I have to tell you, the canning of tomato sauce is not fun. I remember long hot days in the kitchen with my folks and sometimes the grandparents too, churning out jar after jar of the stuff. I was happy for it in the dead of upstate NY winter, but it really, really sucked when we had to make it in August.
Try Don Pepinos. It's actually in an can, but it's good. My husband was really shocked--and a little hurt, I think--that they could make it better than he could. And it tends to be the least expensive of all the store tomato sauce. Stores are beginning to stock it more now. It used to go just to restaurants, I think. You usually have to look high or low for it. Because of the price, the stores want you to grab something more expensive. August in a hot kitchen does not sound fun!
My parents used to make home made apple sauce from apples we collected from apple picking in Vermont. MMMMM!!! Not only was it tasty, the whole house smelled great. Every autumn.
We just canned the raw tomatoes. We also canned beans and made pickles.
I don't know how people can eat that pre-packaged stuff with all the preservatives.
I beg to differ. I love canning tomato and apple sauces. There was no canning done in my house when I was growing up, though my grandmother did occassionally make jam or jelly. I'm self taught on canning, and didn't start doing it until I was in my 30s. I froze everything prior to that. Now I'm actually selling my own homemade jellies.
>>>>I have to tell you, the canning of tomato sauce is not fun.
It is too!
I love it :)