In my day job raising grain I typically deal in 1000’s or 10’s of thousands of bushels of grain. A single bushel is no big deal, you spill a bushel on the ground and you may grab a shovel and clean it up, just so it doesn’t make a mess, not because a single bushel matters.
Today I bought 2 bushels of tomatoes and made and canned tomato juice and tomato sauce and crushed tomatoes and tomato paste. It gave me a whole new appreciation of just how much a bushel is.
I went over to Huntertown Gardens this morning and bought 2 bushels of canning tomatoes. Huntertown Gardens is a great place to pick up seasonal produce in small or large quantities. They’re just south of LaOtto, or north of Huntertown, on old Highway 3.
I got back home about 11 am and the tomato processing commenced.
I started out making sauce and juice with 1 bushel. I figured I could make and can the juice while the sauce was cooking down.
For sauce and juice I just quarter the tomatoes and toss them in a big granite cooker. Once they come to a boil I simmer them about 5 minutes and then run them through a food mill. The food mill takes out all the skins and seeds.
For juice I can what comes out of the food mill. For sauce that goes into a pan and cooks until it is reduced by about half, which is a nice thick sauce. That bushel of tomatoes ended up making 6 quarts of juice and about 20 pints of sauce.
With one of the remaining half bushels I canned crushed tomatoes. For those you skin and core the tomatoes, quarter them, and toss them in the cooker. You boil them for 5 minutes and then can them.
The remaining half bushel I juiced as for juice or sauce, and then cooked it down until it was thick for tomato paste. That half bushel of tomatoes, weighing 26 pounds, cooked down to about 3 1/2 pounds of tomato paste. I freeze it in ice cube trays. A cube or two of frozen tomato paste is just right for soups and stews this winter.
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After processing over 100 pounds of tomatoes, this was all that wasn’t used.
And that wasn’t wasted, it went into the compost bin.
Finally the end result.
It was almost 9 pm when I finished the tomato paste and slid them in the freezer. Was is it worth it? The tomatoes cost 40 dollars and I spent a full day canning them.
I counted up all the cans and I could buy what I canned at the grocery store for about 60 dollars. Minus what the canning jar lids cost, and energy burned to can them, I probably worked all day for 15 dollars.
But the quality of my home canned tomatoes is superior to the store brands. They are dark red and bursting with tomato flavor. I know what is in each can. Each can contains exactly two ingredients, tomatoes and lemon juice (to raise the acid level for safe canning.)
It was a very rewarding way to spend a day.
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