tomatoes

We're processing tomatoes today.

I grew a total of 16 plants of 9 varieties this season. There are grape, cherry, paste and slicing tomatoes and I like to mix them all together in my sauce to give it the deepest flavor.

The pots you see above are on the stove as I write this.  I core and cut up all the tomatoes I have that are ripe and put them into large pots. I heat the tomatoes until they are soft enough to put through a food mill to remove the skins and seeds. Jerome is excellent at taking over the last of this task, getting the very last bit of tomato essence possible.
The liquid that strains through is cooked down until I think it's thick enough. This is ladled into jars and put into a water bath canner to seal.

Warm tomatoes, eaten in the sunshine freshly tugged from pungent vines are pure summer. Eating your own tomato sauce in deepest winter is pure heaven.