And the zinger is that I'm slowly and surely morphing into her....yep, I now have 4 freezers. Granted, I have 3 growing boys.....
(She has 5 or 6, she's 70 and single)
I now have wine brewing in my front hall....it's sulphite free, let's pray it doesn't go "off".....
(She has wine from every fruit possible in her wine room, and 2 freezers full of fruit to make more!)
A fully loaded canning cupboard....just how many jars of fruit do 3 little boys need....
(She has a canning room 5x the size of mine, did I mention she is almost 70 and single?)
And a veggie garden that won't quit....
Ok, she helped me plant it.
I know where I'm going when WW3 hits. With a big generator and a hijacked fuel truck.....
A couple of years ago my mother (with whom I have a real love-hate thing going - pretty normal mother daughter stuff - so the next blog post may be about how she has totally messed me up!!!) brought me some tomatoes a friend had grown. They were incredible, red sunshine, bursts of flavour, to die for. I said, innocently, oh so innocently...."We should grow some in our greenhouse next year..."
It started in Feb or Mar. Her entire living area was covered with seedlings. She grew a bazillion tomato plants from seeds.
She filled our greenhouse. It's a big greenhouse. At least 30x60......
And I spent August, September AND October canning (and cursing!)
And I ran out!
This year, if you can believe it, by this point you are getting the idea, she planted MORE. And we have MORE. I personally have harvested around 400 lbs. Yep. 400. pounds. That is a LOT of tomatoes!
My canning cupboard if full, my freezer is full, I have salsa coming out the ying yang (and it's 0 mile salsa except for the cumin and vinegar!). I'm phoning friends practically begging them to come and take some off my hands.....
Today we made ketchup. The perfect tomato user. One recipe said 25lbs = 3 cups of ketchup. That's just crazy. We eat at least 3 cups a week. Which is EXACTLY why I want to make my own......GET RID OF FRUCTOSE-GLUCOSE CORN SUGAR CRAP!!! My mother made ketchup and I hated it. So now I'm making ketchup. The morph is almost complete.
The boys and I harvested (Ok they climbed the walls of the greenhouse and threw rotton ones out the window), the boys and I washed (ok I washed), the boys and I pureed (ok they loved this job), I threw it all in a pot (all 22 pounds) to start the reduction. And hubby says "You have to seive it to get rid of the skin and seeds" I wasn't going to do this step. He's like "It won't be ketchup, *EVERY* recipe I looked at said you have to do this step" The boys insisted. SO now I'm on the phone to said mother asking for her seive. (Mine was too fine and plugged immediately)
Did I mention my mother is psychotic? She loves kitchen gizmos. She owns EVERY kitchen gizmo ever invented. We drop everything and head to her house and come home with 3 ketchup gizmos and forgot her seive. How in the heck does she have 3 completely different gizmos for ketchup? (Two are for applesauce skin removal.....) She loves garage sales.
The super fancy one looked the best and it was. Like in 5 minutes hubby and the boys had all the skin and seeds out of our tomatoes. It's still simmering. It tastes DIVINE. It's smells like ketchup. Flavour explosion. TO. DIE. FOR.
No offence Mom but I think you left the skin and seeds in your ketchup!
(She has 5 or 6, she's 70 and single)
I now have wine brewing in my front hall....it's sulphite free, let's pray it doesn't go "off".....
(She has wine from every fruit possible in her wine room, and 2 freezers full of fruit to make more!)
A fully loaded canning cupboard....just how many jars of fruit do 3 little boys need....
(She has a canning room 5x the size of mine, did I mention she is almost 70 and single?)
And a veggie garden that won't quit....
Ok, she helped me plant it.
I know where I'm going when WW3 hits. With a big generator and a hijacked fuel truck.....
A couple of years ago my mother (with whom I have a real love-hate thing going - pretty normal mother daughter stuff - so the next blog post may be about how she has totally messed me up!!!) brought me some tomatoes a friend had grown. They were incredible, red sunshine, bursts of flavour, to die for. I said, innocently, oh so innocently...."We should grow some in our greenhouse next year..."
It started in Feb or Mar. Her entire living area was covered with seedlings. She grew a bazillion tomato plants from seeds.
She filled our greenhouse. It's a big greenhouse. At least 30x60......
And I spent August, September AND October canning (and cursing!)
And I ran out!
This year, if you can believe it, by this point you are getting the idea, she planted MORE. And we have MORE. I personally have harvested around 400 lbs. Yep. 400. pounds. That is a LOT of tomatoes!
My canning cupboard if full, my freezer is full, I have salsa coming out the ying yang (and it's 0 mile salsa except for the cumin and vinegar!). I'm phoning friends practically begging them to come and take some off my hands.....
Today we made ketchup. The perfect tomato user. One recipe said 25lbs = 3 cups of ketchup. That's just crazy. We eat at least 3 cups a week. Which is EXACTLY why I want to make my own......GET RID OF FRUCTOSE-GLUCOSE CORN SUGAR CRAP!!! My mother made ketchup and I hated it. So now I'm making ketchup. The morph is almost complete.
The boys and I harvested (Ok they climbed the walls of the greenhouse and threw rotton ones out the window), the boys and I washed (ok I washed), the boys and I pureed (ok they loved this job), I threw it all in a pot (all 22 pounds) to start the reduction. And hubby says "You have to seive it to get rid of the skin and seeds" I wasn't going to do this step. He's like "It won't be ketchup, *EVERY* recipe I looked at said you have to do this step" The boys insisted. SO now I'm on the phone to said mother asking for her seive. (Mine was too fine and plugged immediately)
Did I mention my mother is psychotic? She loves kitchen gizmos. She owns EVERY kitchen gizmo ever invented. We drop everything and head to her house and come home with 3 ketchup gizmos and forgot her seive. How in the heck does she have 3 completely different gizmos for ketchup? (Two are for applesauce skin removal.....) She loves garage sales.
The super fancy one looked the best and it was. Like in 5 minutes hubby and the boys had all the skin and seeds out of our tomatoes. It's still simmering. It tastes DIVINE. It's smells like ketchup. Flavour explosion. TO. DIE. FOR.
No offence Mom but I think you left the skin and seeds in your ketchup!
Note: Photo added - Which is real which is homemade?
1 comment:
WOW! You are on fire. I can't believe how many tomatos you grew. But I best you have the most amazing ketchup ever!
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