Yesterday was tomato day. I took my soup pot out to the garden and picked every tomato that was ready. With the pot full to overflowing, I headed back into the kitchen and commenced working them up. I thought I would have tomatoes coming out of my ears this year with twenty-one plants, but up to this point…we’ve only been getting a handful at a time. Not enough to do anything with, but too many to eat. We’ve given a few away and we lost a lot to blossom end rot. I’ve been told by experienced farmers that this hasn’t been the best year for tomatoes. Seems about right since it’s the year WE decided to go whole hog.

I was in my canning prime in my early 30’s. I was telling Mr. FixIt yesterday, it wasn’t anything for me to put up a bushel of green beans, a couple flats of tomatoes, and a couple flats of pickles up over the three day weekend of Labor Day. I would have jars of food spread everywhere, stored in boxes under the bed and on shelves in the basement. I’d give jars away as gifts. I was prolific. Now? Ahhhhh…the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.

I set to with my big pot of tomatoes. I elected to use the Foley Food Mill method to get a smooth, seedless and skinless sauce that I could use in a soup or a creamed tomato gravy. Optimistically, I washed six quart jars. I washed, cored and quartered my tomatoes and put them in the canner since that’s the biggest pot I have with a heavy bottom that wouldn’t scorch them. I turned the flame to medium and started mashing the tomatoes with a potato masher to get the juices flowing. I kept a close eye on them, mashing and stirring and adjusting the heat till they were soft and tender.

I removed the canner from the fire and scooped up the stewed tomatoes into the food mill. If you haven’t used one of these, they’re pretty handy. There’s a kind of slanted plate that draws the tomatoes over a screen and presses the juice and flesh out while keeping the seeds, skins, and any coarse fibers in the pan. You empty it and fill again and repeat till you’ve processed all the tomatoes. Then, you have this wonderful, smooth tomato juice.

Now, what you want your end product to look like will determine how long you simmer your juice over medium heat. You stir frequently. I wanted mine to be the consistency of store bought tomato sauce….a sort of thick, pulpy juice. When I was satisfied, I ladled the hot sauce in the hot jars with about a tablespoon of lemon juice in each jar for extra acidity, wiped the rim with white vinegar, centered a hot jar lid and screwed it down with a jar ring. Then I placed them in the boiling water bath, adjusted the water level from the simmering tea kettle, and timed them for 35 minutes from the time they reached a rolling boil.

I got…get this…TWO QUARTS!

Yes…all those plants, all that hoeing and weeding and watering and feeding and babying those tomato plants and I got two quarts of juice. I have discovered this. You do just as much work to can two quarts as you do to can twenty. I should have bought more tomatoes to add to mine. When Mr. FixIt called from town to see how I was doing (he was looking for a replacement chain for the pole saw) I told him I was really disappointed. He said, “Look at the bright side. You know exactly what went in those jars.” Ever the optimist…we are a good match.

As soon as the jars were in the water bath, I set to making a peach-blueberry lattice top pie. I reached back to my baking contest days and used my never fail pie crust that has lard in it. SO not good for you…SO flavorful. Then I made the recipe that won me a blue ribbon in the Carbondale Mountain Fair sometime back in the early ‘90s. I hadn’t made it in years and forgot it needed instant tapioca, which I did not have. I used flour…and not enough of it. So the pie is soupy….really soupy. But flavor? OMGosh…knock your socks off awesome! Served warm in a bowl with a spoon, it just couldn’t be beat.

By the time I was done with the pie and had it in the oven, the jars of tomato sauce were ready. I just turned off the heat and let them sit while I fried up some bacon for BLT’s. I had a big tomato…still warm from the sun. And a head of butter-crunch lettuce from the greenhouse down the road. It was meal fit for a king. 

Oy! I can feel my arteries crackling. 

❤️

“I have provided all kinds of fruit and grain for you to eat.”

Genesis 1:29 CEV