The End of Summer

I know, by the title of this post, you must be wondering what is going on. The end of summer in December? I actually ripped out all of our gardens in November and, as a result, picked a HUGE bushel of green tomatoes off of our four plants before pulling them out of the ground (do you like how I had a reason to use the word "bushel?'). Anyways, over the past several weeks, I have slowly been using up this massive crop of tomatoes a little at a time. Whenever a green one would start to ripen and turn orange, into the house it would go from the garage. When I would have enough red ones, I would then make a huge batch of salsa that we would then eat over the next two weeks. At that point, a whole new batch of tomatoes had ripened and I would make the salsa all over again! Well, yesterday, I officially used up my last ones for a family Christmas party we had at my aunt's and uncle's house. Pretty amazing considering it is December! However, I'm actually a little relieved as I have been juggling large amounts of tomatoes for many months now and am ready for a break and ready to have the space back on my counter top. But, I must say that I am a little annoyed at the thought of having to pay for tomatoes for the first time in FIVE months! Geez.

What I started with...

What I ended with...