This week with Arlene and Jeff:
..."Hush," Diana said as she gave Jasmine a hug. "You - all of you - are family. And besides, you won't tell us what you need, so we have to guess. In addition, we're eager to help you with the canning."
"With only a few baskets of tomatoes and all of us helping, things should go quickly," Jasmine said. Then, changing the subject and with a smile, "It's time for supper, so while we're fixing it, you guys can do the preliminary washing of the vegetables."
"I ordered a half dozen washtubs, and Ship put them down by the door," Diana said with a grin.
As Jeff and Morales went out with the wolves, "Don't knock doing a little preliminary washing of the vegetables," Jeff quietly said, "it beats the crap out of peeling tomatoes. Been there; done that; don't want to do it again."
Morales stared at Jeff. "You're kidding, right?"
"Nope. If memory serves, you dip them in boiling water, then put them in a cold water bath before pulling the peel off."
Jasmine came out. "After the tomatoes are washed, please cut an 'X' in the bottom before bringing them in," she said with a smile as she handed them paring knives. "Some of us are going to fix sandwiches while the others begin sterilizing the jars and lids and also preparing a boiling water bath to be ready for the tomatoes. We'll dip them for twenty seconds or so in hot water, then immediately put them in an ice-water bath before pulling the peeling off. Oh, yes, you need to core the tomatoes before you bring them in."
As soon as Jasmine was back inside, "This is not…" Morales began before Jeff interrupted him.
"We have the easy job," he assured Morales...
Have a goodun;
Roust