August 01, 2025
It’s August, which for many of us in the Northeast means tomato season. For me and the people who have to live with me, it’s tomato sauce season.
A few years ago, after marveling at the abundance of the red gems on local farm stands, I decided to start making and canning my own version of the family staple. The math wasn’t really on my side—if I squinted, I could maybe make the cost of the jars I made equal roughly the amount of what we spend a season on the store-bought stuff, but that didn’t take into account the hours of labor, which when you make anything with tomatoes is split almost evenly between cooking and cleaning bloodlike splatter from a significant number of one’s shirts, dish towels, and walls.
Where it all made sense was in the experience, both of making it and then of enjoying it for the rest of...
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Alana Newhouse is the editor-in-chief of Tablet Magazine.
