Making Tomato Sauce/The Great Blue Heron Returns

Hello to all my readers and welcome back.

It's hard to believe that September has arrived and the gardening season is winding down.

The tomatoes have done really well overall, and are producing heavily as September gets under way. The plants are starting to die off from late blight, but there are still plenty of tomatoes left on the vines that will still ripen over the coming weeks.

Since I have an abundance of Corbarino tomatoes, a small paste variety, I decided to experiment with making a batch of tomato sauce.  I also used a few Cherokee Purples, Big Rainbows, and Artisans. For more information on these tomatoes and others I planted this season, see my posts on March 25, 2014 (http://dansgardening.blogspot.com/2014/03/its-tomato-starting-time.html) and April 7, 2014 (http://dansgardening.blogspot.com/2014/04/planting-more-tomatoes-more-heirlooms.html),

The first step is of course to wash the tomatoes in cool water.

Corborino and Artisan Tomatoes

Cherokee Purple and Big Rainbow Tomatoes

Next, I slit the tomatoes, then gently squeezed them to remove some of the water and seeds.  Even though I used a food mill later in the process, this step helps to remove some of the liquid and seeds.

I then pre-cooked the tomatoes for 5 or 10 minutes to soften them.  This will make the milling process easier.

Now it's time to get out the old food mill and press the juice and pulp from the tomatoes. Be sure to squeeze as much pulp as possible from the tomatoes.

The final step, of course, is to simmer, season, and reduce the sauce.

Which seasonings you use is of course entirely up to you according to your taste preferences.  I  used onion salt, garlic powder, hot pepper flakes, ground black pepper, oregano, basil, and a touch of sugar to help counterbalance the acidity.

Continue to simmer the sauce for about 4 hours to obtain the desired thickness.  The volume of sauce will reduce by about 50%.

In this case we used the sauce to make a delicious pot of chili.

Finally, we had another visit from a Great Blue Heron.  They are fun to watch as then hunt around the pond, moving very slowly so as to not startle their prey.  Enjoy the photo.

Great Blue Heron

Until next time.