August bounty from Abby & Terry’s garden in Healdsburg:
- 8 pounds cherry tomatoes
- flat of tomatoes
- apples
- eggplant- japanese, white globe, purple globe
- herbs- parsley, basil, thyme, marjoram, thai basil
- yellow squash
- apples
- asian pears
- Red bell peppers (sweet) & lipstick peppers
- Chili peppers (Habanero?)
Today will be a mad processing experiment to use most of this before it turns to mush. The rough plan:
- Oven roasted cheery tomatoes (SF Ferry Mkt) to freeze
- Oven roasted tomatoes (SF Ferry MKT) to jar w olive oil
- Tomato sauce w all the soft tomatoes – freeze? can?
- Apple sauce – to eat now
- Apple butter – w cardamon
- Asian Pairs – can
- Pickled Eggplant w Walnut sauce (SF Ferry Market)
- Chili oil
- Pickled chilis (packed in oil) for sandwiches
8:00 send kids off to school. NPR Morning edition on the Sonos
Start with cherry tomatoes: Rinse & sort out burst ones for sauce from the firm ones to roast.
8:40 First tray of tomatoes into the oven @ 250. 1.25 # cherry tomatoes, halved; tossed with sea salt, pepper, olive oil; on half sheet pan.
9:00 Switch to Queen. Fingers getting a sore spot from stemming cherry tomatoes.
9:15 Second tray of tomatoes into oven. 1.4 # cherry tomatoes; tossed w tsp salt, pepper, tbsp olive oil, 1/2 tsp each: basil, fennel, oregano, thyme (whole leaf herbs, not ground). Time for the coffee I made before the kids left. Whole tomatoes, I forgot to halve them before I added the oil & herbs and it seemed just too much to do it after.
Damn, missed yoga.
9:30 onward to apple butter & apple sauce. My canning book calls fro 6# apples for 3 pints apple butter. I’m thinking how many pounds of apples I have is more in the bathroom scale range than kitchen scale. Given how many apples I have, aiming for 3 batches of apple sauce. One for C&L to devour today, one to become cardamon apple butter, the last for a more traditional apple butter w a little sugar and cinnamon.
Weighed my apples. Have about 16 # fresh, mix of sweet & tart. 2.5# last weeks. So will make slightly smaller batches of apple butter, about 4-5 # each. Fewer apples to peel. If I’m going to start this canning perserving thing, maybe I should just get a food mill. BTW, we’ve moved on to Q-Burns Absstract Message on the stereo. Much more my speed this AM.
10:05 First batch of apples on the stove. 6 # apples, mixed. 6 cups water. Medium stainless stock pot. High heat.
10:20am Second batch of apples on stove. 5# apples. 6 cups water. Enameled cast iron red pot. High heat.
Turned down heat on 1st batch to medium.
Tomatoes starting to collapse and smell all tomato-y.
Why do purported modern canning recipe books open with comments like “We all have memories of our mothers or grandmothers stirring pots over fires in the yard and putting up the bounty of the harvest for the winter months”? I come from Angelinos. Okay, granted, one of my grandmothers was a farmer. The family had moved into the city before I was on the scene. As for my mom’s mother, I don’t remember her cooking anything more complicated than Magic Toast. Plus, in Southern California, we don’t really worry about surviving the harsh winter without any fruit or vegetables. We may have had to endure February without fresh strawberries, but something was always in season.
Magic Toast recipe aside
- Butter a piece of sliced white bread. Apply butter liberally.
- Sprinkle with white sugar and cinnamon. Again, use a free hand.
- Toast lightly. Serve warm.
Now then, what to do with the flat of tomatoes? Gorgeous, no? roughly 10#
10:40 Apple butter batch 1: Timer went off to move to the next step, which would be put it through mill, puree, slow cooker. Still too much water to fit in my slow cookers, so going to simmer it on the stove a while. Also holding off about sugar and spices until it’s reduced more.
Going to turn the majority of the tomatoes into sauce to freeze. 4-5# cherry tomatoes (all the soft, burst ones, and the ones too small to roast. this is going to be a skin heavy sauce unless I find a food mill.) 2 large onions, chopped (one white, one yellow (what I had)). Saute in olive oil. Must remember not to mix up the onion and apple butter spoons.
today we are answering the question: Why do you have 3 stock pots? When would you ever use all 3? (tomato sauce, apple sauce, apple butter at the moment). We’ll get to the 4 half sheet pans and 4 quarter sheets before we’re done. Haven’t even broken out the really big stock pot yet.
11:15am hmm. Apple butter batch 2, in the heavy enameled pot is getting dangerous. Something about the way it holds the heat is creating volcanos. The top smoothes over, but doesn’t form a skin, then erupts into a spitting caldera when I stir it. Going to transfer that one to the slow cooker, let it cool enough to puree w the immersion blender, then cook it there. If Batch 1 starts to scorch in SS pot, it’ll go in the slow cooker late.
Do I really have no garlic? also wishing I’d gotten around to finding the star screw driver to replace the stove hood light already.
11:30am tomato sauce on the stove. the sautéed onions and cherry tomatoes have been going for 30-40 minutes, just added the larger tomatoes. a mix of Romas and slicers and a few yellow. A tsp of sea salt,
11:55am All the tomatoes are underway. Vat of sauce is simmering on the stove. The last quart sheet of roasted tomatoes just went in the oven. Both batches of apple butter have been pureed (and I have splashed myself w hot apple sauce. “Use caution when blending hot liquids.”) and Batch 2 is in the slow cooker looking creamy.
Time to wash dishes and then go for a walk to get garlic and more olive oil.
12:20pm Haven’t made it outside for garlic and lunch yet. But did stir the first 2 sheets of tomatoes. Might have been a mistake. the halved cherries just wanted to clump up into a thick, jammy mess. But they’re almost done.
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