food processor = Villaware

Hey Pat - so glad you posted this - it reminded me that I had been meaning to thank you for the wonderful tomato plants you shared with me earlier this year. All are doing wonderfully. Would you mind sharing a few basic instructions on using your food processor for making the paste. I'm not real up on using one and have always made our tomato juice using one of the hand turned mills. Do you have to remove the peel and seeds, etc before processing? As you can tell I'm pretty stupid about stuff, but you never know til you ask.

Thanks again,
Frances

You can also make tomato paste in your blender...no need to peel...I use mine every summer for T. sauce, and like Pat, cook it down, but I do mine on the stove, never thought of the slow cooker.

Try adding onion and celery and bell pepper to the sauce in the blender... mmmmm good.

Jan

Silver Queen is for feed corn. Get the Golden Queen. ;-)
It's just my own taste. I like the Silver if it's creamed but we always raise Golden. I can tell the difference at Dinner if it was picked in the morning versus right before you eat it. It does lose flavor over several hours. I reckon it's just what you were raised on.

I always like Roma's for paste and salsa.

Let's please stop talking food on this forum because everytime we do I gain a mess of weight and that's the last thing ole porky BOV needs!

I hope that everyone is doing well in this awful heat and humidity. If you're outside doing work make sure that you are hydrating yourself with plenty of water. If you're thirsty then you've waited too long. Five kidney stones later I had to learn the hard way. I wouldn't wish those on my worst enemy.

I haven't been posting much lately because of this insane nightmare of a remodel that we're going through. My nerves are shot and I'm depressed but I'm still keeping all of you in my thoughts and prayers. I'm sure that my sarcasm and worthless coments aren't entirely misssed anyway. ;-)

Pat,

The tomatoes are monsters now! I'm in the process of stringing them to a truss they are getting so large! So far I have red tomatoes from one Rideau but not the other - remember they looked different? The one giving the tomatoes is the one that has leaves that look almost like pepper plant leaves. The tomatoes are slightly larger than golf balls, round, and very tasty. The other that has been giving ripe tomatoes is the cherry tomato that gets gold fruits! What a surprise that was - and they are so tasty! Many of the others have large fruits set, and should be ready soon. Although all of the tomato seedlings that I tried to raise indoors this year died long ago, would you believe that the volunteers from my compost pile that I transplanted just for kicks have also set fruit and appear to have bred true? So I will have Romas after all this year. But without you, I would never have known the variety of tomatoes out there, and the fun of growing heirlooms! Thanks so much!

-Regina

Hi Frances, Glad some of the tomatoes are working out for you. It has been a tasting adventure over here as I eagerly await those that have been ripe enough to sample. As for the food processor, mine also has a hand crank, I just pulled off the top green at the end of the stem and quartered the larger ones, so they would fit through the processor. Popped the cherries through whole. We did use the Villaware outdoors, which turned out to be beneficial to my kitchen walls and floors. Just pop those washed tomatoes in the hopper and push down gently with a small mallet type tool. The beautiful juice and pulp come out on one side and the skins, cores, seeds push out through another tube. Seems it would be a good idea to clean that part out about half way through processing if it seems to be stopping up. It is recommended that any fruits that are not perfectly ripe should be parboiled before running them through the food mill, which I failed to do, thus the waste was cramming up a bit. I love not having to remove the peels and squashing the tomatoes through a sieve for juice, soup or sauce. It cuts the work time down considerably. You would not believe the number of questions that I voiced on the Harvest Forum last year about processors before buying the least expensive one I could find. Same product was $79. and $69. Got mine from Amazon.com for $39.
Adding hardware to process berries took some searching though. Hope your mater's and roses are surviving well.

Jan_Hobbs, it took 18 to 24 hours in the crockpots to reduce to a thick enough sauce, so not certain it is the best method. I just didn't want to keep having to stir it frequently for hours. I have heard people say they reduce theirs in a low oven setting. I added fresh garlic and lots of lemon basil in a cheesecloth sack. I'm considering cheating and buying a can of store bought tomato paste to see if that won't improve the thickening next time.

Big_Orange_Vol, will have to try the Golden Queen. This wasn't a great crop and though we got them prepared and froze quickly, I fear they were actually picked the day before...drats. Of the 10 dozen, three ended up being waste. Is this a bad year for corn?? We have too many racoons to try and grow it ourselves without erecting another huge fence. Actually, we used new garden space this year that wasn't worked up as well and improved as much as it should have been. Not getting the best production out of that acre. Lots needs to be done.
Remodeling? Ouch! That's worse than building.

Hi Regina, Yes, I would believe that the plants that came up as volunteers in your compost pile and pleased that they proved true to the original. Yum on those little bitty "coyote" yellow tomatoes, indeed a surprise. All of my plants are doing something different it seems. Some are dying, others simply yellowing leaves and some are turning gray. This is true of the heirlooms as well as the determinate hybrids. The Rideau, I think is pear shaped and the other cherry is round, the round ones coming on first over here. I am in tomato heaven. One of the Box Car Willies was ripe enough to take up to my Mom's last week. It is full bodied and tasty with a little tang to it. To be honest, we both decided that her Better Boy actually tasted better. Glad you and I are both receiving an education on heirloom vegetables. Was that purple cherokee that I got from you, do you recall?

Thanks.

Pat

The corn I've seen out at the farm markets hasn't been as good this year as what I've gotten at the local supermarkets. Got some truly wonderful Silver Queen at Krogers yesterday which was supposed to be from a local grower, though. The yellow and bicolors have been excellent at the supermarkets.
I have been getting great cantelopes at the farmer markets, though. Huge ones that were orange to the rind. Also good small tomatoes. I don't have enough sun to grow tomatoes, unfortunately.

No, I was the one with the tiny, sad, Brandywine and Roma seedlings that stalled... in peat pots. Sigh. The purple Cherokee sounds interesting!

I'm thinking the one labeled "rideau" that is ripening daily is not really Rideau. The fruits are quite round and slightly larger than golf balls. Then again, with heirloom seeds, depending on the pollination of the parent, I suppose you never do know what you're going to get!

I'm having such fun with my heirloom tomato patch... some branches broke off, and I have just stuck them in the ground elsewhere... and they are living! More tomato plants for me!

-Regina