This is my favorite Tomato Soup recipe of all time. Count yourself lucky if you’ve ever had some; few have ever separated me from a whole pint. It’s delicious!

In the late 1980s there was a PBS cooking series called Cooking from Quilt Country, about Amish and Mennonite life and food, marketed with a book by Marcia Adams. I found and changed the Homemade Tomato Soup recipe and wrote it down. I make it almost every year, usually with red tomatoes, but I found some organic yellow tomatoes at a Meet the Farmer Dinner at the Summerhouse Grill in Montrose, PA while I was on the road and had to buy 20 lbs from the proprietors of the 4 Seasons Farm Market, Gerald and Tina. Thanks for all your hard work to make the world more beautiful, people!

The recipe makes 12 pints of a rich, versatile concentrate. It can be made with water, milk, and even canned Cream of Mushroom Soup.

1 peck (17 lbs.) of tomatoes (juicier is better; romas make a much smaller batch)
2 medium onions
2 Hungarian wax peppers (the hot, long, light green ones)
2 large bunches celery
1 large bunch parsley
1/4 c. salt
1 c. brown sugar
1 c. all-purpose flour
1 t. ground allspice
1 t. ground cinnamon
1 t. ground cloves
1/2 t. white pepper (if tomatoes are red, black is fine)
1/2 c. butter (1 stick)

Cooking!
Core tomatoes, chop coarsely. Chop onions, peppers, celery, and parsley coarsely.
Divide all the vegetables and the salt equally into two very large, deep kettles. Cover, bring to a boil, then simmer over over medium low heat for an hour, stirring frequently, until all veggies are tender. Put mixture through a sieve or food mill, and transfer to a large kettle.

Combine sugar, flour, and spices. Add gradually to hot puree with a whisk. Add butter, whisk smooth. Bring to a boil, then simmer over medium low heat for 3 minutes.

Canning!
Prepare 12 pint jars and lids. Pour soup into jars, leaving 1/2 inch head space. Wipe jar rims, seal with lids, immerse in hot water bath and process for 15 minutes from the time pot comes to a rolling boil.

Eating!
Add 1-1/2 cups water or milk to a pint of soup, heat, serve, eat. You can also make this with canned Cream of Mushroom soup by adding one can Cream of Mushroom soup with one soup can of water to a pint of tomato soup. Heat, serve, eat!