Feelin' Saucy.

So with a bumper crop of tomatoes, there is really only one thing to do...

MAKE SAUCE!

I love tomato sauce, not just because I have Italian ancestors, but because it tastes damn good.  My grandmother always made sauce when I was a kid and froze it or canned it for the rest of the year, her garden was heavily dominated by tomato plants for this reason, but she would also buy bushels from a local grocer in Niagara as well.  Needless to say she made a lot of sauce.

Simple Ingredients.

Homegrown tomatoes and homegrown basil, a simple start to something so delicious.

The Machine.

I have few things that were my grandmother's; a couple of pictures and this beautiful juicing machine.  Well used and well loved this easy to use machine makes sauce making easy and fun, and requires only a little elbow grease.

The Hopper

Tomatoes go in the hopper...

Juicin'

...and juice comes out - the skins, seeds, and stem ends come out the other side and make a perfect snack for the worms in our vermicomposter!

Teamwork.

Tracie's sister Dee earns her room and board (for once) by powering the machine.

So we juiced our tomatoes raw, put the juice in a pot with some basil, tomato paste, salt & pepper, garlic, hot peppers from the porch garden and boiled it into an amazingly aromatic sauce - we then froze portions for later use.  But, Maria - a friend of ours (with much deeper roots to Italy than I) swears by boiling the tomatoes whole first, and then juicing them.  She said her family has always done it this way, and essentially you get sauce straight from the juicer. Anyone out there have any input into how this might affect flavour?

We made a second batch a week later and opted for running a couple of hot peppers through the juicer with the tomatoes, a great idea from Tracie that created an amazing smell in the kitchen instantly.  I was really happy with the turnout, and and the plan for next year is more tomatoes, which means more sauce, which means a happy me.

Growth.

Update on the seedlings!

It still amazes me that these  tiny seeds have started to grow into little plants - something I'm conflicted about each day as I walk through a city filled with trees, plants, bushes, and weeds.  I'm aware that things grow, but there is something different about a plant growing from a seed you watched being planted.

Basil Sprouts

There are many kinds of growth, spiritual, physical, etc. - but few that can be observed so readily and with such immediate results as a swiftly growing plant.  In short I'm impressed with how well, and how rapidly these small life forms begin to mature.  I stand to learn from their example!

Squash