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Todd's Garden
the spoils of the garden.
Category: Garden @ ECO | Posted: Fri Aug 08, 2008 2:38 am Since I began gardening seriously, 5 years ago, I have aspired to grow enough tomatoes to make a years supply of tomato sauce. The first couple of years I planted tomatoes en masse, figuring quantity would do the trick. Being able to handle 40+ Tomato plants be damned, I was going to have my sauce. I finally learned to narrow down variety, grow the plant for the intended use, space them properly and take care of them!! What a novel idea. This year I planted three varieties, had amended my soil well over the last couple years with organic fertilizers, lime, compost, and cover crops. I grew "San Marzano", a Roma, "Cherokee Purple" my favorite eating variety, and a "Brown Berry" a brown heirloom cherry tomato, I have 16 San Marzano plants, three Brown berry, and three Cherokee . I have had a stellar tomato season. After an early summer hail storm which damaged a few things and slowed a few other things down; the 'maters recovered nicely and flourished. the following photos are of my sauce adventure. my peak harvest yielded about 25 pounds of Romas and about 18 pints of cherry tomatoes. I thought I would photo document the sauce process for fun. Will someone please slap Chef boy'Ardee !!! let's begin with a big harvest. ![]() ![]() and then put on a pot of sauce and let it go....slowly.... gently...... Or, if you have ALOT of tomatoes, you might use two pots ![]() I processed the tomatoes in a blender, skins seeds and all, its all good!! ![]() did i mention low and slow.... ![]() ![]() Ready for the Jars.. ![]() and then to the water bath for a 35 minute process ![]() and voila!!!! ![]() the finished product: ![]() ohh yeah..I almost forgot... here's another good idea when you have fresh tomatoes to slice and basil in the garden. ![]() 25 pounds of tomatoes equaled about 22 qts of pureed tomatoes, which i cooked down by half to make a thick sauce. The Yield was 11 3/4 qts. which with one more harvest should yield me about 22-24 qts. for the season. Mangiare!!! Last edited: Fri Aug 08, 2008 8:05 pm This blog entry has been viewed 750 times
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