I finally found plants the deer and bunnies won’t eat grrrrr. They at least don’t like tomato and cucumber plants. We HAVE to do something about the wildlife around here. Don’t get me wrong I know I live in the woods. I know they also live in the woods but we have gotten along pretty well over the last; close to 20 years however they are currently winning the battle, though they are in for a rude of wakening next year and I plan on winning the war. I told my husband that we either stop gardening or we need to move the raised beds out to the field where we can fence it all in. Where they are now we cannot really fence it in and all the spray and stinky stuff out there are just not working.

While I was working in the den last week, two beautiful deer’s decided to walk through my side yard and nibble away on whatever they could. I went out with my dog as quick as I could and back out to the woods they went. I swear my dog just wants them to play ball with him. He doesn’t even bark, he grabs a tennis ball and runs towards them. Probably why they are totally OK with coming around.

a few recent pictures from around the yard. And yes that bear was huge…

Sightings this year have been a crazy amount of deer. a couple of bob cats. several bears. a few coyotes and some bunnies oh my. I do really wish the moose were back but so for no sightings in too many years. Enough about my wildlife and back to one of many ways to process garden tomatoes. I really liked how this one was mostly hands off and made the house smell fantastic while working from home. You should give this a try if you have an abundance of Roma or Marzano tomatoes; I planted the latter and I have not been disappointed.

garden tomato slow cooker sauce

dclarkabal

a great way to process garden paste tomatoes

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Equipment

• 1 crock pot or slow cooker

Ingredients

  

• 5-6 pounds paste tomatoes rough chopped
• 4 cloves garlic peeled and smashed
• 1 onion peeled and rough chopped
• 1 carrot peeled and rough chopped
• 2-3 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 teaspoon dried parsley or 3 fresh teaspoon chopped
• 1 teaspoon dried basil or 2 fresh teaspoon chopped
• ½ teaspoon dried oregano or 1 fresh teaspoon chopped
• ¼ teaspoon dried thyme or 1 fresh teaspoon chopped
• ¼ teaspoon dried rosemary or 1 fresh teaspoon chopped
• 2-3 Jalapeno's seeds and veins removed, chopped
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• ½ teaspoon black pepper

Instructions

 

• Wash your tomatoes in plain water, remove the stem and rough chop, add them to your crock pot. Add the garlic, onion, carrot, and herbs. Drizzle the olive oil. Cover and turn crockpot to low and cook for 2-4 hours stirring occasionally
• Once the tomatoes have softened, using a food mill process everything out of the crockpot into a bowl. Wipe out or rinse out the crock and add all the liquid back to the pot.
• Vent the crockpot lid a little and let the sauce thicken for another 4-6 hours on low. Once you have the sauce the consistency you like. Taste for seasoning and adjust. If you need to you can add a little sugar or honey to help with the acidity,
• You can use immediately or place in a container for the freezer for a later use.

  You can also do this process in a couple of steps. After you process the cooked veggies you can take the sauce and put it in the fridge and finish it off another day.