I remember when Tom came to the kitchen supply store
a while back to buy me, a sixteen quart pot. The sales man says
"Brewing Beer?" Yes he said, Not realizing how much he
would be using me this summer for other great tasty things.
This is about thirty pounds of tomatoes from his own garden.
a combo of Marzans that didn't do so well in size as well as
roma hybrids and big boy hybrids that both did great
even with the drought and plagues we had this summer.
The tomatoes were turned into about four quarts of goodness
that will be used this winter on pastas, pizzas and the occasional
meat ball sub (the king of subs). He will do this again
a couple of times to have about a dozen quarts in the freezer.
He found a farm that will sell him a twenty five pound box of blemished
tomatoes for seven bucks, Score!.
Next was a giant pot of chicken stock. He finally got smart
and started buying whole fryer chickens and cutting them
up himself to freeze, leaving lots of bones and bits for stock.
As a side note after a long exhaustive search he finally found
a farm that can supply all of his protein . Cure Organic farm
about five miles from our house toward Boulder has started
raising heritage pigs as well as free range chicken, they also
sell grass fed beef that they source from the next farm over.
All high quality and delicious with one stop shopping.
So with the trout he catches and freezes the only proteins he sources
outside of the boulder area are salmon and talapia.
This became ten quarts of stock.
Somewhere Tom's West Virginia ancestors are pleased to see
him make a giant pot of vegetable soup. He says every cellar
he's seen back east has the most shelf space reserved for
vegetable soup, and now he knows why.
Easily the most efficient use of all the things that peak
at the same time and tend to overwhelm most gardeners.
Hot vegetable soup and fresh bread on a snowy day
is a beautiful thing. This is about twelve quarts of goodness.
Come on winter: we're ready for you.
