This ketchup is much, much less sweet than the junk you buy in a squeeze bottle at the grocery store. It’s also more tart. You could probably puree it longer than I did but I rather like the chunkier texture.

Ingredients:

• 3 pounds green tomatoes, roughly equivalent to 5 cups sliced
• 2 large onions
• 1 teaspoons black pepper
• 1/2 tablespoon dry mustard
• 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
• 1 cup vinegar
• 1/2 cup honey

Preparation:

1. Rinse green tomatoes and remove any stems and insect damage. Slice green tomatoes and onions and place them in a large soup pot or deep sauce pan, along with pepper, mustard, and Worcestershire sauce and vinegar. Cook for 4 hours over very low heat, stirring when the urge seizes you.
2. After 4 hours, remove from heat and puree mixture in a blender. Remember it’s hot so be especially careful about splashes on skin. Pour back into the pot through a mesh strainer. Bring to a boil and add honey.
3. Put the ketchup in jars and store in the refrigerator. You can also can this ketchup in jars – follow the procedure below:
   1. Immediately fill 6 sterilized pint jars with the ketchup, leaving 1/4-inch space between the ketchup and jar lid. Wipe the jar tops and threads clean with clean damp towels. Place hot sealing lids on the jars and apply the screw on rings loosely. Process in boiling water bath in a deep canning pot for 5 minutes.
   2. Remove the jars and cool completely. Tighten the jar screw rings to complete the sealing process. After jars cool, check seals by pressing middle of lid with finger. (If lid springs back, it is not sealed and must be refrigerated.) Let jars of green tomato ketchup stand at room temperature 24 hours.
   3. Store unopened product in a cool dry place up to one year. Refrigerate green tomato ketchup after opening. Makes about 3 pints of ketchup. Serve on anything you’d serve red ketchup on – burgers, hot dogs, omu-rice, french fries, tater tots, etc.

Canon EOS 5D with hotshod 580EX II, ETTL mode and bounced. 1/180 sec @ f5.6, ISO 800.

Day One: Wake up at 7:30, stagger bleary-eyed to the truck and crawl in, drive slowly up to the Adams Morgan Farmers’ Market. Score lots of reasonably priced vegetables from Farmer Mike, aka Michael Tabor, of Licking Creek Farms. Cruise by Mount Pleasant Farmers’ Market to look for herbs. Pick up the 3rd Tomateer, Kristin, and fetch canning jars from 17th Street Hardware. Return home. Chop vegetables. Boil jars. Chop vegetables. Make some pesto with leftover basil. Cut herbs. Chop vegetables. Bring sauce to a boil.

Canon EOS 5D with hotshod 580EX II, ETTL mode and bounced. 1/180 sec @ f5.6, ISO 800.

Chop vegetables. Simmer sauce. Pour into jars. Boil jars. Cool jars. Try not to sweat all over everything but fail miserably.

(My kitchen is tiny. And L-shaped. Since it’s conveniently placed in the middle of our dog-run style apartment, it effectively acts as a windbreak for any breeze that enters either our enormous front window or two back windows. We appreciate the warmth in the winter but the summer… ehhh, not so much.)

Day Two: Eat breakfast.

(Sorry, couldn’t resist sneaking this one in. The light was just gorgeous this morning, softly washing over my salad of homegrown yellow tomatoes, sundried peppers, chickpeas, and leafy greens. Did I mention I grew the tomatoes? ;)

Canon EOS 5D. 1/45 sec @ f3/5, ISO 800.

Then, do it all again, minus the running around with the car and plus guacamole appetizer. Total net: A whole lotta tomato pasta sauce, a whole lotta pesto, and enough leftover Roma tomatoes for a good-sized jar of dried tomatoes, some salsa, some gazpacho, and some more guacamole.

Truth be told, other than the time outlay (probably about 9 hours of work plus 1-2 hours of gathering supplies), canning was much, much easier than I thought. The canning tools we used this weekend were Andrea’s but once I get my own, Fancy Pantry is going to be my new BFF.

The recipe below is courtesy of Andrea’s uncle, conveniently halved for your easy one-day canning enjoyment.

Andrea Sauce

Ingredients

• 1 case of tomatoes, preferably Roma
• 2 massive carrots
• 6-8 bell peppers
• 4 onions
• 2 bunches of Swiss chard
• 1 pt of garlic bulbs
• 1 bunch of Italian parsley
• A whole lotta basil (think a quart Ziploc bag full of basil sprigs)
• Optional: 8-10 sprigs of oregano and thyme

Preparation

1. Chop tomatoes in 1-inch chunks. Remove any bad spots. Put into a big ol soup pot (mine is 16 qts but 20 would probably be even better).
2. Chop basil, carrots (peel if they are not organic), chard, parsley, and bell peppers and add to tomatoes. Peel garlic and onions, chop and add to tomatoes. Depending on your preference, chop the garlic finely or coarsely or grate it for maximum garlic taste.
3. Remove oregano leaves from stem and chop. Chop fresh thyme and stems finely. Add both to tomatoes. Mix thoroughly and bring to a boil. Simmer for 10 minutes and then remove from heat.
4. Ladle sauce into prepared canning jars. Process the jars for 45 minutes in a canning bath and then set aside to cool.
5. Serve over pasta, preferably when the supermarkets are full of nasty, mealy winter tomatoes. Enjoy!