sauce

Though I had given Terri plenty of tomatoes for their home table and their restaurant, Cucina Bianchi, and sent home a good number with Jerome, and been eating them fresh here, and fed lots of cracked and chewed tomatoes to the chickens, there were still many left that Terri and I had gathered and that I had picked in the last day or so. Yesterday I decided to process them before my guests arrive today.
I started by coring and removing any wounds and then twice filled the big pot you see in the lower photo. They cooked down all day and I put them through my old fashioned conical shaped sieve using a wooden paddle made to fit the cone to squeeze the good juices from the pulp. (Here is Anne using this apparatus for applesauce last fall.)

The tomato juice filled this large pot and my next biggest pot. Then I cooked down that liquid until I could transfer what was in the smaller pot into the large one. Continuing to cook down the remainder I ended up with just enough juice/sauce for the scant 3 quarts pictured here in the pot that had been twice filled with the cut tomatoes earlier that day.

I heard the last satisfying ping just before heading to bed. Compared to the tomatoes, the pints of pickled beets I had done in the morning were a breeze. So far 12 quarts of tomato chunks and 3 quarts of sauce. How on earth did Lovina put up 100 quarts of tomatoes so far, along with all the other canning she's done? All with 6 children to mind?? Makes me feel like a bit of a whimp. But a very satisfied one.