Marinara Sauce

Last Saturday I spent many, many hours turning 25 pounds of locally grown tomatoes into 16 pints of marinara sauce (plus enough for Saturday night's dinner). I followed (loosely) the recipe for tomato sauce given in Barbara Kingsolver's book, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. The reason it took so many hours was that the stock pot I used to make the sauce only held about half of the tomatoes pureed...so two batches were necessary. Each batch has to boil down from a juice consistency to a sauce.

So was it worth it?? I had this discussion with the husband right before we fell asleep at 1 am, exhausted. It was a quick conversation, but essentially I shared with him that it had been worth it...purchased, a jar of sauce that was made from scratch of this quality would go for $3-6, easily. But it is about more than just money...we are trying to be more aware of what we are eating, for the past several years, the husband has suffered migraines when he eats food with preservatives and additives. Since I've known him I have been carefully reading labels. But by making it myself, I know exactly what went into it, sure of the fact that it is good for us. Even more, it feels good to know that I am able to do take whole foods and turn them into something that will nourish us in the months to come. Yes, it was worth it.