Tomato-fest!

You could say our family are a bit obsessed with food. We grow it for love and for a living. We enjoy preparing it and eating it and talking about it and sharing it. We love simple food. Rustic food. We love food you can recognise and we love food that is good for you.

But more than anything else we love food that is grown by us or by someone locally. We love food has been grown with love, food that has been grown without the use of any nasty chemicals and food that has been grown now, this very season, with all the nutrients still inside.

Last Wednesday afternoon we drove out to visit our friend Florian at Mount Franklin Organics. We sat in the sun on his deck overlooking his orchards and gardens. We threw stones for his dogs to bring back and we discussed life, organic farming and the season that was.

And then on our way out we sorted and weighed and bought five boxes of San Marzano tomatoes. Our five boxes had been picked that day and were warm to touch. You can see Florian above with what he called his blackberry, working out how much we bought.

Yesterday our girls stayed home from school to make roasted tomato passata.

We divided up the jobs and got to work. We washed, sliced, picked and made a herby/garlicy mix, mixed it all together and laid the tomatoes out on oven trays.

Then we roasted the tomatoes in the oven. YUM! (I look forward to doing this part in the earth oven next year when it's finished.)

Then we spooned the mixture into the mouli and then into a jug which filled the jars. Then those jars boiled in the Fowlers machine for an hour and a half to sterilise and seal them.

I guess what I didn't say at the start but I'll add at the end, is that we also love food filled with memories. And I know that every time we open a jar of this summery goodness over the cooler months to come, we'll remember the fun filled day we spent together in the kitchen making it.

How about you?
Do you like to preserve the glut for leaner times?
Would you like to?
What do you preserve? And do you have a favourite method or recipe?
Can you make the stores last all winter long?
Do you have memories of preserving days from when you were a child?
Do you think it's much simpler and easier to go and buy a tin from the market?
I wonder.

I do hope you have the most fabulous weekend this weekend and get to eat something delicious.

See ya. x