Tomato Photo Post

The end of the summer has brought us the final harvests of tomatoes.  On this difficult tomato-growing year, with cold temperatures that held off ripening until late, we are trying to use up all of the tomatoes the earth graces us with.  Here are a few photos of our last spaghetti sauce making day on Hawk's Hill.

 A bounty of tomatoes gets blanched first:

Then run through a "Tomatopresse" from Italy that I got at a rummage sale.  It works wonders, pouring out tomato puree through one fount and seeds and peels from another spout.

David runs the Tomatopresse while I cook.

Cooking down the tomato juice into thicker sauce, stirring, stirring seemingly forever.

Chopping up onions, sweet peppers and garlic -- all homegrown.

We mixed in heirloom Paul Robeson, Rose de Berne, Brandywine and other flavorful slicing tomatoes with the Orange Banana, Vilms and Amish Paste tomatoes to make the sauce, and used Red Tropea (an Italian Heirloom) as well as Candy (sweet) and Copra (pungent) onions.  I had chopped and frozen basil in olive oil, so it was easy to incorporate into the sauce with the onions and peppers.

Red and green sweet bell and frying peppers like Carmen and Odessa Market (a Ukrainian Heirloom) Peppers

We pressure canned the finished sauce, and tucked it away on the canning shelf.

A small picking of tomatoes yielded tomato juice for winter soups.

Hope you are tucking away good foods for winter, and enjoying the sun while it shines!
Betsy