Amazing Soto Softies!

I would just like to share with you the amazing work of Maritza of Soto Softies - I am lucky enough to be the proud owner of Bojangles the Bat and Mitsui the Mouse - both of her original creations - she's one of my favorite softie artists and has even more amazing stuff on her blog http://sotosofties.blogspot.com/ or you can check out her one of a kind art at her etsy shop - I promise you won't be disappointed!

Thank you Maritza! I absolutely LOVE them!

xo - nikki

Look who we found in the garden ...

... and look how well he blends right in - G did a great job of spotting him in the first place!

Hundreds of Wee Tomatoes

It began with the purchase of some organic seeds which little G and I planted in indoor greenhouses and watched grow into tiny seedlings. Mr. Mungee then planted them into our garden patch along with some heritage and field tomatoes and over the hot summer we weeded, and watered and tended them ... until they actually bent their metal tomatoe cages and grew over their bamboo supports! (Really it was a fantastic year for growing tomatoes - last year I only yielded a total of 4 field ones!)

Then with the impending threat of frost on the horizon, this last Monday little G and I ventured into our humble garden and harvested all the wee rich, sweet, tasty round globes of red that we could find in the now rather tangled richness of the tomatoe patch. Munching contently as we went we still walked into the house with hundreds of lovely cherry tomatoes which were then spread across the entire breadth of our kitchen counters. Having already snacked throughout the summer on our little tomatoe bounty and loving their sweet taste, I still realized that there was no way that we could make it through counters of them before they went bad so ...

Tuesday little G and I stepped head on into the world of canning! Now who would can such wee little tomatoes? Has anyone ever done it before? But still in the face of absolutely no knowledge we plunged in and combined some filtered water, a bit of sea salt, some organic basil from the garden and a tsp or two of cane sugar and began pulling little spidery leafy tops off and plopping them into the biggest pot we owned. Some time after boiling and simmering (and the house smelling absolutely amazing with the sweet scent of cherry tomatoes!) I then scooped the red juicyness into our prepared Mason jars to reveal a whopping canned amount of ...

3 quarts and a bit!! Our journey that began in April with the purchase of organic seeds had now ended in the end of September with a total of 3 canned jars of wee tomatoes! (Perhaps this is why cherry tomatoes aren't usually first on the list for canning!) Still I felt rather chuffed with myself and the family for all our hard work and I know that in a spaghetti sauce or even a sweet tomatoe soup base we will relish our little wee tomatoes in the heart of the cold, snowy Canadian winter.

Though perhaps next year I will be growing a slightly larger variety! ;)

Hope all your harvest events are spectacular! xo - nikki