preserving madness pt 2. - 30 lbs of tomatoes and a weekend of awakening

I promised you last week I would tell you what I did with my almost 30 lbs of tomatoes, and perhaps a little bit about my weekend away at Harvest Festival, my favourite event of the year! Since I could actually write much more than a little bit about Harvest, and still need to collect my thoughts about that amazing experience, I'll stick to the tomatoes for now. Just know that I have returned feeling refocused, reconnected to the universe and my true being, and recommitted to figuring out how to maintain (and to helping others cultivate) these feelings throughout the year.

For the basic whole and crushed tomatoes, I followed the guidelines in my Bernadin Complete Guide to Home Canning. The roasted and pickled recipes I found here: Five ways to use large tomatoes, at Food in Jars, and the link from there to her "In a Pickle" series on Serious Eats.

9 lbs = 4.5 quarts of peeled whole tomatoes - two of these didn't seal, so I put them in the fridge and I'm making sauce with them now. I was planning on just freezing the sauce, but I may can the results instead, due to lack of freezer space, and I'm finally going to deal with the beets I got last weekend in St Jacobs, so I can just put the tomato sauce in the canner with those. The sauce is just 1 small minced onion, 1 chopped garlic clove, 2 quarts tomatoes, simmered until reduced to your liking. Add salt, if you like, after reducing, then can as you would regular crushed tomatoes.

10 lbs = 6 pints of crushed tomatoes - I decided to try doing "crushed" tomatoes because of the float and siphoning that happens with whole tomatoes. I will use them for cooking anyway, and I didn't crush them all that much, so they are still quite chunky with larger pieces. I figured that the cooking beforehand would remove more air from the tomatoes, resulting in less float and siphoning. It also meant I could fit more into each jar, so I used pints rather than quart jars. I think using quarts in my stockpot contributes to the problems I have with sealing, as its hard to keep 3 inches of hard boiling water covering the quart jars for a full 85 minutes. The crushed tomato method is a little more time consuming, because you have to chop all the tomatoes, doing so bit by bit as you add them to a pot 2 cups or so at a time. This is to maintain a boil in order to prevent the pectin from breaking down, which is what contributes to separation of fruit and liquid after they are in the jars.

6 lbs = ~3 cups slow roasted in the oven for 10-12 hours at 225 degrees celsius. These are delicious to just snack on. I put half in the freezer immediately, half in the fridge to use for omelets, salad, pasta for the week, then threw what was left after in the freezer. I'd love to make more of these as they are AMAZING. You can do the same method with cherry or grape tomatoes, for less time.

3.5 lbs = 1 quart and 2 pints pickled - the quart went in the fridge, the 2 pints were boiling water canned. I also did a quart of pickled grape tomatoes for the fridge. I preferred the brine from this recipe so I used that (with less sugar) for the second batch of pickled romas that went on the shelf.

Now, where can I find another 30 lbs of tomatoes?! I still would love to make some ketchup and tomato jam...and more slow roasted tomatoes to keep in the fridge packed in oil...and perhaps just a few more jars of plain crushed....and maybe a bit more salsa!

**update! went to the farmers market today, and a new, lovely man in my life helped me carry half a bushel of tomatoes home. Two sheet pans are current slow-roasting in the oven, the rest will have to wait a few days, as its back to work for me tomorrow. We also made fresh pasta tonight, with the sauce I made yesterday, and some sausage from a small butcher down the street from my parents place.

new score!

and just a little harvest festival preview:

Adventures in preservation - prepping for the zombie apocalypse

So, I haven't posted in over a month, but I have been cooking, farmer's marketing, and canning. Lots to update, lots of pictures to post, but still too much summer to enjoy to want to spend my time typing things up here. And I'm so busy researching canning recipes that I spend more time reading than writing. Also, I was (extremely belatedly) forced to watch 24, and that addiction has been taking up a lot of my time lately. There have been lots of trips to the island (including some at night)

ferry rides back:

picnic lunches, including a recent obsession with muffaletta sandwiches (that one was the first I made, and it was 2.5 pounds!) :

some dinner parties with pizza and a peach blackberry cobbler, a la dash and bella (surprise, surprise)

Nights out dancing to Nima Gorji until 5am.

