End Of Tomato Season

Finally it has begun to freeze at night, which has turned my tomatoes black on the vines. But not before I went out for one final harvest and picked about 40 pounds of tomatoes. Thanks goodness I discovered Ball 'freezer jars' at the hardware store while I was in there browsing (I could browse in the hardware store a really long time - there is something wrong with me!). It made my final tomato-keeping adventure so easy I wish I had started doing it in the spring! All I did was cut the stems off of the tomatoes, squeeze out most of the seeds (my gardener neighbor says too many seeds make the sauce bitter or sour) and toss them into the blender. Then, when it was full, I turned it on, and in a few seconds I had a blender full of tomato sauce - ta da! There is even a fill line in these jars so that you don't over-fill and have an explosion in your freezer (this may or may not have happened once before in my freezer). A few minutes of labeling, then a couple of trips up and down the basement stairs, and there they are, waiting to be used this winter in pasta sauce and soup! It made me feel so farmerish. But in a modern, easy way, which is perfect for me, since I am very lazy and consider actual farming to be way too much work.