The weather is changing here. Although the leaves on the trees are still green and mid-day the temperature reaches 80 degrees or more, the night temperatures are cool and the air feels different. It is mellow and comfortable.
Best of all the grasshoppers are dying off. Just as we were about to give up on everything we had planted—trees, shrubs, and garden—and turn them over to the grasshoppers, the nights cooled. With the cool nights came the demise of many grasshoppers. Before their devastation ended, they had stripped the leaves from six or more of our new fruit trees, all of our grapevines, and all of the red currant bushes.
Fearing the worst, I checked the tomatoes this morning for the first time in a couple of weeks and was surprised and pleased to harvest a nice batch of tomatoes for making homemade ketchup.
My Aunt Esther was a home-canner extra ordinaire. She and my uncle planted a huge garden every year. They shared produce from their prolific garden freely and still there was plenty of produce to store away for cold winter months. The shelves of their basement storeroom were lined with gleaming bottles of fruit, tomatoes, jams, jellies, pickles, and other condiments.
During canning season it seemed to me that her house always smelled like Thanksgiving. Both full and empty bottles lined her counter tops; boxes and pans full of fresh produce awaiting her attention were stacked everywhere, and a pot or two of something delicious-smelling was always simmering on the stove. Her greeting in the midst of such industry and chaos was always a big smile and a hug. She was a woman with lots of enthusiasm and energy, which she also shared freely.
Of the many things she canned I had two favorites—Dilly Beans (string beans turned into an interesting version of dill pickles—long, thin, crisp and tasty) and Homemade Ketchup. Homemade Ketchup is a bit sweeter and a great deal spicier than commercial ketchup. It tastes heavenly on scrambled eggs.
It is Aunt Esther’s Homemade Ketchup that I am making today with the tomatoes from our garden. The house smells delicious and it feels even more like autumn. I can’t wait to fix scrambled eggs for breakfast tomorrow—on second thought, I think I’ll have them tonight.
Here is her recipe:
Homemade Ketchup
7 quarts of fresh tomato juice ( whole tomatoes are cored, peeled and blended to a liquid state–see instructions below)
4 large onions, peeled & coarsely chopped
4 large green peppers, coarsely chopped
1 c. cider vinegar
5 cups granulated sugar
2 tablespoons salt
4 teaspoons cinnamon
2 teaspoons cloves
2 teaspoons chili powder
To easily peel the tomatoes, submerge whole tomatoes into a boiling water bath. When the skins begin to crack, remove tomatoes to a sink-full of cold water. The tomato peel will now easily slip off of the tomato. Blend in a blender to liquify.
Once the entire 7 quarts of tomato juice is prepared, return a little tomato juice (about 1 cup) to the blender and fill the blender with chopped onions. Turn on the blender and liquify the onions and then add it to the tomato juice. Repeat this liquifying process until all of the onions and green peppers have been liquified and combined with the tomato juice in a very large stock pot. (Mine is 8 quarts and it is too small. I divide out part of the juice mixture into a smaller saucepan and add it to the large stock pot as the ketchup cooks down and some of the liquid evaporates.
Add the remaining ingredients to the tomato juice mixture, bring to a boil and simmer for four to six hours. The ketchup is ready when it is thick, dark red, and the volume reduced by half. Ladle into prepared canning jars (I use half-pints) and process 15-20 minutes in a cold-pack canner.