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Homemade Tomato Sauce Ideas

I had an abundance of tomatoes this year from my garden. I have made sauce, salsa, and frozen cut-up pieces of tomatoes. I decided that I was going to try a new idea where I processed the tomatoes and then froze the sauce in ice cube trays.
Tomato Sauce in Ice Cube Tray

First I cut up a big pot of tomatoes and cooked them for about 45 minutes.

Once the pot cooked down, next I put the tomato pulp through a food mill. The food mill removes most of the skins and seeds as shown in this picture.

I cooked the remaining tomato juice along with a bit of salt, pepper, sugar, and a few other spices (season as you desire) for about another hour. I cooked it over medium low on the stove top. This allows the juice to thicken up and now you can either put it in a jar or put it in an ice cube tray for freezing. The handy thing about freezing the tomato sauce into ice cubes is that you can add a few as needed to any recipe that you are making.

After freezing the tomato sauce in the trays, I did have to let it unthaw a little so I could get them out. Then I moved the frozen tomato cubes to a ziplock freezer bag to keep in my freezer until needed.

These are a few useful ideas for processing your homegrown tomatoes and saving them for use later. Don’t let all those tomatoes go to waste, cut them up and get them cooking so you can enjoy your own homemade tomato sauce this winter.

Zucchini in the Fall

My Zucchini plant is still producing even into Fall this year. I started this plant from a seed in the house and planted it out in the garden early this Spring. It almost died after a big rain storm and hail in early May. I remember having to prop up the seedling with a twig to try and save it.

I have to just shake my head to believe this is the same plant now. It has produced so many Zucchinis this year and is still going even with temps down to 37 last night. They say one key, useful tip is to keep harvesting Zucchinis all season long. According to an old gardening book I have, it says when you continually harvest the Zucchinis, the plant thinks it needs to keep producing. Even now, I have new blooms and Zucchinis growing.

I have frozen Zucchini in the freezer, used raw Zucchinis in salads, stews and several other dishes. I just love Zucchini and have been so happy with the garden output of this plant. So hopefully the frost holds off for a bit longer so I can enjoy even more late Zucchinis this year.

Tomatoes Wintered Over

I pulled all my green tomatoes in Mid October right before it frosted real hard. I put them in a box wrapped in newspaper and put them in the basement. I have done this for several years now and this method works pretty good for preserving and saving the green tomatoes for use later.

This photo is of a few of my tomatoes that I am still pulling out of the box this week for use. Some are a bit wrinkled but they sure taste much better than those store-bought plastic tasting tomatoes that you get at the store this time of year.

A few tips if you try this wintering over idea. Check the tomatoes frequently to remove any overripe or spoiling tomatoes from your storage box or bag. I normally just cut off the bad part if any and use the remaining tomato in making sauces or condiments. Also make sure you keep the box or bag in a cool, dry and dark basement or area for storage. I found this works best. This year I used long, low boxes which I found worked out very well for the tomatoes to be stored. If you stack tomatoes on top of each other they tend to spoil faster in my opinion. Use newspaper to wrap them separately as this helps extend the wintering over process.

It truly is enjoyable to eat my own fresh tomatoes in January from last year’s garden. I plan to expand on this wintered over tomato idea again this year.

Harvesting Radish Seeds

Have you ever wondered how to harvest radish seeds from your radish plants? Many times my radishes bolt and go to seed but I had never tried to harvest the seeds for future use. This year I had several radish plants that bolted so I set out to harvest the seeds for next year’s radish plantings.

After the radish plants go to seed, they later develop these green pods which is where the radish seeds form. You have to let the pods grow and then dry them out to be able to harvest the little seeds inside. Here is a photo of a big bunch of radishes with the pods drying. It works well to cut the vines with the pods attached and leave them out in the sun to dry out.

The pods turn white in color and are hard when ready to harvest the seeds as shown in this next photo.

Here is a photo of just some of the seeds I collected from the radish pods I harvested.

It is a slow process to open the pods and collect the seeds. I found it works well to put the vines and pods on a Continue Reading →

Garden Netting

I want to share a great tip for protecting your strawberries and other garden plants from birds and critters. Last year something keep eating all my strawberries just as they were ripening. It was so frustrating to see a strawberry just about ripe one day and gone the next. So here is my solution.

It’s called garden netting. I found that you can buy a large sheet of it fairly reasonable. It is very fine netting similar to bridal netting. It’s light enough that you can water through it and your plants still get sun too. The best part is that it keeps birds, most bugs and other critters away from your fruit.

As shown, I just cut a big piece and placed it over my plants. I tucked in the netting under the sides of my raised boxes to protect my strawberries. It works and so far I haven’t lost any ripen strawberries this year.

So if you have been experiencing similar problems with something eating your fruits or veggies, check out this useful idea and save yourself a lot of heartache and lost harvest items.

Roasted Tomatoes

I had many green tomatoes still when it was time to pull up the tomatoes plants for the season. Just like last year, I saved all the green tomatoes and wrapped them in newspaper for ripening. You can read about those tips here. This idea works well and given a little time, the green tomatoes turn red while stored in a bag.

But on with this post and how I roasted some tomatoes that were ripe and needing processed. I have frozen tomatoes, made salsa and tomato sauce and used many of my tomatoes already this year. But I hadn’t tried roasting in the oven yet.

First I washed and cut up the tomatoes in about quarters. I placed them on a baking sheet that had just a bit of olive oil spread over it. I sprinkled the tomatoes with a dash of garlic, salt, pepper, and oregano. You can use any spices that you like to season your roasted tomatoes. I dribble a little more olive oil over the tomatoes and tossed them a bit to cover them with all the seasoning and oil.

Here is my pan ready for the oven.

Bake at 400 F degrees for about 30-40 minutes. Just check them at 30 to make sure them aren’t burning or overdone. I think mine took Continue Reading →

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