Saturday, August 27, 2011

What I Got From a Bushel of Tomatoes


This is a bushel of tomatoes, folks. In my urban shopping cart.  Two boxes, $7 each this year (it varies from $4-8, depending on the growing year).  

I fetched the tomatoes from market early one morning, came home and fed my family breakfast, then went back to do the regular market shopping with Ben in tow, his eye on treats from the standholders.  I did not can tomatoes that day, in case you wondered.

First, pizza sauce from the Simply in Season recipe.  I do not bother to peel the tomatoes - just whiz them in the food processor.


Now, after a few hours of simmering, the sauce is richer and darker.  A friend stopped by in the evening to work on our ailing laptop, and sniffed the air so appreciatively. 


Then, I set aside the good part of Thursday to deal with the rest of the tomatoes.  First I made salsa, again using a Simply in Season recipe.  I think that for the fourth year in a row, I still did not add enough hot peppers.  Hot peppers are just so darn unpredictable!

Then the remaining tomatoes were peeled and canned as whole tomatoes - just cored, peeled, and smushed down in jars.  Ben, age 3, washed and fetched all the tomatoes for me.  Genevieve, almost 6 years old, peeled many of the tomatoes!  I dunked them in the boiling water, then in the cool dishpan water.  She fished them out and peeled them with her fingers.   Wonderful children.


From a bushel of tomatoes, I got:

12 pints pizza sauce
11 pints salsa
16 quarts whole tomatoes

And now, the final things on my 2011 canning list are apple chutney (also from Simply in Season) and applesauce.  Welcome, autumn!






8 comments:

Jennifer Jo said...

You wrote that so prettily that I almost wish I had more canning to do! (Which I do, but not much.)

Unknown said...

I did 19 quarts of corn (110 ears) yesterday. Today I have just a peck of peaches I'll can in a light honey syrup. I haven't started with the tomatoes yet!

Margo said...

JJ, based on reading your blog, I would be so burned out on canning if I was in your shoes!

Eva, so I did the math: you did about 9 dozen ears of corn. I like knowing how much the bulk will yield in finished product. I just did 6 dozen ears.

Deanna Beth said...

I'd say that's a lot from a bushel. I'm never sure how much I am getting when I pick at my father's/my garden. I put them in five gallon buckets, mostly, as long as those hold out. The picking is tapering off now... But picked our first watermelon - the tendril was brown and dry - the wive's tale tells us it will be good.

Christian - Modobject@Home said...

You're Wonder Woman... that's all I have to say about it. Good mama, puttin' those babies to work.

Sarah Barry said...

Boy do I love a tomato!
It would give me the biggest thrill to do this sometime.

Homemade pizza sauce ---- yum yum YUM!

BLD in MT said...

Hooray for tomatoes! We are not yet to the stage of canning them yet, but soon enough! Your sauce looks so yummy I wish I had some right now! But, I will patiently wait for my own....I suppose... : )

Leila said...

I loved the days when I used a grocery cart like that! I had my stroller, my dog, and my cart! Off to the store we went. Now I live where I have to drive :(
But I still wish I had a cart like that.