And most recently, a trip to Prince Edward County for a campout/pig roast/wine party at Norman Hardie's amazing winery. Norm is such an interesting, hospitable, talented guy! And his wines (the Pinot Noir especially) are some of my favourites from Ontario.

We also stopped in at a couple other wineries before heading to Norm's. Closson Chase was quite lovely, with outdoor seating in the garden to enjoy tasting their wines. It was a gorgeous day! I took more than a few pictures and we sat and enjoyed a few of their Chardonnays and a couple of Pinots. I normally am not *big* on Chard, unless it is the steely, minerally, unoaked versions, but I have in the past couple of years tried not to say "I don't really like 'insert vegetable/ingredient/wine style'" and to recognize that my palate is constantly evolving and wanting to be challenged. So...there's something about the Closson Chase CCV Chardonnay that is sticking with me. I can almost still taste its complexity and distinct character.

Once at Norm's we set up our tent, took a tour (there's speck drying in the cellar!!!! and heirloom seeds for sale upstairs!!!), then settled in for some wine, a sunset and pizza from the outdoor wood oven.

It was a collection of people from the restaurant industry, and everyone brought one bottle of wine, for anyone to try. I tried a LOT. But my pictures (and note-taking) pretty much stop there! There was a phenomenal sunset I snapped though.

On our way out, Norm told us to take some of his heirloom tomatoes, so I filled up a bag, and preserved them whole today.

I also canned roasted tomato and dried chile salsa (with St Lawrence Farmers Market tomatoes), a couple jars of pickled beets, one quick jar of pickled red onions with the leftover beet brine, and my FIRST attempt at fermentation with a mixture of chiles also from St Lawrence farmers market. Maybe I'll get into details about these later...for now, the roasted tomato salsa is from Doris and Jilly cook and the fermented chiles are based on Grow and Resist's recipe, with lots of online research as well. Both sites were found via Tigress's website, from her 2010 can-jam round ups.

Oh, and that zombie apocalypse thing...Just a dream I had last night, probably too much 24 watching!

In praise of cottage cheese, or, why this blog will continue to be unpopular

Lots and lots to catch up on, including pictures (yay!)
So the other night, in a fit of sketchy, hungover laziness, I was browsing chowhound and ended up reading a thread with about 450 replies (yes, i read them all) about what to eat with cottage cheese. Now, I've always loved the stuff, and often bring cottage cheese with herbs and diced up vegetables (tomatoes, cucumbers, onions) mixed in for lunch at work (much to the chagrin of my colleagues - who usually snoop through and steal bites of my lunches when I'm busy). Needless to say, this chowhound perusing created quite a craving in me, not having had the gloppy white stuff (lol) since before the holidays.

Part two of this story begins last Friday, when I worked a split with a three hour break. Enough time to come home and make lunch, which in my case equaled homemade tomato soup and grilled cheese. I've never made tomato soup, but decided to use my trusty source Deb @ smittenkitchen (surprise!)

Now, I wasn't such a fan of the soup on Friday, unfortunately. Coming home and spending about an hour cooking in between shifts for a somewhat disappointing lunch is, well...somewhat disappointing. However, I didn't add in the booze (which obviously would detract from the original recipe), and I realized after that I forgot to sprinkle the tomatoes with brown sugar before roasting. Of course a tomato dish sans requisite pinch of sugar might end up being somewhat bitter!

Well, tonight I was thinking of making something with the plethora of ingredients withering in the fridge - perhaps some creamy, pureed white beans with sauteed herby zucchini and...roasted leeks? Sounds good, but I needed something to tide me over, and to add a bit more vegetable goodness and colour to my menu. Something, more importantly, that I could eat with cottage cheese. As I was sitting here, reading food blogs and more chowhound, working up the energy and appetite for dinner, I remembered something about tomato soup, with cottage cheese mixed in?! Sounds...interesting...but I'll tell you, along with the pinch of sugar I stirred into the soup while reheating, it made the leftovers quite delicious!

Now to tackle the rest of dinner! (Don't worry I don't have to cook the beans from scratch, just thought that jar was "more" photogenic than a container of liquidy beans)