As we near the end of the season, the tomatoes are still coming in (the green ones in the photo above are cherokee purples, and not green tomatoes). As we haven't yet hit a killing frost, we haven't harvested the few green tomatoes we are hoping will ripen.
Today, I took about 3 full quart size bags of all sorts of tomatoes, and did the boil and peel method, resulting in some facing tomato skins that I'll be drying for more tomato powder, after sitting in a sieve and draining out any remaining liquid.
I wish I had remembered the before photos, but as you cans week, I ended up with about 3/4 of my 7 quart dutch oven filled with the post-boil and peel tomato liquid, seeds and pulp.
At the time I am writing this, I'm still not entirely sure what we'll be making with it. I have a larder full of tomato sauce, roasted tomato soup, and crushed tomatoes. Right now, I have the whole pot simmering, and when I gets soft enough, I'm going to take a stick blender to it because I removed the skins and the seeds don't make it unsafe if you puree it. Then I think I will let it bubble down for a few hours, before I decide what to do.
I will do an update in the future, as I figure out what I want to do with all this liquid/pureed tomato. Given the color, I may also decide to go get some fresh basil (my crop is beyond done for the season) and turn it into soup.
Thanks for stopping by!
Quick Update: I talked with my gardening friend, and we decided to just go with plain tomato sauce. It cooked down for about 2.5 hours to get it to a decent thickness (though still a bit soupy) and yielded 5 pints. Canned it (per Ball) with 1/2 tsp citric acid and 1 tsp canning salt, in my BallTech Water Bath Canner for 35 minutes.
It might just be 5 pints... but they are 5 pints we grew ourselves, from seeds I started last March!
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