Tomato ( and pepper) Paste making day

I still grow enough tomatoes for a family of four, but only my wife and I live at home now. All I need to store is about 1 quart of tomatoes for every 2 weeks ( so about 25, 26 ) which lasts us for the year. The tomatoes are still coming from the garden, and my freezer space is now almost maxed out with Frozen French fries, frozen apple cider and quarts of tomatoes. Decided to cook down a bunch of tomatoes quarts and make paste out of them to regain some freezer space.

Started of with 8 quarts of tomatoes ( cooked down a bit before i took the pics). Ran them through a mill too get rid of the seeds ( I had already skinned them in the initial storage). After reducing the tomato puree, I placed them on large baking sheets in the oven at about 325F. I would check on them every half hour or so to test the thickness and stir a bit so it cooked evenly ( and the sides didn't burn or get over cooked). One I got it to the desired thickness, I let sit cool down, and froze them silicone ice trays . The trays are placed on a mini pan so they stay level and dont spill over ( by accident ) in the freezer. My would kill me. I have 2 sizes off silicone trays. One is close to 1 Tbs, the other close to 2 Tbs. I used both. One fully frozen, I popped them out and tossed them in a ziplock bag in the freezer. Takes up about %25 the space the quarts containers did .

Donthave pics of the pepper paste, but I roasted the peppers soon the grill, took the charred skin , seeds and stem off. blended in a blender to a thick puree. Cooked the puree for about 10 minutes, salting to taste, adding a little lemon juice and olive oil, then freezing in the silicone trays for later use.

I did dry some of the Roma's mid season. I'll probably grow more Romas next year so. can dry more.

Kevin sleeping .

First I thought 'Kevin' was some ginger root in your stone mortar that you were going to grind up into paste. Thought that strange as you didn't mention using ginger with your tomato paste.

dragn - it's time for your wine, you are beginning to hallucinate.

Sorry Kevin.

Oh so that is what we celebrate today! I wish someone would have told me at 8 when I got up! I knew I had my hands full of things to do but NO DIRECTION! Watermelon-done, yellow peppers-done, red peppers, tomatoes, mushrooms-almost done, put away the wax for now-done, dishes-done twice, zucchini-done....all prep work!
@larry_stewart love the pictures and descriptions and Kevin is back, he is so cute!
I'm blending tomatoes tonight to leave on overnight in the electric roaster, can them tomorrow. Red peppers will get done soon, some are still ripening.

My peppers have finally decided to bud up.

Did you discard the seeds of the peppers, or do you save them for say, something else? Are pepper seeds good for anything?

I discard the seeds when making paste cause I want the paste to be nice and smooth. When doing other things with the peppers, I'm not as fastidious at removing each and every seed.