CANNING TOMATOES

Well, once again I have neglected my posting duties.  I have no excuse other than I was/am just out of posting mode.  As for yesterday, I couldn’t have posted if I wanted to – I was canning a bushel of tomatoes, and that ain’t easy, brother!  I started about 10:00 AM and it went through to 5:00 PM.  I had to peel all the tomatoes by plopping them in boiling water and then after 30 seconds or so, moving them to ice/cold water.  The skins come pretty much off and then to the cutting board.  There I cut the stem out and cut them into pieces and into my turkey roaster – both top and bottom!

(The cocktail shaker in the back was a reminder of what awaited at the end of all this tomato steam)

I cooked them down for about 2 – 3 hours to concentrate the tomato and then into old 28 ounce spaghetti sauce jars (pretty crafty, buying those the past two years, huh?).  Then, into the stock pots to hot-water can for 45 minutes.  I did three rounds of those and in the end I had 16 jars of canned tomato.  Seems like a lot of work for just 16 jars, but they are really good and I will enjoy them this winter.