BLOG.JESSIEKEITH.COM: "Throw it in a Pot" Easy Marinara for the Busy but Successful Gardener

Working Mom's Garden Blog
Gardening with kids is messy but gratifying. This blog is largely about gardening with limited time and
two kids in tow while fighting to cultivate an unreasonably large garden. Short cuts are essential, weeds par for the course, and mud a given.

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In 1995, Jessie became a Master Gardener, accepted a job as a landscape designer and had a farmer's market booth selling garden flowers. The following year she attended Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana where she graduated with honors in 1999 with a BS in Public Horticulture. At Purdue, she worked for two years as garden intern at The Purdue University Horticulture Gardens and was mentored by Dr. Harrison Flint and Dr. Michael Dana. She also served as undergraduate teacher’s assistant in woody and herbaceous plant identification and introductory horticulture classes.

In 1999, she accepted a yearlong position as the curatorial intern at Longwood Gardens in Kennett Square, PA under the tutelage of celebrated curator and author, Dr. Tomasz Anisko. Graduate school at Michigan State University followed. There she studied systematic botany and completed her MS degree in the winter of 2003. Shortly after graduation, she accepted an internship at The American Gardener magazine, the journal of The American Horticultural Society, where she received guidance from editor-in-chief, David Ellis, and distinguished scientist and horticulturist, Dr. H. Marc Cathey.

Jessie taught horticulture for two years at Williamson Free School in Media, Pennsylvania before pursuing a career in garden writing and plant photography. She began to work as content editor for Learn2grow.com in 2007 and has written articles for publications such as The Old House Journal, The Green Scene, What’s Up! Annapolis? and The Herbarist. She most recently served as one-time horticultural editor for Wilder Quarterly.

Today, Jessie lives in Wilmington, Delaware with her husband Knut, daughters Franziska and Gabriella, two geriatric cats, and thousands of garden plants.

BLOG.JESSIEKEITH.COM: "Throw it in a Pot" Easy Marinara for the Busy but Successful Gardener

"Throw it in a Pot" Easy Marinara for the Busy but Successful Gardener

Honest to God I have been trying to finish this blog since the beginning of last September! What a whirlwind life has been.

This past summer was the year of the tomato, eggplant, pepper and squash. Essentially all the warm season crops flourished--a blessing and a burden for this working mom that was in her third trimester or pregnancy. I grew 14 tomato vines (primarily 'San Marzano Redorta' and 'Franchi's Italian Pear') to make fresh marinara to freeze and enjoy through winter. This meant laborious harvests throughout the hottest summer in decades followed by lots of chopping, slow-cooking and milling. But the heavy load of tomatoes and other summer veggies helped me perfect my otherwise delicious sauce. I started throwing everything in the sauce pot to keep produce from going to waste. The result was really tasty! I'll never make the plain red stuff again.

The beauty of this sauce is it's a little different every time because it’s contingent on what's growing in your garden. The general ratio is three parts tomatoes to one part squash, peppers and eggplant. Then I add one clove of garden-fresh garlic to every cup of cut vegetables as well as one medium onion per pot. A little salt, pepper, sugar and a splash of olive oil are thrown in before cooking the sauce and fresh chopped basil, oregano and flatleaf parsley can be added towards the end after the sauce had been milled. Cooking time is generally between four and five hours depending on the water content of the tomatoes and other vegetables. Once the veggies start bubbling and boiling, turn the heat down to low and let them simmer away with the pot lid half off.

This is the general quantity of vegetables I add to each sauce pot. Around three to four pints of sauce are yielded

The water content of the fruit dictates cooking time. For example, the 'San Marzano Redorta' tomato on the left has much less juice than the Italian pear tomato on the right. More San Marzanos = less cooking and fresher tasting sauce.

African striped eggplants are one of the more unusual vegetables I added to my sauce last summer.

Japanese eggplant is mild, tender-skinned, virtually seed free when picked young and ideal for sauce.

No sautéing is needed for this stuff. Just throw your chopped veggies in a pot and start cooking. Begin on high heat until the mix bubbles, then turn it to low with the pot lid slightly akimbo to release some steam during the cooking process.

Cook the mix down until it is reasonably thick. At this point let it cool and prepare your food mill for milling. I like a coarse mill to allow some chunks of veg to come through.

Milling is my favorite part. My four year old daughter likes to do it too.

Once the sauce is processed it has a lovely texture. At this point I add any fresh chopped herbs I might like.

All those vegetables yielded only three pints of sauce.

Through the summer we managed to put away close to 50 pints of sauce. Now we can spend the winter enjoying our favorite pasta dishes, like lamb Bolognese and spicy sausage and peppers. Depending on what we are cooking, it usually takes one or two containers to make a pasta dish--three for lasagna.