Processing— that goes hand-in-hand with our gardening. It takes loads of time and means several hours of standing without sitting very often. The harvests have been building-up in the bowl and fridge for a few days now, in spite of Food Bank gifts and distributions to family, neighbours and friends. Yes, there it is, hanging over our heads— work that needs to be done. We began with the toms. Here are some of them, large and heavy: We take the bit out where the stem and fruit were connected. We also remove any bad places. We were working as swiftly as we could chatting-away talking about the next step. My Bride chuckled and showed me a painter Tom with the sepel showing. As we were talking she saw it out of the corner of her eye and kept trying to pick it out of the plate of Tom slices that would be cooked. What a chuckle that was. as our plates would fill, we took them over to the pans on the stove and dumped them. Once finished, she would turn her attention to the boiling toms and I would begin cleaning and washing-up so that we would not fall behind and have too much stuff standing about, getting in the way. Here is some of the removed bits: After two hours of cooking the consistency was good. I wish you could see the velvety quality of the toms properly. We filled up pots, large and small. Finally we took a fifteen minute break for tea…..but the work was not done, was it. Remember these from yesterday? They also had to be processed and chucked into the freezer. It is time now for the best part— listening for the “TIK” if the lids sucking-in as the pots cool. Mahvelous. It was a great day of processing for the winter. But now, it is going to be spaghetti Bolognaise for supper, and it is going on right NOW!
Gorgeous dishes , set up , and jars and jars of yummy home grown tomato sauce . All looks so delicious. You take a lot of pride in everything you do. When’s supper….
Pac—cheers mate. You are right that I take pride in my gardening…if the extent to which I do this is actually necessary, is debatable. Haha. Never mind it keeps me off the streets and we can eat a year from our harvests. That’s the hobby goal. There is always too much for us, that’s why we give so much away to friends and family…and the Food Bank, of course. S-H— ta. I appreciate your nice exclamation.
Wow, wow ,wow.@sjoerd!!!!! It's beautiful to see the love and dedication you give to your crops/ flowers from the beginning of their life in your allotment follow right through to your kitchen where you and they achieve the ultimate goal....tasty, healthy, additive free and fantastic looking food......savour and enjoy your just rewards .
@Sjoerd very nice harvest and processing! You'll have the taste of summer through the winter. I've been wondering, do you boil those jars of tomato sauce after filling, to preserve them? Do you add an acid, like lemon juice or vinegar? Do you use new lids each time? Just comparing to what I do. I use a canning pot and boil for 15 minutes after filling the jars, and the salsa has added lemon juice for acidity.
Zigs— many thanks for your encouraging words. Oreti— what a stunningly kind reply. Thank you so very much for your generous, albeit prosaic reaction. Very nice indeed. Daniel— Cheers mate. To respond to your preserving questions: Boiling jars— I do not nail them in the conventional sense; I wringen them two or three times in hot tap water, then when we are ready, I pour out all but a tiny amount in the bottom of the jars…then set them in the microwave for two minutes. The tops I do boil in a stewed while we are working and take one out when it is time to cap the jars off. Adding acidic things— I do not add any of the things you mentioned above, as we find tomato’s are acidic enough. We do indeed add citric juice to jams and applesauce. New Lids— I do not use new lids each time, in fact the jars and lids that I use for all things that we “can”, are vegetable jars that veg came in originally from the super market. They have a simple and easy two-step opening system. We can use the tops 2-4 times generally; however, we check them every time we finish a jar to see if we need to replace the lid due to some loss of integrity. Addendum: We do wash the pots in the dishwasher on the hot setting before we use them again.
