Fruits of the Effort

Images: Pot of tomato vegetable juice cooking and the finished product.

Today is the second day I've "put up" a batch of tomato vegetable juice. I now have 21 quarts and 7 pints.

From where I come from, north/central Indiana farm people, "put up" means canning. Tomato products, as long as there are no animal by-product ingredients, can be processed in a water bath pan.

Probably a DNA-genetic thing, but I get great satisfaction from growing the ingredients, the work to make canning possible, the beautiful jars of food, the ease of having the produce so readily available and the taste of fresh canned food all year long.

When is too much never enough? My kids are sure we could support a small community on canned tomatoes alone. My kids exaggerate - somewhat . . .

I either fix for our own meals, give away or preserve the produce from my garden. Seldom, does anything rot for lack of picking.

Here's my recipe for canned tomato vegetable juice. It consists of one large stockpot batch which makes 15 quarts. I won't go into the canning techniques. If you've never canned, ask someone if you can help them the next time they can. Also, the "Ball Blue Book of Preserving" is an excellent resource.

1/2 C - Olive Oil

4 large Onions - cut in large pieces - enough to cover the bottom of the stock pot

10 garlic cloves - chopped

Cook the above until soft but not browned

Add:

2 C - shredded carrots

2 C - chopped celery, including leaves

2 C - chopped sweet peppers

Large hand full of parsley

Small hand full of basil leaves

Small hand full of Greek oregano

5 - large leaves of sage

1 - 6 inch sprig rosemary

1 - 2 C - sugar (according to how sweet you like your juice)

1/2 - 1 C - vinegar (increase based on amount of sugar you use)

1 T - celery seed

1 T - ground clove

2 T - Kosher salt - to taste

1 T - ground pepper - to taste

Tomatoes - cleaned, cored, quartered - enough to fill the rest of the pot.

If your garden has the following, they may be used also: spinach, lettuce and squash. Hot peppers may be used but they may increase in heat as the juice sits in the jars. I freeze my hot peppers and add when I'm cooking a dish rather than during the canning stage.

I don't recommend using cabbage, cauliflower, brussel sprouts, or broccoli in juice. Their flavors will detract from the tomatoes.

I cook this until the tomatoes are mushy and the flavors have come out of the seasonings.

I carefully put this through my food mill. A food mill takes out all the solids while squeezing all the pulp, liquid and flavor for my juice. I reheat and proceed to the processing.

Aside from the plants/seeds, the propane for the processing, and lots of sweat equity, you can't beat the best of this garden reward.

I love my flowers, but, come those cold winter nights and nothing beats a big pot of tomato soup from my garden fresh "put up" tomato juice.