Freezer Tomato Sauce

When August arrives the tomatoes come in heavy.  So do the squash, eggplant, and peppers. Rather than canning tomatoes or tomato sauce, we make a ratatouille and freeze it in one quart containers.  We don't cook it down at this point, while the weather is hot.  In the winter when the wood cookstove is going, we thaw out two or three quarts of ratatouille, cook it down to the consistency of tomato sauce and use it on pasta or homemade pizza.

Also we don't add the garlic or other herbs to the mix before freezing, as freezing degrades their quality.

Here is the process we use.  We use whatever vegetables we need to process, rather than following an exact recipe.



First of all we parboil the tomatoes by cooking them
for 45 seconds in rapidly boiling water.



The skins become very loose in the parboiling process.  Once they are cool enough to handle, cut out the stem area and green "shoulders," and slip off the skins. 

Cut the tomato into quarters and hold over the compost bucket. With your thumb, push out the seeds and liquid.

Cut you tomato quarters into chunks and add them to a large saucepan or dutch oven. Start cooking your tomatoes down over medium heat,

stirring often to avoid scorching.

Adding shredded zucchini will help to thicken the sauce.

Add cubed eggplant, sliced summer squash, chopped onions and peppers.  Cook down till vegetables are heated through but still somewhat crunchy.

Now you have a great basis for ratatouille or marinara sauce.  Allow to cool and then pack into containers and freeze.  When winter comes, add minced garlic, dried oregano and basil, and cook down to the consistency you like for tomato sauce.  Make use of the cooking down energy to heat your home!

Freezing Grilled Eggplant

This is an easy way to preserve eggplant.  We bag and freeze grilled eggplant slices, and in the winter they make a wonderful sandwich filling: just thaw and heat.

For my marinade, I mix one part unemboshi vinegar, one part tamari,

 four parts olive oil, fresh ground black pepper and fresh basil leaves.





Stir the eggplant into the marinade to coat,

and refrigerate for up to four hours.
                                                                                                                                                                 

Grill lightly on both sides till just tender, four to six minutes per side,
depending on how thick your slices are. 
Allow to cool, then chill overnight in the fridge.

                                                                                                                                                   

Next day, bag up the cold eggplant  and freeze.  For the two of us, we package up four good sized slices, or six small ones.                                                                                                          

Harvesting Onions

The onion patch got pretty weedy this year, as a result of being planted in a  field that's a bit removed from the house.   Also we had a very rainy spring, and the field was underwater for quite a while, leaving the soil dense and soggy.

As a result, the onions were smaller than usual this year.  But smaller onions tend to keep well, so we should be all set for the year.

The onions are now laid out to dry.  We put them on racks in a shed which provides a dry, shaded environment with good air circulation.

The drying rack is made of chicken wire stretched on a wooden frame, and held up by cinder blocks, allowing free circulation of air under the onions.

To facilitate the drying process, the onions are spread

 out carefully, with plenty of space around them. 

When the tops dry out, in about a month, we will trim them off and store the onions in bushel baskets in our basement. 

Optimal environment for storage is dry and 50 degrees.