Sunset Sauce

Today my son Ryan brought me home six giant buckets filled with gorgeous ripe Italian plum tomatoes. Plus red and green bell peppers, organic garlic and onions. I grow basil, hot peppers and oregano in the garden. This is our third batch of sauce, he's been showing up with tomatoes for weeks! Neither of us can stand to see it go to waste in a compost heap behind the vegetable warehouse where he works.

So we skin, and seed, and chop and mash and cook two cauldrons at a time for two days each, and get 14 quarts out of it. I broke down and bought a big canning pot with a rack in it. We have enough sauce to see the whole family through the winter at this point.

I must say, it is deeply satisfying. And, delicious.

It feels like a return to pioneer days, on this 1760 farm. The ghosts in my house are happy. They approve. They made their stewed tomatoes on a wood fire in the summer kitchen, which is now my hot tub room. I use my six burner propane gas DCS stove instead. It's a lot easier.

Times have changed, ladies! Lucky for us.