Garden Nectar

As September winds down, so does the garden. Except the tomatoes. They have hit their stride, with several weeks of warm days and moderate nights, and a couple weeks to go. I helped a friend make V-8 juice this afternoon - what a delight! This nectar is unlike the popular "store-bought" variety - it's so fresh, with sparkling flavor and jeweled color. I snatched up (borrowed) her Victorio Food Strainer and Sauce Maker and burned rubber for home.
Our ambitious tomato plants are determined to make up for a late start and flood our pantry with all forms of tomato preserves. Two more sacks of tomatoes had appeared on the counter while I was gone. These Midwest tomatoes are scary, I'm tellin' ya.
We planted a number of varieties, to make the most of our options for processing. Paste types included Roma, Olpaka, and Amish Paste. Slicers for hamburgers were covered by Big Girl. Midsize for everything else included Jet Star, Wisconsin 51, and a couple more I don't at the moment recall. A large yellow appeared, it was mislabeled or I forgot I bought it. We made sure we had one of our favorites from last season, Garden Peach - a sweet, slightly fuzzy midsize tomato. Of course there were all the volunteers from last year, and we let several of them take off on their own. One turned out to be Sun Spot, a sweet orange cherry type, which we love for snacks and salads. Than and I love to graze through the tomatoes, eating all the sunwarmed varieties like apples, juice dripping off our chin and fingers - what a life!
The Victorio makes processing tomatoes a breeze. Wash, cut out the stem end, halve or quarter if needed, and feed through the processor.


Skin and seeds exit through one chute (I tied a bag on it rather than take up room with a bowl - it all goes to the chickens - I'm VERY popular with that gang right now...) and puree slides down the other side into a waiting pan.
See? Another bowl of fresh tomatoes just appeared like magic. ( Thanks, Brent, for carrying it in.) I wish you could see these glorious tomatoes in person, they are just perfect.

V-8 stands for a mix of vegetables - I didn't actually count, let's see how my numbers turned out. Celery, green peppers, Spanish Spice peppers, onion, ONE jalapeno pepper...
carrots, parsley, garlic, cilantro. OK, so I have V-9. It's all good stuff, right?! I steamed the veggies just enough to soften them so they would go through the auger on the Victorio easily. Some of the steaming water was used to thin the puree after it was all mixed together.
All the puree was combined in a large stock pot, and simmered with several stems of basil. Um...that makes V-10. I wonder, do I count the fresh juice squeezed from half a lemon? That's not a vegetable. Hmm. Technically, tomatoes aren't vegetables, either. The math is getting too complicated...

Seasoned with sea salt and fresh ground pepper to taste, simmered for about 20 minutes to meld the flavors. Here's the finished juice. You are just going to have to come for a visit to sample this nectar from the garden!
To preserve it, I did a simple hot pack. This isn't in your canning book. I'm not telling you this is what you should do. This is a disclaimer for any canning purists out there. But it works, and we do grape and apple juice the same way. We're all still alive.

I heated the jars in boiling water, also the lids. The V-10 is at a simmering boil. I poured juice to within 1/8 inch of the rim of a hot jar, slapped on a hot lid and tightened the ring.

Set aside to cool and seal. As I'm writing this, I'm listening to the best sound in the whole world (of canning, at least), the POP of lids sealing.
I ended up with 11 pints to put in the pantry, and a quart for the frig. I just finished my third glass - it's so refreshing. And satisfying, because I made it!
Care to join me for dinner? Nest fresh eggs over easy, whole wheat toast, and ta-da!: V-10 juice(approximately). There's a box and large bowl left on the counter with twice as many tomatoes waiting their turn to become famous. That's not even counting the ones still on the vines...
Any suggestions? Or requests?