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….
