Canning Tomatoes

One of my favorite, most fun memories of canning tomatoes was with my ex's sister when she lived with us for awhile. Martha and I became the proud co-owners of several bushels of tomatoes and we spent a day, from early morning to far into the night canning those tomatoes, my three children, and her two entertained themselves, made their own breakfast, lunch, and dinner... and we canned... and canned... and canned...

As evening turned into night and we were still canning... the kids drifting through from time to time... we had a big folding table set up in the middle of the kitchen and we stood with the sink and stove on one side and that big table on the other... so as the kids would walk past, we started doing a "Julia Childs" style "cooking show." We were that tired... you know when you get so tired you get silly... and giggly and even things that are not funny become the source of uproarious laughter... yep that was us! The kids were highly entertained, and they showed us their appreciation of our antics with much eye-rolling, but they kept coming in to see what the Julia Childs of tomato canning would do and say next... we were laughing at our own foolishness so hard there were tears streaming... fun times...

My most recent tomato canning session was much tamer and a much more quiet occasion... we're just starting to get a few tomatoes from our garden... more than we can keep up with just eating, but not enough to put up just yet... so I've been saving the ripest ones in a gallon freezer bag in the freezer and by this past weekend felt I had accumulated enough with that day's pickings to can up a few jars at least... my tomato canning finger was itching... I needed to get in there and can some up.

Here's what I did...

I put all my fresh, ripe tomatoes in the sink along with the frozen ones from the freezer and poured boiling water over them... leaving them immersed in the boiling water for a minute or so...

Frozen tomatoes (see the frost?) and fresh ripe tomatoes...
see that little green one... I planted one variety called
German Green and they're a yellowish green even when
ripe... yep that's a ripe tomato, I promise!

When the skins on the tomatoes began loosening and cracking, I plunged them into cold water and slipped the skins right off... I removed the cores and any blemishes or bad spots.

After peeling and coring, I cut the tomatoes into pieces... eighths for the larger ones, quarters or halves for the smaller ones.

I transferred them all to a large stainless steel saucepan and brought them to a boil (they were plenty juicy, no need to add water and I kinda crushed them as I stirred to extract even more juice)... I turned the heat down and boiled them gently, stirring to prevent any from scorching, for about five minutes.

In each of my hot, sterilized quart jars, I measured two tablespoons lemon juice.

Then ladled the hot tomatoes into each jar...

I added a teaspoon of canning salt to each quart (this is optional)

I checked for air bubbles and removed any by running a butter knife between the inside of the jar and the contents, then adjusted if necessary by adding more tomatoes and juice, leaving a one inch headspace.

I wiped the jar rims with a damp cloth.

I centered the hot lid on the jar and screwed the band down until resistance was met, then increase to fingertip tightness.

I placed the jars in my canner, ensuring they were completely covered with water. I brought the water to a boil and processed the quart jars for 45 minutes in the boiling water bath (pints would process for 35 minutes). After processing, I removed the hot jars, set them on a folded dish towel on the counter to cool...

And to listen for the PING of each successfully sealed jar! Yay for tomatoes! One of the most versatile of all the canned foods I put up each year... can't wait for more tomatoes to ripen in my garden... and I'm thinking a trip to the farmers market might be in order for even more tomatoes!