Harvest-Time

I made a triple batch of applesauce yesterday afternoon - put a bowl in the fridge, gave a tub to Spencer's family, and froze the rest (6 quarts). It tasted pretty good, but not as good as last years made with our yellow transparents - that tree only bore 2 apples this year - so I used only cortlands this time. Next year should be good for the YT tree. Earlier this week I tried something new with tomatoes. We have tons ripening fast, so I took what we had picked and quartered them, tossed with olive oil, arranged them onto 3 foil-lined cookie sheets, sprinkled them with finely minced fresh garlic, kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper - then roasted them in a 325 oven for 3 hours. After they thoroughly cooled (and just before I went to bed :) I carefully picked each panfull up by the foil and poured contents into the blender and pureed - put into freezer bags and popped into the freezer. This is my alternative this year in place of canning (I still have several quarts I canned on the shelf from last year). I don't know if it was any easier, but gives us some variety.