Yesterday I spent $30 on 15 pounds of tomatoes from a market gardener and the Farmer's Market and picked about another 5 pounds from my own plants. I used several types of tomatoes. Here's what some of them looked like:
The next morning, after my coffee, I put my jars in the dishwasher, set up my SauceMaster, and began rinsing tomatoes, cutting them, and putting them in my enormous stockpot.
I started heating them to a boil by about 9:30. It wasn't easy keeping them at the right temperature so that they would simmer down but not scald. I waited and stirred and waited and stirred. I read my kids some books. I stirred. I worked on math with my 6 year old. I stirred. I worked on reading with my 4 year old. I stirred. I put my . I stirred. After several hours, I figured it must be cooked down enough to put into the sauce master.
"Time to crank!" I called to the two kids who were still awake. Having been waiting all day to turn the crank on the SauceMaster, they came running. When the crank was turned, the sauce came out like water. I had to dump it back in the pot, cook it down some more. Then we sauced the whole batch, but I decided it was still too thin, and had to cook it down some more.The kids went out to play with the neighbors when they arrived on the school bus. I cooked the sauce down some more.
Finally, it got down to the right consistency, and I had enough to fill 7 pint jars. That's it. $30. 20 pounds of tomatoes. Seven measly little jars. Enough to make seven batches of spaghetti. For 20 pounds of tomatoes, cooked for six hours made seven little jars.
