No dreams and a solid sleep last night, thank goodness. And now it's Friday, and my thoughts are turning toward the kitchen. Yesterday I brought home twenty pounds of canning tomatoes, so today is sauce day: chopping up and cooking down piles of tomatoes, peppers, onions, and herbs; grinding the softened vegetables through the hand mill; then simmering the puree with a knob of butter and a pinch of sugar until it starts to thicken. It will be an all-day affair, though with plenty of space for me to work at my desk, toss firewood, even wander down to the bookstore and choose a couple of treats for my long train trip.

In Harmony I usually had to buy tomatoes in bulk if I wanted to preserve anything for the winter. My garden just didn't get enough late-summer sun, and the growing season was so short. Here, I could grow enough on my own, but I was still mostly ripening them in the house: sauce was always a late-September task.

Now that I've reduced my vegetable plots, I'm back to relying on bulk field crops, and that is just fine. These tomatoes are cheap, gorgeous, and organic; the peppers and herbs are from my own overflowing plants; and I'll have to break down and buy grocery-store onions, but oh well. For a non-Italian I'm a pretty good Italian cook. This evening I'll be packing the freezer with divine homemade sauce, and what could be better? Drop by for some ziti, why don't you?