We’ve had a surprise second crop of tomatoes to go along with our beautiful indian summer. They’ve been as sweet as candy and the most beautiful deep red color. This batch was so much prettier than our regular summer crop. Picture perfect as you can see.
We built our house in 1995, and have always had a vegetable garden, but only this year and the year before last have we ever had a fall crop of tomatoes.
We were hoping to have them fresh for Thanksgiving, but as luck would have it we had a hard frost last night. I’m so glad we took the time to harvest the ripe ones last weekend. I don’t know how many we had, but we were able to get 18 quarts of pasta sauce out of them.
We found a fantastic homemade pasta sauce a few years ago that you make in a big batch and freeze. Each batch makes 9 quarts of the best sauce I’ve ever tasted. I won’t lie–it’s a pain in the butt to make, (about 3 hours from start to finish), but sooo good. Plus, it always makes me feel so–I don’t know—”homey” I guess is the right word, when we make it. Thanks to this bonus crop we’ve put 27 quarts in the freezer.
We were going to try green tomato relish this coming weekend, but I doubt they survived the frost. I haven’t gone out there to see yet. When I looked out the window this morning it was just depressing to see all the frozen plants and flowers. I love winter, and think it’s just as pretty in it’s own way as summer. Spring and Fall are my very favorite seasons, but for some reason, that transition period between fall and winter makes me a little sad. How about you?
Rustic Pasta Sauce recipe
