Canning day, tomatoes and apples

There were lots of tomatoes in the garden this week just waiting to be turned into sauce. I'm enjoying my new strainer (Salad Master). Saves the time to peel and core the tomatoes, but I did find that cooking tomato pieces for 10 minutes removes more of the pulp from the skins.

I boil down the tomato juice to about half its original volume while adding, garlic, onions, basil, scallions, salt, and pepper. A sink full of tomatoes makes about 8 pints. I can't buy anything that tastes this good.

September is apple picking time and time to make apple sauce. The apples are from a farm in western Massachusetts. My recipe is fairly simple, mix Cortland apples with McIntosh apples and add a couple vitamin C tablets to prevent browning. I finished the day with 18 pints of canned apple sauce and 4 quarts  frozen slices for future pies.