Labour Day labours

My son came home with 2 bags of fresh corn from the local farm produce stand.   They have delicious and very fresh corn.  Sometimes there are people milling about waiting for the shipment to arrive and the estimated time of arrival is announced on a blackboard.  They stock 3 types, peaches and cream, yellow and white.   You'll see people crowding around the peaches and cream type and a few at the yellow corn bin.  They white corn bin is usually ignored.  It's our favourite kind though.  The cobs and kernals are a tiny bit smaller than the other varieties but the corn is so sweet and tender that it's well worth it.   I didn't even bother cooking any of the corn for dinner.   I just started blanching it, cutting it off the cobs and ended up with 12 packets for the freezer.  Corn season will be done shortly and like beans, home frozen corn tastes so much better than commercially frozen.

Once a year, the grocery store gets in 25 lb boxes of plum tomatoes for a low price.  This year they were $6.77 a box.  That's cheaper than I can get them at the farmer's market or at the farm gate.

25 lbs is about 1/2 bushel of tomatoes.  I picked up 2 boxes of tomatoes or 50 lbs.   My daughter had dropped off some canning jars that someone had given her, that she decided she no longer needed, so I had plenty of jars, including the ones from last year's tomato canning.  I started canning on Saturday afternoon and after 21 jars, called it a night.  I'd finished up a whole box and the rest weren't so ripe that they wouldn't last until the next day.   I added all the tomatoes that were ripe in the garden to the pile.  There weren't enough to do a whole load by themselves, but enough to make a different in the final jar numbers.

  I realized as I was loading the canner with the second set of jars that I was using the ones my daughter gave me and a lot of them seemed to be pre-metric sizing.  They hold 1 pint instead of 500 mls and are just slightly smaller. 

  I've got 42 jars of tomatoes put up this year,   really 43 but one jar leaked.   It seems like there is always one that misbehaves.     There are 2 1/2 jars of tomatoes leftover but my canner is large and I didn't feel like keeping it boiling for another 45 minutes or more, for 2 measly jars.    Instead, I'll use them and the jar which leaked, to make tomato sauce for dinner tomorrow. 

My shelf is up on the wall.  All I need to do is paint the buttons to hide the screws.  I may add a little bit more brown paint to dirty up a bit of the scuffed areas which show a bit too much white for my liking.   My son pointed out the disconnect in furniture styles.  The shelf is over my computer desk, which is a 1930's dining table.   Definitely mixed eras, but I love my shelf, so I don't really care.