The 2010 Salsa Season Draws to A Close

Well, it seems like the 2010 Salsa season is coming to a close.

With the nights getting cooler (44 degrees tonight) and the days getting shorter (dark by 8:00 PM) I harvested the latest batch tomatoes on Saturday, removed all the green tomatoes, and cut the plants back to the minimum branches to pump all the juice we can into the remaining tomatoes in anticipation of a final Salsa Session this Saturday.

Deep in the Side Street Salsa Garden going after the ripe tomatoes.

Taking a break while working the fields...

The crisper is almost full of tomatoes which is actually more than we had when we cooked up the first two batches two weeks ago so this could be a bountiful harvest after all. With 20 pints already put up, it'd be great if we could get 30 pints out of what we already have and what we'll pick this coming Saturday morning. We're having warm days with lots of sun which is good.

Lord willing, the last few tomatoes on the plants will ripen and be ready for the salsa pot by Saturday!

We will need to buy all the additional fixings except banana peppers. We still have a bunch of those, but as far as jalapenos, onions, cilantro, and bell peppers...we'll need to depend on the local grocer.

If you think of us this Saturday, you know where we'll be-- hard at work processing the final batches of Karen's Side Street Salsa for 2010. We'll keep you posted on the final pint count.

Preparing People for Worldwide Mission Service

As HR Director for MMS, I focus on the "preparing people" side of MMS' purpose statement: "MMS Aviation prepares people and planes for worldwide mission service. " Karen works closely with me through each evaluation and orientation.

In July, Karen and I oversaw a candidate evaluation of a family from South Carolina.

August 22-25 we oversaw the candidate evaluation of Geoff & Celia Linkleter. The Linketer's have a 3 year old daughter, Miriam. They're from England and are coming over as part of our training partnership with Mission Aviation Fellowship, United Kingdom. They did well through the evaluation and we accepted them for service.

Celia, Jeff, and Miram Linkleter.

Here's Karen keeping Miram company in the MMS conference room while Geoff and Celia underwent their final interview with the MMS Selection Committee (of which I'm part).

Once we finished with the Linkleters, the next week we rolled right into a special candidate orientation for a family entering service with Harvest Aviation down in Wachula, Florida. Seth, Lizzy, and Levi Canady came up to MMS from North Carolina. Harvest is a small mission (staffed with several MMS graduates!) and asked if we'd be willing to help them by taking the Canadys through our three-day support development seminar. We were glad to do so. Karen and I have done this for several smaller missions over the past few years.

This also provided Karen with some "infant time" as Levi Canady was only five weeks old! With Karen's background as an RN in obstetrics, this was right down her alley.

Karen and Levi in the receipting room at MMS.

During orientation: Lizzy, Seth, and Laurie (seated), Karen w/Levi, and me standing.

Laurie is a new addition to our orientation team. She's married to one of our staff and has a background in public speaking, story telling, and making presentations. She and I are working together to expand our orientation and help our candidates better learn the skills they need to effectively share the story of how God is working in their lives.

Now we're preparing for another candidate evaluation this month! The Wissmann family arrives for evaluation September 13-18. It looks like Karen might get some more infant time during orientation!

The Wissmann Family

Thanks for your prayers and gifts as we work with these young families to: 1) discern whether MMS is where they are to serve, and 2) to then orient them to begin raising their financial support.

The Ford Aspire Has Been Replaced!

Many of you were aware my little 1995 Ford Aspire had seen better days. We'd saved up a decent amount toward a dependable used car but in researching the market and determining an appropriate car, discovered that what we thought was a decent amount was about half of what we'd actually need. Just when we'd accepted the fact that we'd need to nurse the Aspire along for another year or two, a donor contacted us and gave a gift enabling us to have a local dealer (who specializes in finding cars for missionaries) begin looking for the right car at wholesale auctions.

Three months later the Lord provided the right car, at the right price, inside our budget! Special thanks to the special donor who helped met our need for dependable, long-term transportation! We continue to praise the Lord for His perfect timing in providing this car.

It's a 2008 Hyundai Hatchback with 24,000 miles on it. It's totally clean and has a bit more zip than the old Aspire. There's an amazing amount of room inside this little car. It's a 5 speed standard transmission with roll-up windows and manual door locks. I LOVE roll-up windows and manual door locks...and it's still under factory warranty for another three years!

I expect to be driving this car through 2025!

First Batch of Salsa in 2010

Things have been rather busy around 368 McClain these past few days. Let's get you caught up on the salsa story. Last Saturday's blog featured getting ready to make the first salsa batch of 2010. A week later we're just getting around to posting the pictures!

It wasn't a huge batch, only twenty pints all together but it's still TWENTY pints (which works out to about twenty weeks of salsa as I typically eat a jar a week). When cooking up the first eight pints we added 1/4 cup of finely chopped cilantro. The second eight we played it straight. The third batch we had more fixings than tomatoes (bell peppers, banana peppers, onions, and jalapenos) and so ran the four pints with half the tomatoes but the full complement of fixings and added a half tbsp of basil. Ever tried Italian salsa? That's kind of what the basil batch tastes like. It might make a very interesting pizza topping...

The raw materials of Batch A in the pot and on the stove.

The salsa kitchen with resident chili chopper and Cocker Salsa Cops.

Quality Control

Karen canning the salsa

Lord willing we're going to eke out another salsa session before the vines go bad and the weather goes cool. It's going to be close...it'd sure be nice to get another 20 pints put away.

Stay tuned to the blog. I hope to get everything caught up here over the next few days.