Eighth of an Acre Bounty

Yesterday was a steamy affair in the kitchen. I have finally acknowledged to myself that October is just around the corner and our traditional tomato glut is going to take a lot more coaxing this year. We got the plastic up on the hoop house the other weekend, but a combination of cold days and less than clear plastic (try white when advertised as clear) have thwarted my hopes of instant tomato ripening. I canned 7 quarts of green tomatoes the night before last. Half were larger tomatoes, sliced for breading and frying during the winter. The other half were whole or just halved for use in enchilada sauces and other creations as I see fit.

Today I made a batch of chicken stock(from the numerous cutoffs and saved carcasses I throw in the freezer every time I roast a chicken) with a healthy dose of fennel fronds, onion and carrot. I pressure canned these as I need to save room in the freezer for the beef and pork that will be coming shortly. I also made up a batch of corn broth. We ate quite a bit of fresh corn this summer and a few cooking gigs left me with an abundance of corn cobs whose kernels had been cut off for one recipe or another. I toss these into the freezer as well until I have enough for stock/broth. The corn stock is incredibly sticky and sweet when done. It makes a great base for a corn chowder using frozen kernels in the winter, really really corny – heh.

And last but not least, I roasted up 3 pans of tomatoes with oregano for sauce. Except we decided to go run errands right in the middle of my flurry of activity and by the time we got back and I ran everything through the food mill it was more like roasted tomato paste. So be it! 4 half-pints of roasted tomato paste won’t go to waste around here.