Another batch of sauce

The two buckets of tomatoes displayed in the last post were converted into 16 quarts of spaghetti sauce by mid day. I took a few pictures of the process including the key step of squeezing in a few whole tomatoes. Most of the tomatoes are run through the food processor but, according to my grandmother, you have to take the ripest, juiciest ones and crush them over the pot by hand. She used to let me do that once in a while if I behaved. Also shown is cutting up the basil and oregano directly into the pot. I underestimated the amount of basil we would need since historically we always had way more basil than needed for making the sauce. The basil is growing fine, I just didn’t grow enough whereas I have enough oregano to take care of the Olive Garden’s requirements. Tomorrow’s project is converting zucchinis into zucchini bread and trying to fit the sauce into the freezer.

You probably have to grow zucchini to appreciate the role of zucchini bread. Most folks grill, saute,fry, bake or mix zucchini with other vegetables; but then most people buy zucchini, not grow it. I currently have four different bush zucchini varieties, six plants total, which would have yielded a manageable level of production in past years. In Utah, one plant created an overdose. This year I have apparently broken the code on growing squash or the squash gods have decided to cut me some slack because even taking care of us, our neighbors, friends and family – no way we can keep up. Zucchini grows a little differently in that it takes a few weeks from the time you first spot a small zucchini to when it reaches the 6-8” size, just right for picking, but to go from 8” to 16” happens overnight. And that non-linear growth continues. So the function of zucchini bread is to do something with these goliaths. Clean the tomato sauce from the food processor and pop in the zucchini. Today’s baking included a large bunt cake and two 4×9” loaves. The bunt cake becomes a snack for the Wednesday bridge club; one of the loaves goes to George and Barbara; the final loaf was split with half going to our other neighbor, May, and the other half staying here. There’s enough zucchini in the fridge to repeat the process on Thursday – right after the next batch of spaghetti sauce – but the end is in sight. The variety, Cougar, is just about worn out and I’ll most likely be pulling those plants in a week or so.