you too can be a kitchen slave!

Welcome to fall on the farm. Anyone who wishes to visit will be put to work in the kitchen!

No, seriously, it is mostly me. I'm in my freezing/canning/processing rut. And I hate my kitchen. But that happens each and every fall. When you are manipulating huge pots and pressure cookers, along with all of the large plastic vessels holding all the raw produce, there is simply not enough space. In the universe.

For instance, today. It rained another 3 tenths last night (argh, but that is another post), so the girls and I were unable to go clean bins first thing this morning. So, I woke up and started dealing with beans. I had four batches of beans put down by lunch, we had lunch, I had to go to town to replenish a few supplies (and get Char her kindergarten needles), and then we finally got some of the bins cleaned.

We raced home to make supper (tossed salad and stir fry - can you tell that we have a few too many veggies???), then I started on carrots. Put down another two batches of those, julienned, and pooped out when I saw the zucchini. There is only so much vegetable matter that can be dealt with in a day before the cook turns into a vegetable herself.

The craziest thing is, I'm not alone. I seem to be reading articles alluding to a rise in home processing. Whether people are scared of BPA in cans, are thinking that home canned food is cheaper (it isn't, in my estimation), are on the hundred mile diet, are concerned about synthetic preservatives, etc. - whatever the reason, people are starting to process their own food again.

They're nuts. I already know I am, but I process my garden veggies to spoil my husband. And, because somewhere, somehow, I inherited the "I can't waste food" gene. It hasn't translated into having to eat everything on my kids' plates, it has translated into having to put down every possible vegetable and fruit I can grow.

So, while I dream of what I can turn my zucchini into and think of creative ways to serve the row of lettuce that will not die, I can take some solace in the fact that now, more than ever, someone else out there will understand.

I just hope I never meet that crazy person!