More Tomato Sauce

This is our third batch of sauce.  Because of the crazy dry weather, there were not as many tomatoes as last year and they are ripening at different times, so we are picking them when they are ripe and making sauce in batches.  Last year we just picked all the tomatoes and made one big batch.

We are lucky that we planted 60 plants this year because the yield is nowhere near the yield from last year's 24 plants. We got 40 pounds of sauce from 24 plants last year.  My goal this year is 40 pounds from 60 plants!  Lack of rain and animals eating the tomatoes really has an effect on the yield.  I think initially we lost about 20-30 big tomatoes to the chipmunks & squirrels before I solved the issue.

The process is still the same. We wash them to remove the dirt in the sink and then cut them to fit in the juicer.  It doesn't matter if the stems stay on or not, they are removed in the juicer.

Champion Juicer, juice comes out the bottom; seeds, skins & stems come out the side.

 The process moves along quickly, the juicer is fast.  When the bowl fills with juice, I dump it in the pot.

Using the hand food mill with the juicer waste pulp

Pulp, seeds and skins (waste from juicer) is processed through the hand food mill to remove whatever the juicer didn't extract.

Pot of sauce boiling down

The sauce gets boiled down (reduced) until it is the right consistency, usually a little thinner than store bought puree.  After it cools, we put in zip lock bags, remove the air, then vacuum pack the zip lock bag in a vacuum bag for freezing.

The finished product ready for freezing

This batch was 12 1/2 pounds.  Total 32 1/2 pound this season.  Still shooting for 40 pound from the garden.