Last weekend, my mom and Dave sent home about two bushels of Roma tomatoes from their garden. I stashed them in the fridge last week and canned them today.
It took far longer to prepare the tomatoes than it did to actually can them. I began by blanching them in boiling water, then dumping them into an ice bath. This made it very easy to slip the skins.
I sent these skins right down the garbage disposal.
(Just kidding, Dave–they went into the garbage can.)
I ended up with three big bowls of skinless tomatoes.
A rather hungry Olivia kept me company this morning, coming over about every five minutes to politely plead, “More ‘matos, p’ease.”
Bryan helped me core and dice the tomatoes, which I then heated to a simmer. I decided not to add salt or seasonings–I hope that’s not a mistake.
While the tomatoes cooked, I washed the jars and held them in a sink full of warm water.
Almost two hours after setting the canner on the burner, the water finally came to a boil. I filled the jars and processed them for 45 minutes.
The morning’s efforts resulted in seven quart jars of diced tomatoes. Now, if only fall would arrive. I suddenly feel like making chili.
This felt like a huge project, but my mom does this most every night after work. And, my friend Dawn probably cans this much before breakfast each day. It’s certainly not an easy project, but it’s definitely a rewarding one. Thanks for providing the possibility, Mom!
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Posted by Karyl on August 17, 2009 at 7:36 am
They look delicious! I used to do quite a bit of canning – then I got lazy, and just put the peeled tomatoes in freezer bags – it worked out well – and was easier than dealing with all of the jars. We sent a box full of roma tomatoes to a guy at Doug’s office who likes to make salsa – I told him, in return, he needed to share a few jars with us! Hope he remembers!
Posted by Dawn on August 17, 2009 at 8:12 am
In all fairness, it would take me at least until lunch time! 🙂
Posted by Laura on August 17, 2009 at 1:50 pm
Rebecca, how impressive! You will be so happy when you’re snowed in to open your cabinets to such bounty. My friend, Ann, just did a bunch of canning as well, which you can see here: http://rockinthenl.blogspot.com/2009/08/oh-what-rash-and-bloody-deed-is-this.html. You ladies are hard core!
Posted by Nicky on August 18, 2009 at 1:39 pm
That must have been a large box of tomatoes! I picked ~30 tomatoes today, and ended up with enough peeled/de-seeded crushed tomatoes to fill only 3 quart jars. It is so cute that Olivia was snacking on tomatoes, I gave the first cherry tomato of the year to Colin and he was not a fan 🙂