haight, one of Anna’s teachers, assigned the class to make a “project box” where they built a simple kit, and wrote directions for someone else to follow. There was much deliberation in our house about what kind of kit would be fun to do, and simple enough to explain. In the end Anna decided to build a kit for home-made chia pets—something that is always done as a hands-on project in the youth building at State Fair. She took lots of time to create her kit, label the contents, neatly write the directions and try it out. She was so excited to bring the project box in to school.
Well, when it came time to trade her box with someone else who was going to try it out, and grade her...she ended up with one of the boys...who doesn’t like projects. “This is stupid” he said as he added half of the soil. Anna tried to point out that he was supposed to decorate it. “I’m not going to do that, you can bring it home” he said. “Boys!” was her comment. She brought home his discarded, half-headed, chia pet and we got a chuckle as it began to grow.
And recently I bought a neat little gadget called a Foley Mill that is allowing me no excuses for using up all of the nearly perfect tomatoes that are being produced this year. With the Foley Mill you cook tomatoes (or whatever you’d like) with skins, seeds and all...and then run the cooked product through the hand-cranked mill to squeeze out the good stuff and leave the skins and seeds behind. Come to think of it—I think my grandmother did the same thing with a cone shaped ricer and a wooden spoon, but it didn’t look like fun. My kids are fighting over whose turn it is to turn the Foley.
More on growing…Mr. Haight, one of Anna’s teachers, assigned the class to make a “project box” where they built a simple kit, and wrote directions for someone else to follow. There was much deliberation in our house about what kind of kit would be fun to do, and simple enough to explain. In the end Anna decided to build a kit for home-made chia pets—something that is always done as a hands-on project in the youth building at State Fair. She took lots of time to create her kit, label the contents, neatly write the directions and try it out. She was so excited to bring the project box in to school.
Well, when it came time to trade her box with someone else who was going to try it out, and grade her...she ended up with one of the boys...who doesn’t like projects. “This is stupid” he said as he added half of the soil. Anna tried to point out that he was supposed to decorate it. “I’m not going to do that, you can bring it home” he said. “Boys!” was her comment. She brought home his discarded, half-headed, chia pet and we got a chuckle as it began to grow.
