Firstly, no I didn't grow these. They're from our local farmers market - $20 for an 18kg of big beautiful romas grown in nearby Shepparton. At that price, I'm completely happy to give over my garden beds to other veg that are easier to grow in our cooler climate. I do have a few cherry tomatoes and other salad varieties growing but they're not even close to being ready to pick yet.
This is the first time I've managed to deal with the whole box of tomatoes in one day. Because this year I kept things simple. No blanching, peeling, onions, herbs. Just chopped tomatoes, cooked until soft, put through the mouli, bottled and sterilised.
So I now have 15 litres of beautiful tomato passata, from local tomatoes bought direct from the grower (courtesy of my wonderful neighbour Jenny), in recycled jars, with no additives. And that's a whole lot better than cans of tomatoes from the supermarket that have travelled halfway around the world from Italy (and who knows from where or how far the steel for the cans, or the trees or ink for the labels, has come).
Happy days!
Next up... these little guys, which have travelled all of 300 metres from Jenny's garden to our house. I do love living here!
Well done Amber, food doesn't get much better than this x
ReplyDeleteYes, there's something quite satisfying about preserving the summer bounty. Thanks Jane. :)
DeleteYum, passata. I have had such a bad crop of tomatoes this year, I am about to plant more out so I can make at least more than 3 jars of passata for the year.
ReplyDelete