Day 291, Year 7: More Tomato Processing
Date: Saturday, August 25, 2012
Weather: Still Beautiful
Location: Eel Pond, Woods Hole, Massachusetts
While Mark worked at West Marine today, I finished processing the twenty
pounds of tomatoes we bought at the Thursday Farmer?s Market. They were an
heirloom variety something like an Italian Roma which is good for making
sauce. I?ve been adding a huge amount of saut?ed celery and carrots, with
some onion and garlic to the tomatoes, and pureeing everything in the food
processor to end up with a smooth sauce. Sam and Jonah, like most kids,
don?t like chunky sauce, and I am finding that I like the pureed sauce as
well. Between blanching, peeling, and deseeding the tomatoes, and chopping
and saut?ing the other veggies, and then cooking the sauce and getting it
into the canner, the whole day disappeared. I was twenty minutes late
picking Mark up from work and then we raced back to Woods Hole to get ready
to go to a birthday party for a friend named Olivia. This was a belated
birthday party as Olivia turned 75 in late July, but it was also a
celebration of her 50 years as a US citizen.
Olivia was born in India and came to the United States in the early 1960?s
to attend seminary school. Her true goal was to get a graduate degree in
biology, but seminary school was the ticket out of India and into school in
Texas. There she met her lifelong partner, Terry, had their daughter
Sherri, and got her PhD in biology. We met Olivia and Terry through our
friends Bruce and Jane Woodin. They were there tonight and it was great to
catch up on everyone?s summer. Olivia?s daughter has a friend named Carrie
who was also there tonight. Carrie owns Peachtree Circle Farms and it was
from her that we bought the heirloom tomatoes that I was processing today.
Carrie and I talked for a long time, sharing tricks of the trade with one
another. She has never used a pressure canner, and is, in fact, scared to
death of them. I have used pressure canners for years and assured her that
if your canner is in good condition, you have nothing to fear. She has been
renting a state approved kitchen at night to process the tomatoes she s
growing into sauce and is selling it for $8 a pint. At that rate, Heather
and I have put up about $200 worth of organic marinara sauce. Carrie and a
friend have been processing 120 pounds of tomatoes in one night, from 7 pm
to 3 am. Unbelievable. She can make about $500 from the sales of that
sauce, so it is truly a good night?s work. I?m not sure I?m ever going to
be that fast, but a couple of the tips from Carrie should help.
Tomorrow Heather, Jed, and boys will come to the boat mid-morning and we
will sail to Tarpaulin Cove for a day of fun in the sun. I am hoping to
snorkel the point there and see what I can see. I know Heather and Jed are
interested as well, and I?m hoping Sam and Jonah will join us. We will
return to Eel Pond tomorrow night and the gang plans to spend the night.
Early Monday morning Heather has to go to work and Mark has to drive to
Boston for an appointment with his urologist. Heather will be only a dinghy
ride away from work and Jed and I will probably go to the beach with the
boys. When Oliver gets hungry, we?ll just plop him in the stroller and take
him to momma. It is about a half-mile from the beach at one end of Woods
Hole to WCAI, the public radio station where Heather works. So in ten
minutes we can easily get Oliver to his food source. By late morning, Jed
will have to go to work and I will have all three boys for a bit until
Heather finishes up. So Jed and I, along with the boys, will come back to
Windbird. Then Jed will take the dinghy to shore so he can go to work, and
then Heather will have access to the dinghy to come back to Windbird when
her work is done. At least that?s the plan.
