Making Spaghetti Sauce

I have a fairly large garden and I grew quite a few tomatoes. I started these from seed inside my house in a little greenhouse I have. (It is about 3x4 feet and tall with a number of shelves.) I usually buy seeds on clearance for .10 a packet and freeze them until the next year, so my starts cost me next to nothing. I did buy some special greenhouse starter soil this year for starting some other vegetables with no luck. Putting seeds right in the ground, except for tomatoes I have found usually works best.

Here are some of my tomatoes from the garden. I don't peel my tomatoes before cooking them down. That's too much like work! I wash them and cut them into chunks and put them into a large pot. I have a metal processor that is hand worked to squeeze out the pulp.

Here is my makeshift summer kitchen. I can cook the tomatoes or whatever else I have down without heating up the kitchen. This small cooker cost about $40.00 and my husband bought the propane tank on Craigslist used but I am not sure what he paid for it. It cost me $17.00 to fill it up with propane.

 Here is a good shot of the tomatoes. I added olive oil, salt, pepper, oregano, garlic, dried celery and Parmesan. I added what looked like the right amounts. Sorry, no recipe! My daughter asked me to also add some store bought sauce to stretch this since homegrown tomatoes taste SO much better than store bought. I bought this lovely pot at a garage sale for .50. It radiates heat evenly so no burning!

Out of this pot, I got these four packages. These are about equivalent to a little more than a jar of store bought sauce each. It takes a LOT of tomatoes to make a little sauce.

Growing your own doesn't always save much money, but the quality and taste is very good and it is a very satisfying process if you like this as a hobby.

Happy Savings!