Fall Colors and Last Tomatoes
We just finished a driving vacation through Kansas, Missouri, Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota, South Dakota, and Nebraska. We hadn’t taken a vacation in years and we just drove to enjoy the scenery and visit family along the way.
The tree color was gorgeous up north, and we marveled at the difference of farms and crops between the states. Iowa had rolling hills of drying corn, with white barns and houses in the farmsteads. Driving across other states showed us flat land, red barns, and soybeans.
I’ve always wondered why settlers decided “this is it” and stopped to build a homestead on a certain place. The influence from their homelands can be seen centuries later.
And the next day we got home, we had our first snow of the season. I was glad I was home so I could pick the last of the tomatoes and peppers from my garden. If I was a pioneer I’d really treasure the last 100+ tomatoes I picked green. Think how many meals that would serve a family when you had no source of food except what you could grow.
I placed the tomatoes on trays and put them down in the basement to ripen over time. I’ll enjoy my summer tomatoes past Thanksgiving, and remember the weather then too.