Tomato Sauce....

....Finally!!!

This has not been the best year for tomatoes at the Garver home. The plants in our yard look great but because of the amount of shade they get are not as productive as they could be, and the ones in our shared garden look horrible....sickly and partially dying (the bottom half) so that the fruit is exposed to the sun which burns the skins. We've only been harvesting around 5-10lbs. a day which makes it kind of hard to do anything with them other than make fresh salsa. So I've been freezing them as they ripen and then I saved a few days worth on the counter. I think I ended up with 50lbs. total.

Dropped them into boiling water to loosen the skins....

...then cooked until softened.

While the tomatoes were cooking, I chopped our green peppers and onions...

....and sauted them with a bit of garlic and dried basil.

Pureed the tomatoes in the food processor....

...and used the food mill to get rid of the seeds.

Then the sauce is cooked some more...

...before being poured into hot quart jars.

Leaving a half-inch head space, the jars are wiped and sealed...

...before being carefully placed in the boiling water bath.

These boiled for 35 minutes....

...and Ta Da...13 quarts of organic tomato sauce....yippee yahoo! Now I just need to do this about 3 more times and we'll have enough for the winter:)