Bucksnort Tomatoes

The summer is winding down and we haven't had much adventure.  But we did make it to Bucksnort, TN.  

It's a world famous place!  There is even a song: Bucksnort, TN - Trailer Trash Tremblers.

We've been stopping at this exit since I was a kid, but this time was different.  They had souvenirs.  I asked the kids what we should buy in Bucksnort and without hesitation I hear, "Buck snot."  FYI, they don't sell that.

The nice Bucksnortian behind the counter (Turns out they call themselves "Bucksnorters.") pointed us to the rest-room, don't flush, and rang us up for four mugs and a camouflaged hat.  That's when I saw them...

On the windowsill, for sale.  Big, red, flawless tomatoes.  The very kind that deflate my self-esteem when people post them on the internet.  Worse yet, in real life so I couldn't sooth my ego by accusing the grower of photoshopping.

When I walk into an underutilized room, my mind starts rearranging it and tweaking (or installing) color schemes.  While I mentally decorated the Bucksnort gas station, I thought of my slacker tomatoes.  They will never look like Bucksnort tomatoes because they don't have a windowsill.  No lie.  And because the Bucksnortian who grew these obviously is a better gardener than me.

Then I heard the helpful Bucksnortian tell the person on the phone that the only chore for the day was to fix the baler.  It all became clear: these were farm tomatoes.  Grown with the mystical farm methods of grocery store tomatoes.  Ego restored.

What my tomatoes lack in size and appearance, they make up for in numbers. You may have noticed my lack of blog posts recently.  It wasn't all about the tomatoes, but they sure were a contributor.  I have 5 gallons of tomato sauce in my freezer.  I even had to sacrifice some strawberries to fit it in and I am really regretting it.

So things have changed in the tomato processing system.  It started yesterday and now I'm writing again!  The sauce is getting cooked.  Great idea on the part of my mother to cook it all down before I freeze it.  What was a gallon of sauce with a clove of garlic two days ago fit into a quart yesterday.  And it is essentially finished for whatever I'm going to make later.  We even ate it as marinara yesterday over the ravioli that had to leave the freezer.  It was really good.  The last time I saw the neighbor kid eat that fast he was still in a high chair!  One of my guys had seconds after a very large firsts.

Hats off to Mom!  But I'm still not cooking down the strawberries.