Saturday, September 10, 2011

Still tomato-ing along

With assistance from the girls, 22 pounds of cooked tomatoes along with carrots, celery, and onions were sent through the food strainer. Although this recipe stated that it would make 7 quarts, I actually ended with 9 quarts of vegetable juice. YUM! A bit "richer" flavor than JUST tomato juice for those cold winter days when we make Chili!

Since the large soup pot was used to cook the veggies together and I was still unloading the goods into the food strainer, I used our next largest pot to collect the "puree" as it was coming out of the strainer.....

BOY! It was JUST large enough for the juice of this batch!!!!

We're still going strong; Paul and the girls just headed out to pick up some vinegar so we can try ketchup next.

In the meantime, taking a moment to update y'all while the pizza sauce is simmering (another 6 pounds of tomatoes here). And yet another 6 pounds has already been sent through the strainer, awaiting the ketchup recipe....and that'll be the lot of the tomatoes today.

22 pounds tomatoes -> vegetable juice (9 quarts made)
6 pounds tomatoes -> pizza sauce (which'll make 10 half-pints; enough for 10 pizzas)
6 pounds tomatoes -> ketchup (should be ~ 5 pints)

OH!!!!
I forgot....I also cut up about 2 pounds and those slices are currently in the food dehydrator, along with 2 trays of basil. The house has a YUMMMMMY aroma right now.

so....35-36 pounds of tomatoes used today (so far). I may head out in a bit to pick some more if the ketchup recipe works out. PLUS, the girls already polished off one of my jars of salsa the other day, so I have to make more of that....

Hmm....haven't even gotten to just simply canning whole tomatoes!!! That may happen throughout the week, or next weekend.

10 comments:

scraphappy said...

That is A LOT of tomatoes. YUM

Nancy said...

Holy Tomato Batman!!!!

and you were worried the blight would get them.... can I come live in your house???? :o)

Dee said...

Wow! How many pounds of tomatoes do you predict you'll get this year? You must have an incredibly LARGE pantry. Unfortunately, tomatoes have recently become one of the items I'm not allowed to eat, but I hope you enjoy them all winter long!

Anonymous said...

look @ those window treatments!!!! Took me YEARS to get those made....

Amanda said...

Your tomato plants have been so successful this year, but it's such a lot of work dealing with them. Mine have been a total disaster this year, and we've only managed to get a handful of tomatoes from them. So we've just munched them as we've gone along.

Andee said...

Seriously wishing I was at your place for some of those yummy dinners. I wish I had a garden here but gardening in Arizona is a bit too challenging for me!

Quilter Kathy said...

Wow! That's a lot of work/fun right there! ENjoy!

Judy Laquidara said...

Your post makes me so sad that I'm not canning this year. It all looks so good and I know how tired you must be when bed time rolls around. You're doing a great job!

Judy D in WA said...

Wow, wow and wow! I am so jealous of all your tomatoes and all you've done with them! I don't know if we will get enough from the garden to can but we have enough to eat fresh so I won't complain too loud.
You are going to love the dehydrator. It's so great to grab a jar of something that you put up your self!

Nic said...

Yum. One day I hope to have a nice big veg garden so I too can have this sort of fun, but for now I'm enjoying your tales.
What do you do with the tomato pulp? Or do you mix it back in with the juice when making sauces?
Don't forget to enjoy some of them fresh too.