I love the night life...

Ok, raise your hand if you now have that song stuck in your head.  Good. I'm not the only one.

Anyhooo....yeah...lovin' the night life.  The canning night life, that is.  *Nods* Oh yeah...Country Wife knows how to par-tay. :)

The sneaky raccoon that has been in the corn (Did I mention he'd been in the corn? I can't remember.) has moved on to tomatoes.  Not only does he pick each ear of corn as it hits that perfectly ripe stage, he only likes those lusciously ripe tomatoes.  He's elusive; I've been looking for him for a while, armed and ready to take him down (that no-good-corn-thievin'-'mater-eatin'-masked-ball-of-fur), and he consistently avoids the live trap.  To stay ahead of the game, I've started harvesting the tomatoes just short of ripe.  Thursday, I finally had enough ripe ones to make my first batch of salsa.

Mornings are busy here, so it's always afternoon by the time I start canning.  Thursday, being the first batch of the season, of course took a lot longer than normal.  I had to make room to set up my folding table (taken out of storage and scrubbed the day before, thank goodness, or I'd still be in there on the first batch of salsa.)  I had to remember how to assemble the Roma food mill.  I also had to remember where I'd put all of my canning paraphernalia, and how to use it.  Yeah, I should be able to do this stuff in my sleep by now, and in fact I think I did, since I was up so late.  However, it does amaze me that I forget so much from one season to the next.   Then again, I'm old enough to remember the lyrics to "I Love The Night Life", so maybe I'm just senile. ha. (Ironic, isn't it? I can remember that song, but I can't remember where I put my...um...my...what was I looking for?)

So, true to the post title, I was up pretty late finishing up the salsa and cleaning up. (Wow, I used "up" three times in that sentence!)  I made 18 - 8oz jars.  I think it was after 2 a.m. before I sat down for a snack of leftover salsa and chips.

I love the night life. I got to boogie....

OMG I will never get that song out of my head!!

I almost forgot to mention my ground cherries!  I'd never grown them before, but I'd had some from a local market and liked them fairly well.  I bought 5 plants from a fellow homesteader, thinking I'd have at least enough to snack on.  Wow. I had no idea they were such prolific producers! I'm going to try dehydrating the ones pictured.  Then maybe I'll make some jam from the next picking.

I was pleased with the flavor of our homegrown ground cherries.  They are much tastier than the ones I purchased.  If you've never grown them, but are thinking of giving it a shot, you should know that unripe fruit, leaves, stems, etc, are TOXIC!  Ground cherries are in the nightshade family.

Ripe fruit falls from the plant and has a dry, papery husk. The fruit inside the husk is yellow.  If you have ever tasted star fruit, it's pretty similar.  I can't wait to try them dehydrated.

And now it's past 1 a.m., so I'm off to bed.  I will not hum that song again.  Must. Not. Boogie.

***Boogies off to bed***