Making Tomato Paste and Soup Stock

We grow more than a hundred tomato plants so we have enough for us and lots to share. That way, when tomatoes come in, we have plenty when we want to process what we need for the year. All winter we make weekly batches of soup that require two or three quarts of stock to soften up dry beans. That requires at least 60 quarts and we only had 11 left from last year. 

This Harvest Required Four Trugs of Tomatoes

The Squeezo Separates Skin and Seeds from Tomato Juice and Pulp

We use a Squeezo hand-cranked food processor that delivers firm tomato seeds and skin after passing through the machine twice. We add lots of garlic and basil ground up in a food processor to the tomato puree. In a large heated pot, tomato juice separates from the pulp fills a colander as it tries to float on the mixture. To keep the colander from sinking we use a ladle to bail the clear liquid into quart jars until it no longer flows into the colander. Boiling it away would take huge amounts of energy and take a very long time. This way, each batch takes only about an hour. Canning seven quarts of tomato paste and stock in our steam (not pressure) canner takes about a half hour. So 41 quarts required six batches.

Tomato Soup Stock Always Includes a Bit of Tomato Pulp That Sinks

Two Days of Picking/Processing: 14 Quarts of Tomato Sauce, 27 Quarts of Stock

We still need a few dozen quarts of tomato stock but we have to make ketchup and salsa that make even better flavored soup stock!