A deal with Steph

When I was in Tremonton the first time, I scoped out tomatoes. One place I could get tomatoes for $10 a bushel if I pick them myself. I picked just a dozen tomatoes to eat and realized that I would have a rough go of it if I had to pick a couple bushels of tomatoes. My next quest was to see how much it would cost for pre-picked tomatoes. The first place I stopped had them for $12.50 for half a bushel!! I don't think so. I went to another place. $11 you pick or $21 they pick. I'm cheap enough that I will wipe myself out to save 20 bucks. Besides, that would buy a basket of peaches. But alas, I had another plan. I called Steph. The tricky part is that Steph doesn't like tomatoes so I would have to make her a good offer. Here's the deal we made. She could visit with Rachel and Becky and I would also take her to the fruit stand for fresh peaches, etc. She also got a fresh peach shake from Peach City. I think she made out pretty darn good. The problem was that Steph got ALL her pay-off before she picked one tomato. Steph was good to her word and we got about 3 bushels. Steph convinced me that I need to make her and Dan some salsa.

Yes, there is a funny story to go with the tomato picking. I drove about half way up the field and then decided to go all the way to the end and go across to the next roadway. I knew there were furrows going across there, but didn't think that would be a big problem. We started bouncing across the furrows. I was going slow to not bounce too much, I didn't want to have tomato juice. I got stuck between the furrows. It took me a few tries to get out. When I got going, I went faster. BOUNCEY. BOUNCEY. BOUNCEY.  I guess it would have worked better if my car were 4-wheel drive.

I canned a couple dozen pints of peaches Saturday. Today I did 17 quarts of tomato juice. That barely dented my tomato supply. Tomato juice and salsa all week.

On my way home, I was able to meet the famous little Ellie. What a cutie she is. She is such a cute and patient little thing. She let me hold her for 15-20 min and then she decided that she had had enough and started crying. Of course she was fine as soon as she was safely with mom again.