recipe for jarred tomatoes

I wouldn't try it if I didn't have a clue. It takes over 100 tomatoe plants to feed our hungry family each year and a whole summer of garden work to grow them. Making jarred tomatoes is an art and its hard to replicate the seasoned masters. Happy to play helper, we gathered at nonna and nonno's house to get the job done. There are a few things you really need for a task like this. They include:

1. a sleeping baby

2. a cool, crispy morning and a willing crew

3. one bossy nonna

4. a good enough reason to take a break that will satisfy the bossy nonna

 5. tomatoes.... lots and lots of tomatoes

6. over 170 years of combined experience,

 7. fresh basil, salt, an arsenal of mason jars and a hot fire

and VOILA! ... an Italian staple to get us through the winter.

next up.... vino!

and then there were three...

The path to Atilla took us on a winding camino through Canada. Laci and I talked a lot about the Atilla of our imaginations and wondered when two would become three.

We summoned the auroras, made our wish,...

...and what we imagined came to us. 

Waiting for baba seemed like an eternity. Then, ten days early, as if to heed the impatient tapping of mummy's toes, little Ati became his own.

And then there were three. 

love for every season: spring

 Teresa & Paulo

love for every season: winter

Anthony & Mahasta

love for every season: fall

Pete & Jaclyn

A Roadmap for Tara

...for there is nothing in a caterpillar that tells you it's going to be a butterfly.  ~Buckminster Fuller

Lorne & Hazel

Lorne and Hazel are two of Baker Street's finest gems. That's saying a great deal considering Baker Street is home to a number of exceptional folks - This mid century lane is lined with artists, activists and innovators. If you ever move onto the south end of the street you will surely get a visit from these loving neighbours whose home is teeming with the creative energy and whose doors are always open to visitors.

Just as one is not born but becomes a woman, one is not born but becomes an artist. Lorne and Hazel are artists who have emerged from their own lives with wisdom and light that only art could hope to capture. And their art comes in endless shapes and sizes. 

Lorne is a deep well of innovation, creativity and fearlessness. There is nothing he will not tackle. He's carved a staircase, rebuilt a grandfather clock, painted the landscapes of a morphing Stouffville, engineered his own telescope, written poetry... there is no end to his list of creative work. If you want to see one of Lorne's more recent creations, Sleepy Hollow Golf Course is adorned with a bridge designed and built by Lorne's hands with local stones. 

A visit to their home also reveals Hazel's gifts as an artist. As a writer, weaver, gardener, scrapbooker Hazel shares her passion for celebrating life and expressing the awe and depth of our existence. She writes from a place of humble joyfulness for the full life she has lived thus far. If you hang out around main street you've witnessed Hazel weaving in and out of shops spreading hugs and her particular brand of good cheer.

Lorne and Hazel are simply inspiring. They laugh. They give. They create. They nap in the afternoon and then wake up and do it all again. They are tireless.

Local artist Paul Plett celebrated Lorne's work in a documentary a couple years ago that captured the profound passion Lorne and Hazel both possess for creating, being creative and making sense of life and god as two people who have truly lived many lives. 

Many of their greatest gifts however are invisible but here are a few you can see.