2005 Harvest Notes Page 3 back to garden subdirectory          site index           h-o-m-e Sept. 14 -  Don't forget to check the 2004 Harvest Idea page, as it was written with this particular time of year in mind.   It's a busy time here in Sparkling Lotus-land.   PEACHES abound thanks to our CSA food share and so I'm pretty sure there's some homemade cobbler in my immediate future   I've also got a mandatory date with a new batch of tomato sauce. Above is but a portion of my most recent tomato harvest.  The abundance of Our Mother is becoming literally staggering.   Every time I purchase new mason jars for the Next Generation essence preparations, the clerk assumes I'm in the midst of more typical preservation efforts.   I don't correct them because in truth I should be canning, or at least cooking, right now - and that applies to any given moment of "right now" during this particular sub-season of the year!   My personal energy reserve continues to build and refine itself. The time I have available for cooking and linear harvesting chores is very precious to me. FAVORITE PRIMAVERA SAUCE FOR PEOPLE WHO DO TOO MUCH This sauce is delicious and ultimately very simple to prepare on accounta it's all about the manageable pieces.  Breaking the sauce into different stages allows us to work in a joyful and loving spirit rather than feeling harassed and yet again running short of energy as well as time. Gather your tomatoes - a mixture of varieties is very pleasant.  Wash and core.   Set them in boiling water for a few minutes, so they'll slip easily from their skins.  Reserve the water as a base for your next batch of home-made vegetable stock.   I place the peeled tomatoes in a large, deep-sided frying pan.  I mash them and set them to simmer.   Once they have cooked down to a nice puree (this will take a few hours but it's largely unmonitored time when you can do other things beyond occasional stirring duties) you can store them in the refrigerator until the next day.   This saves your overall energy pattern from crashing in the aftermath of a gargantuan chore.  The overnight wait-time largely depends on how many tomatoes you have to process in relation to your available time and energy. NOTE:   I don't often bother straining my puree but if you want to do it, this is the best time.  If you're going to make the sauce in two steps, Refrigerate the puree in glass or plastic rather than the metal cooking pan. To prepare the sauce itself you need and hour or two of simmering time.   You also need to prep the other ingredients and do a bit of sauteeing. TIP:  It's easy enough to do a little more chopping and fire up another burner on the stove, so that you begin a batch of vegetable stock at the same time. Bring the tomato puree to room temp and set into a large soup or stock pan.   Add olive oil (roughly one quarter cup) and a half cup of vegetable or meat stock.   Whisk together and warm the pan gradually over a low heat.  If you like adding salt or sugar, you can add some now - later you will want to adjust to taste.  As the tomatoes warm, chop between one-five cloves of garlic (depends on the size of the batch and personal tastes) and one-three shallots or cippolini onions.  Heat a medium saute pan with a modest coating of olive oil.   Brown the onions and garlic.  Remove pan from heat and reserve the contents in a small bowl.  If you're very fat-content conscious, you can use a small strainer to drain the vegetables while you continue your work. Add a small can (or less at your discretion) of tomato paste to your puree.  I like to add it a spoonful at a time and whisk thoroughly.   If you like wine in your sauces, add some now and whisk, whisk, whisk.  I also add a tablespoon of Easy Sparkle cider vinegar. Chop and saute any combination of fresh vegetables you have one hand.  My favorite suggestions are listed below.  I like to make the pieces smaller and thinner than what'd I'd prepare for a basic soup recipe.  Re-introduce the drained olive oil, for its flavor.  You may also want to add more olive oil progressively or you may want to steam-saute by making progressive additions of vegetable stock, instead. Favorite Additions: zucchini, peppers, raab, broccoli, mushrooms, italian fennel, spinach NOTE: Chop and saute parsley and marjoram or oregano with the vegetables but reserve any basil additions for the serving table, or the last 15 minutes of cooking time. Add the vegetables slowly.  Fold them into the sauce and set the heat low.  Stir whenever you pass by during the next hour or two.  Taste it a couple times to see if you need to adjust the salt-sweet factor.  I usually wind up adding about a tablespoon of sugar, but no salt.   Oftentimes, people find themselves best able to prepare the sauce (or for that matter, the puree) once they've gotten a second wind from their dinner time meal.  The sauce cooks as they do whatever and then it blends beautifully overnight in the refrigerator for the next day's supper and beyond.  I prefer making relatively small batches that are served fresh over the next week and/or frozen into individual meal servings.   NOTE:  If you're preparing vegetable stock at the same time, you will probably want to let this cook an hour (or more) longer than the stock.