It's another harvest day at the Knitionary tomato farm.  Sigh.  Today was about 50 pounds.  We had a last minute tomato tasting, saved the prettiest for handing out and the rest went into the oven for roasting for roasted tomato sauce.  This is our summer routine we do twice weekly, with fresh picks in between for the daily fresh slicers.

Last weekend we made tomato sauce with our granddaughter.  She started out in the garden helping papa with the harvest.  She loved the whole process, and I think it's quite fun myself, turning beautiful home grown fruit/vegetable/whatever! into gorgeous tomato sauce.  While most of it went into the freezer, we did make some quick tomato soup by heating up some tomato sauce, adding a little chicken stock, hot milk (make sure it's hot when you add it so it won't separate), salt and pepper and cooked rice, (we prefer wild rice).  She had 3 servings and asked to take some frozen tomato sauce home with her so she could make tomato soup at home.  She also requested some homemade spaghetti sauce on her next visit and think we'll make it together.  As the tomatoes were roasting Annie kept saying, "The kitchen SMELLS SO GOOD!"  My heart swelled, I loved that we're making memories.  I told her my granddad was a commercial tomato farmer when I was a girl and tomatoes were a big part of my childhood memories; cold chilly mornings in his Ford truck and hot sun-burnt days in the fields with rows upon rows of tomatoes as far as I could see.  We'd visit each week and always take a few lugs home where my mom and her girlfriends would spend a day laughing in the kitchen making gallons of ketchup and tomato juice to share.  It doesn't take much to conjure up those pictures in my mind.

I've updated my homemade roasted tomato sauce recipe with step by step pictures.

I'll be back tomorrow with a winner for the giveaway.

If you haven't entered, there's still time!

Happy Summer!  

Linked to Tuesday Garden Party.