I bought a food processor. I've never used one.

[mitunnelrat]

Until tonight. And I hope I did alright with that - and more.

Most of you will probably remember I didn't start gardening until last year. Well, to make a long story short, all I've had to do was water it, pick the produce, and perform some simple tasks while my dad did the bulk of the work making sauce or filling peppers. Unfortunately busy enough that I couldn't watch what he was doing too closely or too often.

He had to leave for work and asked me to seal the last 6 jars from the last batch of sauce. Ok, easy enough. Let it come to a boil, let it boil one hour, and pull the jars out. I don't think I could screw that up.

I also had to boil and blanch what came out to roughly 5 quarts of green and wax beans. Ok. I think I did ok here too. Snip, boil, fill, and dunk in ice water until the bags are sucked in... They looked like his, so I think I may have done ok here too.

Then came the tomatoes. I suck,I think. I suspect I wasted a lot while I was peeling and coring them because I started out with 15 pounds of raw tomatoes and wound up with 9 pounds after I pureed them, which I'm hoping is the setting I was supposed to run. The manual and my mom said to, so I did.

Its pure liquid, and a lot lighter in color than the stuff we have done and jarred. Right now I'm hoping its what he wanted, and really glad we have as many more ripening as we do.

Anyone know a good reciped for tomato juice if I screwed up?

I think I need an Elmer of the gardening world...

[mitunnelrat]

Life is good. I did it all correctly.

[Gunfixr]

Sometimes you just have to keep going, amidst your doubt.

Sounds like a good job.

[mitunnelrat]

Agreed. I'm pretty capable of most anything I set my mind to, but I usually like to see/ read the process first! I think my dad delights in throwing me out of my comfort zone though.

And thanks, it was a good job. It won't be much longer and I'll be able to make the best damned spaghetti sauce I've ever tasted.

[Katrina]

Good job Maynard!!! Sounds like dad is teaching ya to think on your feet.Adapt to the situation

[Katrina]

One tip on the tomatoes. Blanch them(stick em in boiling water for a few seconds) then put them in ice water. The skins should come off easier and you may not get too many mangled tomatoes then That's what my grandmamma did back when she was canning them

[ladyhk13]

Yup, 60 seconds in boiling water and then dunk them in ice water to let them cool works every time. If you cut the stem end off first its even easier.

- - - Updated - - -

BTW I finally bought a food processor as well. Interesting machine.

[mitunnelrat]

Hmm. I don't know that we've blanched them ever yet. I just know I had to do it with the beans. I'll have to do that next time. Thanks!

I think I like the food processor too. Its already saved us a ton of time.

My neighbor has something pretty neat too though, a manual thing that peels and processes all at once. I'll be interested to hear how well it works for her.