The months in [...]]]> Dutch weather is among the most unpredictable things in the world. It gets annoying, really. Between the end of February and the middle of May you can never tell whether you’ll be needing warm mittens or skimpy dresses. There will likely even be days where you’ll need both.

The months in which you have no idea what to wear are the same months I need to start my seeds for my garden. After last year’s tomato debacle I haven’t given up. I actually got even more enthusiastic, buying a miniature windowsill greenhouse and lots of seeds. Instead of buying seedlings, I decided to grow them myself. I also decided to plan my garden differently and to diversify a bit. I started reading up on things and learned scary words like cotyledons.

It’s all for a good cause though. With a little bit of luck and a bit of assistance from the weather gods, we will likely hardly buy vegetables this summer. Everything should be obtained from either our own garden, or through trading with other people’s tiny urban gardens. My friends who grow lettuce will like zucchini, and I can definitely use some salad greens later on.

On March 12th I planted my first seeds. I filled the window box with three types of tomatoes, artichokes, 5 different colors of bell peppers, some chili peppers and eggplant seeds. A little bit of luck gave us some sunny days which made the tomatoes sprout quick enough. The artichokes soon followed and then I waited. Every day I looked at my box and saw the tomatoes getting bigger and bigger, the artichokes grew and besides that, nothing. I’ve never been a patient person, so I’m sure it went much faster than I thought, but really, it felt like the other veggies, the peppers and eggplant, just wouldn’t grow.

Eventually they grew. The eggplant unfortunately lost it’s battle between the repotting of everything else, followed by drying out and getting too wet. When that box isn’t completely full anymore the water balance gets really iffy, I tell you. However, I managed to save my peppers and they are thriving in various cups and bowls now.

Yes, I got a little over enthusiastic, resulting in a shortage of pots and a funny sight of plants in cups, mugs and bowls. It looks festive enough though, and as long as my veggies have more room to grow, I’m okay with washing dishes a little more often.

By now the second haul is well underway. My 4 species of squash are growing so well that the lid was pushed off (and now they live in yet another array of cups and mugs). The second try at eggplant is proving to give me much nicer looking seedlings. The artichokes have been planted in the garden, as well as a couple of the tomatoes (They have grass jars over them right now, to protect them from possible frost.) The other tomatoes are still hardening day by day and will be planted soon.

In the mean time I’m trying my best to find suitable homes for a lot of my seedlings. I only have room for 3 more tomato plants, while I still have 12 left to plant. I can only manage 4 or 5 squashes and I have a whooping 24 in total. If I still want to plant my chicory and rocket I can only handle 3 or 4 eggplants, 2 chilis and 5 or 6 bell peppers, and yes, there are more of those too. Having nursed them from seed, I don’t want to just throw them out.

I can’t wait until the weather evens out a bit. That crazy unpredictable weather should soon give up on the risk of frost and give in to my drive to grow my own food. Within a month or so I hope to be eating the first bites of home grown squash and herbs. And soon thereafter tomatoes and greens and peppers and maybe even artichokes. I honestly can’t wait!

I was able to rescue a small bowl full of half ripe tomatoes and put [...]]]> Summer in Amsterdam lasted about 2 days. Strike that, we had 2 summers this year, both lasting about 1 day. It caused the sad demise of my tomatoes, which I told you about before.

I was able to rescue a small bowl full of half ripe tomatoes and put them in the window sill. Helping them ripen by gaining every tiny little ray of sunlight available. Once they were ripe, I ceased the moment to make my roasted tomato sauce.

Tomatoes and other veggies before they became sauce.

I usually try to make a batch large enough to last me through winter. This time the sauce won’t go that far, but at least it’ll last me a little while. Since I hardly ever use it as is, I can stretch it quite far. The fact that it’s so concentrated, and roasted, makes it versatile and easy and healthy enough for a quick weeknight meal, but flavorful and special enough to also use in a special dinner. I’ve been known to add broth to it and make a very tasty tomato soup. My 4 year old cousin who despises vegetables or healthy food in general was happy to eat many bites of pasta with this sauce because it really is that good (and to the unsuspected viewer doesn’t look like it’s almost 100 percent vegetable!)

I loved making this sauce with veggies from my garden. Despite the fact that it isn’t much, I know I’ve put them to good use. And every time this fall and winter, when I eat sauce, I will remember the fact that I actually grew food myself. That really is something too, at least for a city girl like me.

Vegetables in the casserole dish, ready to be roasted.

Needless to say, I love making this sauce. I freeze it into ice cubes -sauce cubes – and add it to whatever sauce or dish I’m making which can benefit from the taste of home-made roasted tomato sauce.

I’ve made many variations of this sauce over time. Sometimes I add carrots, Sometimes regular onions. The only constant really are the tomatoes. The other constant is that it’ll be the best sauce you’ve ever tasted!

Vegetables in casserole dish, after about 45 minutes of roasting.

Roasted vegetables done and ready to be processed into sauce.

The roasted vegetables going through the food mill to become sauce.

Roasted tomato sauce put in a cutesy ice cube tray to be frozen for later use.

After putting the roasted vegetables through the KitchenAid food mill and re-processing the discarded scraps, this little dry heap of skins and seeds is what's left to toss.