Our tomato plants have done well this summer, despite the insane heat that we have been experiencing, and that means we have buckets and buckets of tomatoes to deal with. 

There’s nothing that refreshes the soul like a vine-ripened tomato!  For me, it is the quintessential taste of summer.

We have 24 tomato plants in the garden this year, which is way more than we need for a supply of fresh tomatoes, so we are canning the rest.

Roma tomatoes are perfect for making tomato sauce.  I’ve spent the last five weekends making a variety of Italian-style marinara, as well as barbecue sauce, and spicy chili sauce. 

All in all, I’ve made 40 quarts of 43 pints of sauces.  It takes about 45 gallons of tomatoes to make that much sauce, so it requires a lot standing and stirring to complete the job!

The result is a year’s worth of delicious homemade sauce. 

There’s lots of books and plenty of online resources for anyone interested in canning.  Who knows, maybe I’ll post a recipe or two and offer some advice on canning someday!