Tomato Sauce

September 5th.

The tomatoes are pretty much done for the year, it seems. We have very few new blossoms, and while we have a few ripe ones coming in, it is not enough to be worth saving, and we need to clear freezer space so we can start collecting apples for cidering in a month (save the date, October 18th, the Third Annual Three Hearts Farm Ciderfest!).

So it is time to take all the tomatoes we have stored up so far and get them out of the freezer and into jars.

We had saved some 50 Lbs of tomatoes so far.

We brought them home on a Thursday afternoon.

And let them thaw in the garage overnight. This was the same day that Ellie had her tonsils out so that’s all we had time for that day.

Daddy had to work on Friday, so Mommy was on her own with the kids trying to get the sauce made. This is a fairly straightforward process, but when one of the children is ouchie and the other three are… well… children, it can take a while. She roasted some garlic and then tossed it in the pot with the tomatoes and some herbs, and stewed the lot until the tomatoes were falling apart and the garlic was mush.

Then she started putting it through the squeezo, which crushes the tomatoes, extracting the juice into a bowl, and extruding the pulp and seeds into a different bowl. Unfortunately, Mommy had a homeschool meeting that night before Daddy got home from work, so Uncle Adam came over to watch the kids, and he cranked the squeezo for about an hour until Daddy got home. Oh yeah, this was also the day Daddy threw his back out picking Ellie up out of the bottom bunk for her morning meds, so he couldn’t stand up straight all day. But anyway, Daddy finished the squeezo-ing and cleaned up the kitchen, mostly.

After the juice is extracted we put it in our old-faithful turkey roaster. It didn’t all fit on Friday night, so we put about 6 quarts of juice in the fridge. By Saturday morning enough had simmered down that we could add the rest.

Saturday the 6th was a drill weekend, so Daddy got his uniform on (somewhat stiffly) and went off to Guard the Nation. Mommy had her hands full with Ellie who was hungry and hangry, but was also throwing up all over the sores in her throat from where her tonsils and adenoids had been. Daddy got permission to drill from home, and got some medicine for her.

Once there was another adult in the house, albeit one who still had to work on National Guard stuff, Mommy was able to get multiple rounds of jars of sauce through the canner.

Oh yeah, and make lunch. What, did you think the other three took a break from eating too?

By mid afternoon after some more meds, and a little pudding, Ellie was feeling a little better. Not enough to get up and about, but enough to do a little kettlebell workout.

13 pints and 15 half pints of sauce.

One heck of a weekend.