Tomatoes, tomatoes, and more tomatoes...

Thursday was such a gorgeous day with a lovely breeze and warm sunshine.  We decided we just couldn't waste such a beautiful day inside doing schoolwork... so the children and I decided to make it a 'field trip' day.  We drove to Hunsader Farm in Bradenton to pick tomatoes.  In less than two hours we picked 175 pounds of beautiful red tomatoes and we only paid $7.00! 

Big beautiful juicy tomatoes!

Here they are completely filling the back of the Mazda!

These are the hands that did all the work...    look at the dirt!

After work, then comes play!  We enjoyed looking around the farmer's market and the country store, then we met up with the Mendez family and spent an hour or so petting the animals in the petting zoo... goats, geese, a donkey, llama, emu, chickens and roosters, peacock and pea hen, a bunny, a deer, a duck, two pot-belly pigs, horses...  the children had a great time!

  This goat was very pregnant. We could touch her side and feel the baby moving! So cool!! 

Oh, you want to know what happened to all those gorgeous tomatoes?  We shared them with friends and neighbors.  We have enough left over to dehydrate a few, have BLT's for lunch, make some fresh salsa, and I want to try my hand at making freezer tomato sauce.  If it turns out well, I want to pick more tomatoes this coming week to make more sauce!  I'll let you know how it goes!!

Have a wonderful weekend and a lovely Mother's Day!

Diona