{"id":1764,"date":"2011-09-03T18:48:07","date_gmt":"2011-09-03T22:48:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chuckzumbrun.net\/?p=1764"},"modified":"2011-09-03T18:48:07","modified_gmt":"2011-09-03T22:48:07","slug":"i-say-tomato","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chuckzumbrun.net\/?p=1764","title":{"rendered":"I Say Tomato"},"content":{"rendered":"

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

I got back home about 11 am and the tomato processing commenced.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Four Half Bushels<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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A Cooker Full of Quartered Tomatoes<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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Milling Tomatoes<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
Tomato Paste Cubes<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/td>\n
\"\"<\/a>
Separated Cubes <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n

After processing over 100 pounds of tomatoes, this was all that wasn’t used.<\/p>\n

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Byproducts<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

And that wasn’t wasted, it went into the compost bin.<\/p>\n

Finally the end result.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Preserved Tomatoes<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.) <\/p>\n

It was a very rewarding way to spend a day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In my day job raising grain I typically deal in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1764","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cooking","category-farming"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chuckzumbrun.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1764","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chuckzumbrun.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chuckzumbrun.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chuckzumbrun.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chuckzumbrun.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1764"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chuckzumbrun.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1764\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chuckzumbrun.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1764"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chuckzumbrun.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1764"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chuckzumbrun.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1764"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}