Tomato bottling...

The other day was tomato bottling day at my neighbours and I went along to help (a 6am start for some reason!)

Already the night before we had chopped all the tomatoes in half and roasted them in this huuuuge wood oven overnight.



Then they had to be drained and then passed through this machine, which peels them and pours the juice out the other end.



I then stirred in basil and salt with what is quite possibly the biggest spoon in the world!



Then we used old beer bottles to pour the juice into..



And then the tops went on..



The first batch (every family makes hundreds of bottles per year for pasta sauce!)



And finally the bottles get put in this old drum and boiled over the fire for 30 minutes.



And there you have it, pasta sauce all year round!