Homemade Tomato Sauce from the Garden

The limb that snapped off, covered in ivy.

My "What's a Girl to do" post is going to consist of home bound activities.  Our poor yard still has four trees down from the micro burst that hit our yard a month ago.  Adding insult to injury, another monster limb crashed down a few weeks ago.  I've been mulching beds trying to use up what my husband has chipped and shredded.  We've left a poor dogwood standing that was hammered by the monster pine that fell, to see if it has a chance to recover.

It's harvest time in the yard!  An annual tradition for me is to make tomato sauce from the garden bounty.  It seemed like just yesterday my little tomato plant seedlings were sprouting and growing in the basement.

"Juliet" Tomatoes and Basil from my garden.

Wow, now it's time to make sauce, something I must have made for the last 15 years.  Last years batch was not very good.  I decided to make a rush batch because it was so horribly hot in the kitchen.  We love having the A/C off and the doors and windows wide open.  This year, it is way too humid to have a door even cracked.  So at least my cooking is more comfortable and the sauce might just be good this year.  You have to be very patient and allow the sauce to cook down.  I'm going on 40 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes.  It smells divine.  Garlic, onion, sweet pepper and mushrooms so far in the pot leaving basil, oregano, and thyme to drop in last.  My secret ingredient has just been added - sugar.  To reduce some of that acidic tang from the tomatoes and make it SMOOTH.  I've gotten away from using sugar these days but there is not a good substitute for my sauce.  I've tried Stevia, it's fair, but will only use it 1/2 with sugar.  I really like Agave Nectar for most things but it's not great in sauces and requires a lot of it.  I don't so anything time consuming like remove peelings so I do have to cook it down for about an hour to make it all meld together.

Only the mushrooms are store bought.

May be you will be inspired this weekend to make something from fresh produce.  Many growers would be happy to sell you a box load of paste tomatoes at a reduced price.  Using dried herbs works nearly as well as fresh, just use less than you would with fresh because it is more concentrated.

Happy weekend.

-Rebecca







     

Smell the Lavender

Newcomers allowed to roam freely!

Last week the Garden group of the Newcomers Club of Greater Charlottesville took a trip to a wonderful Lavender Farm!  Cars were loaded and we took off in route up through the scenic Shenandoah National Park "the back way", to Harrisonburg, Virginia.  It took about 40 minutes to arrive to our destination, White Oak Lavender Farm.

Julie, the owner, gave us a wonderful tour of the farm and Lavender fields that contain 5,000 plants.  In order to create Lavender Oil for their products they also operate an on site Distillery.  It takes the blossoms of 40 plants to fill one big pot to create a small amount of essential oil.

Nubian Goat, what a cutie.

We were all quite impressed with the care of the various farm animals; Nubian Goats, Ducks, Huge Rabbits, Horses, and Chickens.  There is a lovely pond with ducks where you can sit and mediate or just relax.  Strolling the fields and taking in the beautiful views and countryside is quite wonderful.

You can tell the owners, Julie and Rick Haushalter go to great lengths to run a quality business.  Opening your car door, the smell of Lavender is all around and once you enter the shop, you almost become numb to the smell.  Given I can't get enough of Lavender, it was very refreshing.

Drunk from the Lavender in a purple haze.

The key to keeping your Lavender plants alive is to put it in full sun on a slope, offer it good drainage (rocks in the bottom of the whole is a good addition) and cut it back in the fall so the center of the plant does not stay wet and rot over the winter.  A Lavender plant will rot quickly if allowed to sit in water.

The teacher and the student.

A pretty little wand.

Julie showed us how to make Lavender Wands.  It was quite fun and something you can do if you make the trip over when the Lavender is in bloom (it needs to be fresh to not snap the stems off).  On the ride back we were all quite sleepy (it also might have been the 95 degree temperature), proving lavenders ability to relax the body.  My little wand is tucked in my bedroom wooden wardrobe oozing lovely fragrance.

-Rebecca