Saturday, July 9, 2011

Update on the CSA from Miller Farms


Sunday, July 10 will be the fourth installment of this year's CSA share. Dave from Miller Farms has been great. He is always encouraging us share members to dig in and fill our baskets. Yes, this year we have 2 half bushel baskets to fill each week for our Family Share. It has been so much fun and a great challenge.
Last Sunday Dave had a great number of use very soon tomatoes. Art and I took advantage of the long weekend to make spaghetti sauce and can it. The Roma Food Strainer, a contraption that we invested in made its first appearance of the year. It removes the skin, core and seeds of the tomatoes. The Pressure Canner was pulled out of winter storage too. I purchased a second Crockpot when they were on sale last Christmas just for this time of year, both the new and old were soon employed.
In a bit of Olive Oil I sauteed several fresh Volcano Garlic, Peppers and Onions until they were soft. I busily cut up the 35+ tomatoes for Art to crank through the food strainer. He snagged a few to run through before cutting. Not a great idea unless you like tomato on the ceiling! We decided to run the tomato pulp though a second time with great results.
The puree was divided into the Crockpots and the onion mixture was added. A couple of carrots finely chopped and about a third of a cup of sugar were stirred in as well.
Then the waiting game began. As we cleaned up the great mess we made for this sauce, we took turns stirring it. The goal this year was to NOT scorch it as the kids will not eat scorched sauce. We would let it bubble and then let some steam off but found that it was not reducing very well. So we turned it to low and escaped to the cool movie theater down the road.
Returning several hours later we anxiously stirred the sauce and realized that it was not going to be ready to can Sunday evening.
Monday morning, Art gleefully awakens me to tell me that the sauce is DONE! Excitedly, we start the canning process. Three quarts and a pint jar proudly sit on my kitchen table now. it seems a shame to relegate them to the pantry.
I wonder what temptations from the farm will come this week!