Yard Poor and Canning Rich

There, I did it.  I revealed the soft, white underbelly of my existence:  my hideously over grown, under cared for garden.  I feel better now.

My neighbor (rest his soul) is not here to stroll over and scrutinize my yard, pointing out this or that weed  as I nod and clench my teeth into a fake smile.  Back before he passed away, I feared his judgement and kept things somewhat respectable... and now well, you can see what happens when the house next door is empty and your side yard is out of public view.  It's not very Yankee of me, I know, but I had to show it to someone.  I needed you to know.

It's remarkable that a garden this ramshackle can produce these.

They're not that pretty, but I have been canning up these tomatoes none the less.  In past years I have been much more productive with the farm wife kitchen persona.  This year ,so far, I have made sauce (which may or may not be worth the effort the way I'm doing it with a food mill).  http://www.foodinjars.com/   appears to be a pretty good blog about canning, if you want to dabble in putting up your crops.  I tend to use the Ball Blue Book of Canning a lot ( an unfortunate name, I know).

Here's a shot of why I'm procrastinating the salsa I need to get started on.

Our 1937 Estate Fresh Air Oven stove appears charming, but it's bordering on useless.  You can see that the burners are crowded on the left and that's all  the room you have to use the big boy for canning jars.   Forget about making supper (note: I did not say dinner) while you process your jars.

As far as the expression, "yard poor" goes, it's based on something my sister used to say when she lived in L.A. (not to be confused with Lewiston/Auburn).  I would visit her and she would drive me around places like West Hollywood and point out how all these young professionals would be living three people to a cramped apartment, yet they would still have shiny, black Porches parked outside of the building.  "They're car poor.  It's all about status." she told me.

Diminutive Lawn Adornment

 I feel the same way when I drive down the road perpendicular to ours.  There are three families living in double wides right next to each other.  Manicured doesn't begin to describe the spectacle of their adjacent lawns.  It looks like each one has laid out astroturf and cut in kidney shaped, cedar mulched swimming pools as gardens.  There are flowers that grow in rounds like a constant, choreographed fireworks display all summer long.  Right now there is a well orchestrated round of sedums and mums, arranged like wall paper with borders.  One of the lawns sports a series of deer statuettes that lead to a small pond in descending order of size.  The tiniest fawn appears to be sipping from the man made water source; perhaps gazing at its own reflection?  The only thing that comes to mind when I take all of this in on my way to the town store for pizza is, "I would rather spend my time dipping shingles.  At least I'm not yard poor." Hence my heinous excuse for a garden.

See you tomorrow for a freshman take on sports.