This is the time of the year when tomatoes get ripe. It's pretty obvious, but it always catches us a bit off guard. Because it's not just that they are ripe, it's that they must be processed while they are still in their prime or they are wasted.
Kathy went to Toronto last week in the midst of the period of first ripening. I grow the food, but I can't process it without her. Not that I couldn't, I just find myself adrift trying to manage it alone. It is a team task. Fortunately, before the fruit went bad, she returned and we got busy. This is actually the second batch we have processed. The first batch, which we did just before she left, we skinned and put into quart-sized tubs in the freezer. What is pictured below represents a little more than we did then. I also got some tomato juice out of the left over drippings. Pretty tasty stuff!
There are more to do. We had a bumper crop of Italian heirlooms, most of which probably weighed a pound each. You can get a lot done with fruit that size. The tomatoes pictured below are John Baer variety. I was afraid that nearly all would be lost to blossom rot, but somehow, the majority of fruit I have seen lately has been in pretty good shape. A few blemishes, but not the terrible signs of rot. There were a lot more fruit by numbers, but about half the total volume. I think we will process these into something different. I would love to duplicate my mother's chili sauce. There is no recipe so I need to search around for one. Hers was not spicy in the least, so I am trying to figure out what she had in it.
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