A grandgirl!...and.... How Lars Saved My Sauces
I have been just a little side-tracked. Beautiful Eleanor Rose joined us three weeks ago and I've been spending my days off making food for the kids and dealing with the end of the garden, including a boatload of Anaheims, Hungarian wax and jalapenos with absolutely no heat.
Shortly before E arrived I received a thank-you from Lars. Some of his habanero sauce, basil olive oil, and some fresh kaffir lime and bay leaves, habs, Scotch bonnets and cayennes from his garden. Ohmy kaffir lime leaves smell wonderful! I tossed the fresh stuff in the freezer when the baby came.
So last week I tackled the peppers. Salsa was insipid. It got habanero and cayenne. The dragon sauce was blah...Scotch bonnet was just right. The candied jalapenos got a shot of the three mixed. The Anaheims roasted up nicely...like lovely sweet peppers, so the chile verde sauce got a hab, too. Perfect.
I'm looking forward to playing with the kaffir lime leaves...thinking Tom Kha Gai as soon as I can get to the Asian market for fresh lemon grass. And I haven't decided what to do with the bay. We tasted the basil oil and Lars was right...it will be perfect for dipping bread. We had company for a couple of days and tried his homemade hab sauce on an end-of-the-garden breakfast frittata. Ohyeah, it's got a bite. Flavor is excellent.
Oh, and the lovely creamy brocade and elegant striped material was part of the packing...Lars said he had more fabric than packing peanuts, lol.
Thank you Lars. It was a a lot to send for a few bulbs of heat-afflicted garlic!
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How many plants needed for sauce?
Comments (11)It takes a lot of tomatoes to make 1 quart of tomato sauce. Assuming you want to can it rather than freeze it, that you don't want to waste all the time and energy to can 1 quart at a time, and that you want enough tomatoes ripe at approximately the same time to make it worth the time and effort then yes you need lots of plants. If you only want to make the sauce from 1 variety of tomatoes then you need even more plants of that variety. 5-6 plants is a conservative estimate based on my 40+ years of growing and canning tomatoes. From the tomato sauce canning guidelines at NCHFP: Quantity: For thin sauce: An average of 35 pounds is needed per canner load of 7 quarts; an average of 21 pounds is needed per canner load of 9 pints. A bushel weighs 53 pounds and yields 10 to 12 quarts of sauce-an average of 5 pounds per quart. For thick sauce: An average of 46 pounds is needed per canner load of 7 quarts; an average of 28 pounds is needed per canner load of 9 pints. A bushel weighs 53 pounds and yields 7 to 9 quarts of sauce-an average of 6 pounds per quart. Dave PS: note that most folks can tomato sauce in pints, not quarts....See MoreSriracha Sauce Saved
Comments (15)I didn't read the article until today, and Kevin told me yesterday that he had heard about this. Irwindale has some very beautiful spots, located at the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains, which I can see from my house. I don't know about a racetrack in Irwindale, but it is very close to Santa Anita and the L.A. County Arboretum, which has the pond and house from the TV show Fantasy Island. I can imagine the fumes from the factory from the chilies - I would not mind the garlic, but chili pepper fumes make me gag. But then I use habanero chilies, and the fumes from them are quite intense. I never noticed any intense garlic smells in Gilroy (I must have been there at the wrong time of year), but the smell of broccoli in Oxnard is quite offensive, even though I love broccoli. Stockyards are even worse, and my worst memories of those are from Fort Worth. I've heard they have even bigger ones in Chicago. I would take Sriracha over a meat packing plant or paper mill any day! Lars Here is a link that might be useful: Rec Area in Irwindale...See MoreHelpful hints to save time and/or money
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