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Post by Clipper on Aug 23, 2023 14:45:37 GMT -5
I was out early to pick tomatoes and let the dog run around the yard and do her business. I worried when the tomatoes were not ripening on the vine, but now they are ripening faster than I can pick them. I picked a half of a hand basket full today. Probably about 20 or so. Kathy is in the process of prepping them and canning a couple of quarts of pasta sauce today.
I think it was easier for her when I bought tomatoes by the case at the produce market and she could devote a day or so canning a large batch. I may yet buy more tomatoes and we definitely will be buying a case or two of bell peppers to freeze.
At this point I am eagerly waiting for the garden to stop producing and wilt so I can rip up the plants, till, and rake it off. When the tomatoes are gone the only thing left will be the butternut squash which requires absolutely no care. I told Kathy that come spring she should smack me up beside my head if I even look sideways when we drive by the greenhouse.
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Post by Atticus Pizzaballa on Aug 23, 2023 15:21:03 GMT -5
I remember helping my Grandmother from Italy to can tomatoes. She canned whole tomatoes with a lot of basil and I also helped my Mom until she decided it was easier to buy at the store. When I was teaching in Syracuse Assumption High School my landlord was a real nice Italian lady and she always gave me 6 quarts of canned tomatoes that she made each year. I loved the taste of sauce made from them.
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Post by kit on Aug 23, 2023 16:34:15 GMT -5
Atticus, I agree. There's nothing like fresh homegrown tomatoes for making tomato sauce... providing it's made by an authentic east Utica Italian grandmother. Theirs is the best. I could never duplicate it.
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Post by Clipper on Aug 23, 2023 18:19:13 GMT -5
We have a great produce market just up the road where I buy most of our produce. He sells a half bushel (25#) box of Roma tomatoes for $15. Last Kathy canned 3 of those boxes full. This year she is not going to do as much canning. Maybe a box or two to supplement our garden tomatoes. I am waiting for bell peppers to come down a bit and we will be buying 25# of those to cut up and freeze.
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Post by BHU on Aug 23, 2023 19:08:50 GMT -5
My Grandmother use to can tomatoes grown by Gramps who was full blooded Italian in his garden. The sauce she made was out of this world. We use canned tomatoes for sauce because she's not into canning, not my cup of tea either other then hot cherry peppers. There's a big diference in the quality of canned tomatoes. Most of the major brands (Hunts, Tuttoroso etc) imho are crap. The best are San Marzano, a specific type of tomato grown in Italy, I believe in the Naples region but I could be wrong. If the can says "DOP" that means they are authentic San Marzano's imported from Italy. Problem is, they're hard to find & expensive.
My garden is just about done. Today I pulled the zucchini plants & picked a few tomatoes & longhots, not quite ripe. I also have enough Basil in the freezer to last us a year & I gave some away to family. A few days ago I trapped an oppossum in the Have A Heart that I think was gnawing my tomatoes. Dropped him off in greener pastures up in Marcy. More then likely he was nesting in the yard of that cretin behind me who as of this writing has mowed his lawn no more then 3 times since April. Our fence has 6 ft panels & there are weeds on the cretin's side that top it.
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Post by clarencebunsen on Aug 23, 2023 19:50:44 GMT -5
I don't know if it is still true but when my son started at Casa Imports a member of the family went to Italy each year to supervise the harvest and canning to the tomatoes for the Cora products.
