Tomatoes

I've been busy these past two weeks, what with cleaning, painting, taking care of car recalls, shopping, delivering invitations and spending some time with friends before the official end of summer. There has not been any down time to speak of and the last thought on my mind was squeezing some canning into my schedule. Now comes the last real day to myself to finish stuff up and I'm faced with a garden full of tomatoes that are just screaming for attention. Next week proves to be very warm and I doubt if they will fare well until I get back from my trip. My husband can only eat so many sandwiches with a slice of tomato on them and he won't have time to do anything with them. I thought, before I retired, how nice it would be this year to can my tomatoes and even try something different since I'd have the extra time. I guess I really did a lot on weekends while I was working because some years I made salsa, juice, ketchup, soup and even dried tomato halves. So, as I talked to my husband this morning about what to do with some, we decided to lighten the crop a little this weekend by giving some away and by the time I get back, it should be replenished. That sounds like a plan I can live with.