Tons of Tomatoes

One of the beauties of living in Florida is that we have a very long growing season. In fact, it’s so long that our farms are able to grow two crops of tomatoes each year.

Back in April, a local tomato wholesaler opened their farm up for U-Pick for the ridiculously low price of $1 for a 5-gallon bucket of tomatoes. We spent $10 and about 2 hours in the field and came home with somewhere around 250-pounds of tomatoes. It took me 4 days to put up all those tomatoes, but boy was it fun experimenting with some new recipes like Fiesta Salsa and Tomato Relish.

The winter harvest deal wasn’t quite as good as the spring deal. The price went up to $3 per 5-gallon bucket. I know. Stop whining. It’s still a great deal even if the price did triple!

Anyway, Tom, Jared, and I hit the field early Saturday morning and filled our 10 buckets which weighed in at about 290 pounds. I have no idea how we put 40 more pounds in those buckets over last time. I just knew that I really wanted to take less than 4 days to put these maters up. I didn’t. It took 4 days again. Why did it take that long? Because three out of the four recipes I was using required several hours of simmering to thicken and reduce, and I did several batches of each. On the plus side, we didn’t need to turn on any heat for those four days!

In the end, my shelves now hold enough crushed tomatoes, tomato sauce, ketchup, and BBQ sauce to last until the next tomato harvest! I can live with that.

By the way, it would have taken even longer to put up all those tomatoes if it weren’t for two things. First, my husband is amazing in the kitchen! I am so blessed that he loves to help me. In fact, when I had to leave Sunday morning to go and help in a classroom at church, he put up a batch of sauce. What a blessing! And second, I have this huge portable roaster that I usually only pull out at Easter and Thanksgiving so I can roast outside and not heat up the house. We filled that roaster with tomato sauce, set the temperature for 350°F, and left it to cook uncovered. The sauce still took several hours to cook down, but it wasn’t taking up burners on my stove and because of the way the roaster heated the sauce, I didn’t have to be nervous about scorching. In fact, I could walk away for several hours without even stirring it! So, although it technically took four days to process all those tomatoes, I didn’t spend every waking moment cutting, chopping, cooking, and stirring. I was able to do other things as well. Very cool!

I shared my ketchup recipe in spring, so I’ll pass along the BBQ sauce recipe. This is just a simple, basic BBQ sauce that can easily be doctored to fit your tastes.

By the way, a word of warning on the ketchup. If you ever make homemade ketchup, you will never by the commercial stuff again. Yeah, it’s that good.

BBQ SAUCE

20 cups cored and quartered tomatoes (about 10 pounds)

2 cups chopped celery

2 cups chopped onions

3 cups chopped, seeded green bells peppers

1 tsp black peppercorns

2 ½ cups apple cider vinegar

1 cup packed brown sugar

½ cup honey

2 cloves garlic, finely chopped

1 tbsp dry mustard

1 tbsp paprika

2 tsp Worcestershire sauce

1 ½ tsp salt

In a large stainless steel saucepan, combine tomatoes, celery, onions, and peppers. Bring to a boil over high heat, stirring frequently. Reduce heat, cover, and boil gently for about 30 minutes, until vegetables are soft.

Working in batches, transfer the mixture to a food mill, using a fine sieve. Extract all of the liquid and pulp, discarding the solids left behind in the food mill.

Return the mixture to the pot. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally. Reduce heat and boil gently, stirring frequently, until mixture is reduces by half, about 45 minutes.

Meanwhile, tie peppercorns in a square of cheesecloth, creating a spice bag.

Add vinegar, brown sugar, honey, garlic, mustard, paprika, Worcestershire sauce, salt, and spice bag to the tomato mixture. Increase heat to medium and boil gently, stirring frequently, until the mixture is thickened to the consistency of a thin commercial BBQ sauce, about 1 hour. Discard spice bag.

Meanwhile, prepare canner, jars and lids.

Ladle hot sauce into hot jars, leaving ½ inch headspace. Remove air bubbles and adjust headspace, if necessary. Wipe rim. Center lids on jars. Screw bands down until fingertip-tight.

Place jars in canner, ensuring they are completely covered with water. Bring to a boil and process for 35 minutes. Remove canner lid. Wait 5 minutes, then remove jars, cool and store. Makes about 5 pints or 10 half-pints.

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