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Post by BHU on Aug 24, 2023 7:23:53 GMT -5
I don't know if it is still true but when my son started at Casa Imports a member of the family went to Italy each year to supervise the harvest and canning to the tomatoes for the Cora products. I buy Cora products quite often at Chanatry's. |
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Post by Clipper on Aug 24, 2023 10:32:00 GMT -5
I don't know if it is still true but when my son started at Casa Imports a member of the family went to Italy each year to supervise the harvest and canning to the tomatoes for the Cora products. I buy Cora products quite often at Chanatry's. We can't buy Cora's products here but we buy Contadina's San Marzano STYLE tomatoes for her sauce when we don't have home canned tomatoes. Not as good as Cora's and just San Marzano "style", not the real deal. They are acceptable and much better than Hunts. We miss being able to shop at the Casa Imports store. Do they still have their own outlet at their warehouse or do you have to find the products at the supermarket? The Roma tomatoes we buy here for canning are good. They are large, plump and meaty and make great sauce, and the regular canning tomatoes are good also but are real juicy and have to be cooked down more. |
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Post by kit on Aug 24, 2023 10:52:17 GMT -5
I buy the Cento brand of San Marzano tomatoes. It has a green banner that say 'Certified' which means that they're D.O.P. I agree... San Marzano tomatoes are the best. My sauce may not be quite as good as an Italian grandma's, but it's much better than Chef Boyardee.  |
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Post by Clipper on Aug 24, 2023 12:06:36 GMT -5
I buy the Cento brand of San Marzano tomatoes. It has a green banner that say 'Certified' which means that they're D.O.P. I agree... San Marzano tomatoes are the best. My sauce may not be quite as good as an Italian grandma's, but it's much better than Chef Boyardee. LOL! around here you are liable to find a place serving canned sauce or sauce that makes Franco American look delectable. We tried a new place in Johnson City not long ago the sauce was so thin that it went down through the pasta and was all on the plate underneath. I sopped it up with bread, but could have drank it with a straw. I think it was tomato juice with a bit of dollar store oregano added. |
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Post by Atticus Pizzaballa on Aug 24, 2023 13:27:04 GMT -5
Does anyone know where to find the small jarred fried peppers and onions. I cannot find them at Hannafords, Price Chopper or Walmart!!! It is like they disappeared after covid. I forgot who made them I think Cora or Casa Imports?
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Post by Atticus Pizzaballa on Aug 24, 2023 13:33:43 GMT -5
I buy the Cento brand of San Marzano tomatoes. It has a green banner that say 'Certified' which means that they're D.O.P. I agree... San Marzano tomatoes are the best. My sauce may not be quite as good as an Italian grandma's, but it's much better than Chef Boyardee. LOL! around here you are liable to find a place serving canned sauce or sauce that makes Franco American look delectable. We tried a new place in Johnson City not long ago the sauce was so thin that it went down through the pasta and was all on the plate underneath. I sopped it up with bread, but could have drank it with a straw. I think it was tomato juice with a bit of dollar store oregano added. LOL. When Mardany had his small grocery store on James St across from Blessed Sacrament Church he told me how some people used tomato catsup to make tomato sauce... can you imagine that!!! Also several months ago there was this young miserable lady who was yelling at her child (early grade school). Saying I told you you had two choices for supper and lunch tomorrow Chief Boyardee or McDonalds . Which do you want..... This lady loves yelling and putting down her child more than once I hear her saying to same think to him. I feel sorry for him. |
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Post by Atticus Pizzaballa on Aug 24, 2023 13:38:06 GMT -5
I buy the Cento brand of San Marzano tomatoes. It has a green banner that say 'Certified' which means that they're D.O.P. I agree... San Marzano tomatoes are the best. My sauce may not be quite as good as an Italian grandma's, but it's much better than Chef Boyardee. I use the same tomatoes but I do not make my sauce with cut up slices of hotdogs like the way Sheldon Coopers Mom makes then on Big Bang Theory Show......... |
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Post by BHU on Aug 24, 2023 13:49:00 GMT -5
Does anyone know where to find the small jarred fried peppers and onions. I cannot find them at Hannafords, Price Chopper or Walmart!!! It is like they disappeared after covid. I forgot who made them I think Cora or Casa Imports? Chanatry's carries them under the Mancini brand. |
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Post by Clipper on Aug 24, 2023 16:13:46 GMT -5
LOL! What do you expect from a mayonnaise face? I just can't quite imagine what Oscar Meyer style spaghetti would taste like and I love hot dogs.
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