08/25/2026
Busy weekend repacking the shelves, more beet pickles after the FM Saturday. I blanched, peeled and diced ~ 100 lb of tomatoes this morning. Some were destined become salsa today, and some were frozen to become salsa Wednesday.
Salsa cooked for ~5 hours, reducing to an amazing thick sauce. While this happened, we picked, we chopped and froze bell peppers, jalapeños, and few lunch box peppers. (A sweet miniature bell-like pepper)
In an attempt to stage and divy portions for the next few weeks of canning.
While the salsa jars were processing in the boiling water, 5 gallons of cherry tomatoes were de-stemed and frozen. Another ~2.5 bushels of Roma and San Marzano tomatoes were blanched, pealed and diced for a smaller batch of Salsa, and some whole tomatoes after I return from the Redwood Falls Farmers Market.
40lbs of whole tomatoes were pulled from the freezer tonight, defrosting in the AM Tuesday for roasting and milling in the PM, for a large batch of spaghetti sauce Wednesday. The spaghetti sauce recipe takes an amazing 6-8 hours cooking for the best concentration of flavors and a sauce that coats the noodles.
I call it spaghetti sauce, but it is very versatile use it with, eggplant, zucchini, spaghetti squash, noodles, lasagna, roasted chicken, as a chili base, Fanqie Chao Dan, or Menemen. [The last two tomato with scrambled eggs]
Thankful I can find 300-500 lbs of ripe tomatoes each week in the garden, more exhausted even thinking about picking in the morning.
See you at the FM Tuesday.
