can-can

so, i’m trying my hand at canning food again this year.  the last time (and also the first time) i tried to can tomatoes was just after college.  i’d planted way too many tomato plants in the backyard of my rental house and didn’t want them to go to waste, so i canned some.  it took most of a loooooong, hot and very sweaty august afternoon and at the end of the day, i had four small jars of tomatoes.  i didn’t want to ever use them–i’d put so much work into them, it seemed a shame to just eat them in one meal!

this year, with all of the talk of eating local food, i decided to give tomato canning another try.  so today, a friend of mine (who works in a local community csa garden) brought two cases of tomatoes home.  she prepped one box at her home, then picked her up (along with her prepped tomatoes and my box of unprepped tomaotes, her canning supplies) and we went back to my place (i’ve got a bigger kitchen).  there, she began cooking her tomatoes and i began cleaning mine.  aren’t they pretty?

then, i blanched, shocked and peeled my tomatoes and then…. i diced them all.  wow.  that took a long time.  when i was finally done, i packed them into hot jars, ladled boiling tomato juice on the tops of the jars, and then processed them in a hot water bath for about an hour and a half and ended up with 21 pints of tomatoes.

you may have noticed that there’s a layer of liquid at the bottom of the jars.  apparently, that is relatively normal for “raw pack” tomatoes.  my friend’s chunky tomato sauce (which was cooked) did not separate.  plus, she cut hers up in a food processor which was much faster than my dicing.  hmmm….. maybe i’ll try it that way next time….  but what a great sense of accomplishment!  and i’m pretty happy with the yield.  now, i just need to repeat this process a few more times (maybe adding salsa? spaghetti sauce?) and we’ll be set for winter.