Community Supported Agriculture: Tomatoes

This summer we joined a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) which means we have been enjoying some wonderful local, organic seasonal produce. I have had fingerling potatoes as well as blue potatoes for the first time and found myself getting creative with ways to use turnips.

When we acquired a ton of delicious tomatoes in different varieties, I excitedly started brainstorming ways to use them up. I have always wanted to make homemade fresh tomato sauce and figured what better time then now! So, I perused the internet and found there are 3 basic types of sauce (although leave me a comment if I am wrong!). The first is the long simmering variety, the second is the barely-cooked and the third is uncooked. I decided to go with the barely-cooked.

I used another blogger’s delicious sauce recipe and I was not disappointed. The recipe says it can be done in 15 minutes but, well, I’m extremely slow and in no way was I done in 15 minutes. I would definitely make this recipe again. It had a very fresh, summery taste and was perfectly easy for a first time homemade sauce maker like myself. I plan on trying a long simmering sauce next.

I still had plenty of tomatoes left so I tackled homemade salsa next. My mom came over and we started adding ingredients to the food processor, not really knowing what we were doing. We made a peach and mango salsa along with a regular salsa. We threw in some other CSA veggies like jalapeños and onions (yellow and white) along with a bunch of other stuff. Lemon and lime juice, peaches, honey mango, green and red onions, green bell pepper, garlic, honey, olive oil, white vinegar and sherry cooking wine were all throw in to one or both of the salsas. We were pleased with the results!

We also enjoyed our tomatoes in tomato basil quiche, tomato pie and bruschetta.

What are your favorite tomato recipes?

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The Ministry of Motherhood: Book Review

I attended a study group on the book The Ministry of Motherhood and have found it to be a wonderful book on parenting biblically, using the way Jesus treated his disciples as our example. The book consists of 5 gifts we can give to our children: The Gift of Grace, The Gift of Inspiration, The Gift of Faith, The Gift of Training and The Gift of Service. Some of these sections were more helpful than others but I was able to glean something from each.

Each section starts off with a story taken from the scripture of Jesus with his disciples and then goes on to show us how we can model this same type of discipleship in our children.

One of the things I really liked about the book was causing me to think of motherhood as my ministry and that everything I do every day, even the mundane, is part of that ministry. I can make even folding laundry a teaching opportunity for my daughter.