While I’ve been pulling in Costata Romanesco summer squash for a month now, along with harvesting lettuce and lots of asparagus (which I also canned up), our main gardens’ first big harvest is tomatoes. Yesterday I went out and picked several containers full of various tomatoes. Wow, there are so many! I was surprised as our season has been a little late due to the set-back from all the rain earlier in the year.
Not to waste these luscious tomatoes, which I carefully seeded out, I cut them to remove the stem and any rough scars, meaning to save them for sauce to can. It took longer than I’d planned but by evening I had a nice kettle full, along with lots of cups and jars with labeled tomato seeds, fermenting on the kitchen counter. I usually run them through my Victorio tomato strainer to remove the skins, but it was late. So, I tossed them in my Ninja blender, one batch at a time and whizzed them up, skins and all. I’ve done this many times, especially with salsa and found it results in a nice product.
The puree, I dumped in a turkey roasting pan and added a few spices and lemon juice to make sure the acidity was fine. I put it in the oven all night at 200 F, with the door cracked a little to release steam. This morning, it was nicely cooked down and thick.
Today, I’m canning up the sauce. It isn’t as much as I usually do when I’m really canning. But it’s great to know I didn’t waste those tomatoes! Right now, there aren’t enough tomatoes to both save seeds and can — this is a nice compromise. While I’m waiting for the tomato sauce to process, I’m relaxing and looking out the window at our lily bed in the backyard. Wow, those lilies just don’t quit! I’m so glad I planted a few, here and there. Now, they’ve multiplied and look awesome.
— Jackie
Your flowers are beautiful . I pray that God blesses you with a great harvest this year .
He always does! He’s our gardening parther for sure.
2weeks ago-sauerkraut, last week first batch of tomatoes, today applesauce /busy, busy time of the year. Can you notice any tomato skins in your puréed sauce? Cool here today like early fall. I dug 2 rows of potatoes -average crop. My garden is not as good as usual but there will be enough. The green beans produced copiously with the excessive rain. The East Coast is being hammered by torrential rain/there goes electricity, grocery store and travel. Most home kitchens have 2-3 days of food at the most. I hope they can “weather” the storm.
I hope they’ve been wise to prep. Otherwise, there’s going to be a big problem, especially in the near future.
We’re getting busy here, too. No, you don’t notice the tomato skins a bit. I thought you would, but not so. No change in taste and the puree is thicker than when run through the Victorio strainer.
Our garden, also, is far from what it usually is, due to all the crazy weather. But it is doing better than we expected. Some crops are not so hot where others, like tomatoes, potatoes, peppers and melons are thriving.
If more folks would take being prepared seriously, they wouldn’t suffer when things go bad. So easy, but everyone seems to equate being prepared with crazy people. Pretty sad. Everyone thinks “be prepared” is fine for the Boy Scouts…..
Because doomsday prepping (previously it was Y2K) is the first thing that comes to peoples’ minds when you say prepping. EMPs, “government coming to take “, “immigrants” overtaking our country blah blah blah.
Perhaps we should come up with a new word besides prepping. I’m going to think on that on.
Good way to can small amounts for the sauce. I will try to remember this. Besides salt, what spices did you use, please?
I added a little garlic and onion powder plus basil. Not much but just a little of each as it was such a small amount.
When I was a child, our family would go out every fall to harvest hickory and black walnuts along the roadside, way out in the country, north of Detroit, where we lived. We brough back burlap sacks full, then spent winter husking/cracking them and picking out the nutmeats. Fond memories. I have one black walnut in the backyard I planted as a nut, 15 years ago. This spring, it started to put on nuts but they were flushed off by the torrential rain we got. I was so excited as it was going to be our first crop from a Zone 4 tree, here in Zone 3.
In my book, nothing wrong with tomato skins “whizzed” up. Far more nutritious than numerous other “foods” you can buy. Sounds like harvest season has taken a big stop towards being full swing.
We’ll get down to the high 40s one night this week and in true, school-has-started-fashion, a nice hot streak starts on Saturday. Looks to only last a few days but we’ll see what the humidity is like. Half the asparagus has now turned brown. Weeds aren’t too bad (knock on wood) but a bumper year of hickory nuts. I need to pick them up – again – as it is like walking on marbles/ball bearings. Need to get my posterior out early this Saturday a) before it gets too hot and b) while most of the area is in the shade.
And with heavy heart, I have proclaimed the zucchini plant done for the season. After a rocky start due to too much rain, it and the yellow squash rallied to provide a harvest. The late zucchini plant survived and thrived a bit longer than its companion yellow. Both provided tasty fruit and we look forward to seeing them again next year.