Making and canning pasta sauce

Well it is certainly tomato season down here in NC! We have been picking, eating, canning and saucing our way through our garden GREAT bounty! This year we have made 2 batches (so far) of pasta sauce and we wanted to share our recipe and process with you all!

 

Supplies -

-Pressure Canner

-pot

-sieve

-blender

-jars with lids and rings

 

Ingredients:

-30lbs of tomatoes (we use mostly Roma)

-1-2 onions

-1 head of garlic

-1 cup of chopped celery or green peppers (we used peppers)

-4.5 tsp salt

-2 tbsp oregano

-4 tbsp. parsley

-2 tbsp. pepper

-red pepper flakes (optional, to taste)

-1/4c brown sugar

-vegetable oil

 

This recipe yields 7-9 quart jars depending on how thick you like the sauce.

 

The first step is to prep the tomatoes, there are two ways to do this. The method we use is, wash tomatoes then place in blender. Pour tomato goo into sieve and strain out skins and seeds. The second method is dip tomatoes in boiling water for 30-60 seconds or until the skins split. Then dip in iced cold water and slip skins off Remove the core and quarter the meat of the tomato.

 

One you have processed your tomatoes the way you would like, follow these directions to turn that goo into sauce!

 

-Sauté the vegetables in the vegetable oil until tender.

-Once tender, add tomato goo, spices and sugar.

-Bring to a boil.

-Simmer uncovered, until think enough for serving. Be sure to stir occasionally to prevent burning. This usually takes ALL day and then I like to let the sauce rest overnight (typically the sauce will have reduced by about half of the original volume). In the morning I then turn the sauce back on to prepare for canning.

-To can your sauce be sure it is heated through, you want to hot pack the jars. Fill the jars with the hot sauce, leaving about 1 inch of headspace. Wipe down rims and secure lids.

 

To process the jars:

-use your dial pressure canner to process jars at 11 pounds of pressure for, 20 minutes for pints and 25 minutes for quart jars. - or-

-use your weighted gauge pressure canner to process jars at 10 pounds of pressure for, 20 minutes for pints and 25 minutes for quart jars

 

Making and canning stock or broth

There is lots of cooking and preserving that I do in order to use up as much of our wonderful fresh meat and vegetables and fruit as possible. We are working to keep a large majority of a food local, so that means that sometime you get a TON of something and need to figure out how to use it and/or save it for future uses. I decided that I should start sharing some of these ideas/recipes in case you decide to try the same!

 

The past two weekends have been very busy as I have been making and canning fresh pork stock so that I could get the bones out of the freezer to make way for our 252 pounds of fresh beef that we ordered from a local farmer (can you say YUUUMMM! We have used this farmer for the last five years or so and his meat is certainly a nice treat and well worth the investment!) If you are interested in more information about the fresh beef, please send me an email. I would be happy to share, sales@dragonfly-farm.org

 

Okay, well onto making and canning broth/stock. This recipe works with any kind of meat. I use the same method for pork, beef and chicken, and the result is always the same - DELICIOUS, flavorful stock that can be used in a variety of fashions!

 

Tools:

-Pressure Canner (I used a dial gauge canner)

-Mason jars with lids

-Colander

-Cheese Cloth

-Large Pot

 

Ingredients:

-5lbs of bones/animal parts (you can use the parts of the animal that you might not prefer to eat, but are edible, for example, when doing chicken broth, I use the cleaned feet, heart, liver etc. they add to the richness of the stock and it means that those parts do not go to waste!)

-6 qts of water

-4 carrots

-4 celery stocks

-1 or 2 onions

-3 or 4 cloves of garlic

-salt

-peppercorns

-parsley or other herbs

 

Directions On Making the Stock:

-place all ingredients into the pressure cooker (leave out the bottom shelf)

-turn burner on high and bring to a boil and place lid with the weight off

-once steam is venting from the lid, place weight on and allow it to reach 15 pounds of pressure.

-cook at 15lbs of pressure for 20 minutes

-once done cooking, turn off heat and allow to depressurize on its own

-once depressurized and cool enough to work with the pot, scoop out the large bones and vegetables.

-once most of the bones and vegetables are scooped out, strain the remaining liquid through the colander that is lined with a cheese cloth and is over the other large pot, so that it catches all of the smaller particles from the broth.

-From here, you can take the larger vegetables and stock and make a GREAT soup or stew by adding some additional ingredients. If you would prefer to skip that and just can your stock, please see the next set of directions.

 

Directors On Canning The Stock

-start placing the strained broth into your mason jars, I do a mixture of quart and pint jars.

*For a double batch of stock I usually get 9 quarts and 5-7 pints.

-When packing leave about 1" head space in the jars

-be sure to wipe the rims and seal the jars up tight.

-place the bottom shelf in your pressure canner and add about 2" of water and then place the jars inside. For a double batch I have to do this process twice since all of the jars will not fit in one processing.

-Place the lid on the canner with the weight off and allow the canner to boil.

-Once steam is steadily streaming from the lid, place the weight on and allow the pressure to build to 10 pounds.

-Process quart jars at 10 pounds for 25 minutes and pint jars at 10 pounds for 20 minutes (if there is a mixture of both sizes, just go with the longer time)

-once done cooking, turn off heat and allow to depressurize on its own

-once cool enough to work with, remove jars from canner and place out to cool. Be sure to remove the ring from the lid to prevent rust from forming.

-once the jars have cooled off and dry, replace the rings and label the lid with a sharpie with the contents and the month/year of creation.

 

 

The last of the babies

Our kidding season has come to a close! We certainly had a great year for babies, lots of beautiful colors and great personalities! We have even decided to retain Coco's girl,Minnie. She is her moms twin and by the time we retire Coco, Minnie will be ready to take her place as a breeding member of our herd.

So, now, we wanted to introduce you to the last of our babies for the year!

This is Elliot, he is Ava's single boy.

This is Sable's daughter, she is chocolate brown with waddles. She does not yet have a name. Her best friend on the farm is hoofs down, handsome mister Elliott! We welcome some great name suggestions!

 

 

Don't forget to check out our facebook page for updates and even more cuteness!