Tuesday, July 6, 2010

World's Most Expensive Tomato Sauce

In the last post I showed the wonderful garden my sweetie made for me. I didn't tell you how expensive it was. First, there was the frame. Lumber from Lowe's. $$ Then there was a dumptruck load of topsoil. $$$ Plants. $
Since Buster likes to excavate, there was fencing.$
We have had a bumper crop of tomatoes, so I decided to make tomato sauce and can it. Thrifty, huh? We grew onions and garlic, too.
I bought canning jars.$

We want to be safe so I bought a pressure canner.$$

I spent hours washing jars, peeling tomatoes and chopping ingredients to make two huge pots of sauce.



My favorite part is my compost collection bin. We bought this little jewel $ on a vacation. They had nice little ceramic ones for less, but I figured I would probably drop it and that would be the end, so we sprung for the stainless one. It has a top with a charcoal filter to keep the smell of the garbage out of the kitchen. Now when I peel an onion or eat an orange, I just put the remains in this little bucket until I can go out to the compost bin. No more guilt over throwing out that natural fertilizer.

After chopping and stirring for hours, I finally put the jars in the canner to process.


Then, a mere 6 hours and $$$$$$$ later I have these jars of beautiful sauce. I wonder how much that is per jar?

Yes, indeed, I now have six, count 'em, six jars of sauce. Move over Ragu!

10 comments:

Kath said...

I can just taste all that home grown deliciousness from here :D

Jo said...

My mouth is watering...!

Omigoodness...!

Sandee said...

Thank you for stopping by my blog. I just checked out some of your past posts and I must say that I thoroughly love the way you write!
Your "priceless" sauce makes me feel so "normal" in my endeavors now. Thanks!

Patty said...

Hey, but when you do it next year it
will be free!

Waiting for our poor shriveled up
tommy-toes to make enough for a sauce to freeze. Poor little gasping
plants are dying in this heat.

Elizabeth said...

"Free" tomato sauce..........hee hee
yes, well it looks and probably tastes super
and now you have all the eqipment next time it won't cost half so much....

Buster sends greetings to your Buster.
Please post a picture of all of him!!

Patty said...

Honey child, I just froze about 16 quarts of tomatoes and I'm here to tell you that MY kitchen did not look one bit like that clean-as-a-
whistle kitchen of yours when I was done!

What's your secret? (I say as I find
yet another bit of tomato on the toaster...)

Malinda said...

Elizabeth,
I will try to get a pic of all of Buster as soon as he comes back from the dentist. (A baby tooth refused to come out and is leaning on a permanent tooth and catching things between. Can't floss him!) The anesthesia should slow him down long enough that I can get all of him!
Patty,
I did not show you a pic of the floor which I still have not scrubbed. It is sticky, but I am canning more tomatoes today so why bother?

Alycia said...

I love it! Kind of reminds of a commercial - but I bet it will be the yummiest sauce you have ever had!

Malinda said...

Thanks, Alycia, I hope it tastes good. My sweetie has been giving me and the kitchen "the look".

Unknown said...

oh yum! I want a jar of your sauce :D