What did you do in the garden today?

[Lazy Farmer]

It is now known as the TOMATO SAUCE SAGA..
I never did sauce in a crock pot before.. Always stove top. Cubed and dumped into my jumbo oval crock at about 1:30ish.. Photo taken 5 mins ago at 6:40ish..View attachment 1123472
Since then it only reduced less than an inch from the rim. It was overflowing and over filled to start.
Much longer than stove top cooking at equal time length. So I am going to leave the lid off for a short while to speed reduction.
Fixing to add my other ingredients but need more water to evaporate first. I don't what my fresh basil to evaporate too.
So the saga continues..

Almost 29 hours in a crock pot. Reduced down 50%.
Just added grated parmesan cheese for more flavor/texture and a pound of our Berkshire sausage (browned).
Got lasagna noodles boiling right now. Gunna freeze the balance.
Turned out better than expected. Bon appetit!

 

[Sara Ranch]

Despite just eating some food, I'm salivating over the deliciousness of your post!

Would you recommend using the crockpot for making tomato sauce? I've always done stovetop. This year, the animals and helper are eating all the bounty that is coming in. I haven't even gotten one tomato for me yet!

 

[jerryse]

Sorry about the sauce saga post length...
Never crock pot made it before, and find it rather interesting..
Last night before I fell asleep, I put the lid on and turned it on low. This pic shows the new level of volume..
View attachment 1123831
Finally getting some texture. I have always made this exact sauce on stove top on average of 8 hours. Crock pot is on the second day!
They say the slower the reducing, the more the flavors come together..
I am curious if it will go the entire 24 hrs..
The basil smell has filled our home.. That's a good thing.. (Martha Stewart) hehe.

Leaving the lid off or partially off would speed up evaporation . Myself I make paste by straining the juice through a cider bag . Cool juice until it starts to clump before straining . I can the nearly clear juice to drink . As a kid I loved the clear juice from a plate of sliced tomatoes . I would always salt and drink the juice when the slices were gone . I canned 5 quarts of juice today .

 

[Sara Ranch]

Oh jerryse - I am so jealous! Next year I must plant at least 50-100 tomato plants! (This year, I had cut back to 8 plants? And the animals and helper are eating every single tomato!)

 

[jerryse]

This year I have some really bland paste tomatoes . I find salt and a little vinegar in the juice makes it tasty .

 

[Lazy Farmer]

Despite just eating some food, I'm salivating over the deliciousness of your post!

Would you recommend using the crockpot for making tomato sauce? I've always done stovetop. This year, the animals and helper are eating all the bounty that is coming in. I haven't even gotten one tomato for me yet!

I always do stove top until a google find. I thought it would be nice to do something different. It said the longer it takes to reduce, the more the flavors merge and bond. I had the lid on for 3/4 of the time. So I suppose that is why it didn't evaporate the water very fast. The parm cheese really thickened it up. I used paste in the past. The hardest part was smelling it cooking for 2 days! Made me nuts with hunger.
That was a bunch of toms too. About 6 lbs.

 

[pennyJo1960]

as good as this all sounds time to go feed 5 hungry dogs dinner

 

[Lazy Farmer]

Leaving the lid off or partially off would speed up evaporation . Myself I make paste by straining the juice through a cider bag . Cool juice until it starts to clump before straining . I can the nearly clear juice to drink . As a kid I loved the clear juice from a plate of sliced tomatoes . I would always salt and drink the juice when the slices were gone . I canned 5 quarts of juice today .

I usually crack the lid on stove top but left it on all night and didn't want it to scorch dry while I slept. The added time added a deeper flavor I think.

 

[chickmom3941]

View attachment 1123809 Harvested my Ayers pears . Young tree so this is entire crop .

Oh, yum! Your pears look delicious, and really good-sized. I love pears - probably my favorite fruit. How old was your tree when you started getting fruit?

My brother gave us a small pear tree he had grafted about 4-5 years ago. It started getting fairly big, so last spring I bought a pollinator pear tree (an Ubileen pear tree). Both are doing well and are bigger than me. I'm wondering when I can start to expect some fruit? Can't wait!

 

[chickmom3941]

One more reply to your post on a coincidental note..
Last night we made home made tacos, the only sauce we had was a habanero sauce, which was wow flaming hot!
I had a platter of cubes of watermelon on the table as a treat to go along with dinner, never with tacos before. Anyway, when the habaneros start to bother your taste buds, a watermelon cube instantly extinguishes the heat. COMPLETELY.. 1 cube.. More that any bottle water does!
I think it was neutralising the properties of the pepper..
Just thought I would share that little tid bit. I thought about your post last night when my mouth was on fire..
I wish I paid more attention to my chemistry teacher back in the day...

Watermelon extinguishes habanero heat? Who would have thunk it? I'll have to remember that!