Ksyusha, are you coming for tomatoes? Of course! What time should I come? At 4:30 in the morning! ?
That’s how it all began… But in reality, it all started even earlier… Early in the morning, after my run, while walking Lota(my dog) and rushing for coffee with my husband, out of the corner of my eye, I noticed some suspicious activity among my neighbors… ? There, I spotted a familiar supermarket seller… I suddenly slowed down and, of course, started a conversation… Ciao! How are you? What’s going on here? In response, I heard that key phrase, “we’re canning tomatoes.” ? At that moment, a whole new world opened up before Ksyusha, and in an instant, she became friends with this wonderful group. ? In just a couple of minutes, we set a date with my new friends for the next round of canning. ??
So, in the end, they told me to come at 6:30… They regretted it. ? But Ksyusha, skeptical, barged into their garage at 5:30, thinking, “Yeah, yeah… tell me… you’ll finish everything without me! No, no… I’ll get up!”
5:30… not a soul in sight, not a sound… well, except for some buzzing… I even started to doubt if anyone was there at all, but as I approached this contraption resembling a garage, containing a wood-fired bread and pizza oven, everything needed to make wine, tomatoes, and much, much more… a Dream… an incredibly active scene unfolded before me, and I instantly joined in on cleaning tomatoes, constantly looking around and enjoying what was happening…
Remember I mentioned buzzing? It was the sound of a machine grinding tomatoes…
The process worked like this: First, the tomatoes are cleaned and sorted. The center and damaged parts are removed, and then the tomatoes are chopped into pieces… There were a lot of tomato crates. ? Then the tomatoes are ground. And then the tomato sauce, without seeds or skin, is poured into bottles. The bottles are sealed, placed in barrels, covered with cloth bags (to prevent the bottles from floating), and boiled for 20 minutes!
The result?! Pure delight! Plus, vegetables as a gift, and of course, a pot of sauce! And it’s so delicious. ❤️
