I’m Vanese Ferguson with Coffee Talk.  My kitchen and dining room looking like a wrecking zone these days.  My tub with a bunch of my canning stuff, the canner, bowls of green tomatoes, multiple pots, almost ripe tomatoes, really ripe tomatoes, the special spout I use, the mandolin to slice up tomatoes and onion for chow which is green tomato relish. I know I can put tomatoes in the freezer and get back to them later.  But really once I’m in it, I just want it done.  I try and cook all my salsa, the green tomato relish, and cooked down all my tomatoes by the end of September. I don’t want to be hauling all that stuff out again later in the year.  My husband asked me yesterday if I was going to relax at all.  Um. No.  Canning waits for no one.  And the thing I love about the prairies – I ascribe this to living on the prairies but I’m sure it takes place elsewhere – is the exchange of goodies.  A couple of jars of salsa for some dill pickles, here’s some marinara sauce for raspberry jam.  Maybe some green tomato relish for pickled beets. It’s good to make things with your hands, it’s good that someone else enjoys it.  It’s a good time of year.