Canning 2009.5 - Tomatoes!
The same day that I picked up the pears from the Craigslist lady, I also went to a U-pick place to get tomatoes (Karam Farms down near Oregon City). They sent me out into the fields with two 5-gallon buckets and I picked "Early Girl" tomatoes. There were BILLIONS of tomatoes out there, but many of them were already very bruised or rotten, so the picking took a little while. Not too bad, though.
Two 5-gallon buckets of tomatoes turns out to be roughly 50 pounds of tomatoes. Saying "50 pounds of tomatoes" sounds way larger than they looked in their buckets... but 50 pounds of tomatoes is a CRAPLOAD of tomatoes to can.
I couldn't get to the tomatoes on pear-canning day, then I had to work all of Tuesday. Tomatoes got canned on Wednesday. They were slightly the worse for being stored for two days, but we put them down in our basement storage area (wrapped in garbage bags) and they came through ok.
Here's what I ended up canning:
1. Quartered tomatoes packed in juice: This recipe was taken from online and sort of combined with the recipe in my Ball canning book. Basically, the tomatoes were peeled by dipping into boiling water, then quartered and cored. About 1/6 of them were mashed in a pot and brought to a boil, then the rest of the quarters were added and boiled for 5 minutes. Then they were packed into jars. The recipe called for 10lbs of tomatoes (I started with about 11 because some of them had bad spots that I needed to cut off) and produced 4 pints of canned tomatoes.
2. Seasoned tomato sauce: This is from the Ball Complete Book of Preserving (pg 364), which my mother got me for my birthday. This was actually the first thing that I started because it needed to cook for so long. Tomatoes get washed and quartered, then a few go in the pot to start boiling and they get mashed. As they boil, other quartered tomatoes get added to the pot and they get cooked for about 2 hours (with onions and spices). Then, it all got ran through the food mill to separate out the skins and seeds. This worked quite well - better than anything else I've ever put through the food mill. After that, the sauce gets boiled some more and then packed into jars. This recipe also started with 10lbs of tomatoes and it made 5 pints of sauce.
3. Herbed seasoned tomatoes: Also from the Ball Complete Book, this is basically the same recipe as the first one, except that spices were added to each jar. The tomatoes have floated to the tops of their jars and all the spices are sitting on top of the tomatoes. It's fairly funny-looking, but will hopefully be tasty. I started with 36 tomatoes (or maybe 38, rounding up) and made 6 pints.
4. Tomato-basil sauce: From my Ball Blue Book of Preserving. Onions and garlic are sauteed, then washed quartered tomatoes get added to the pot. This is all boiled for about 20 minutes, then run through the food mill. After that, I added about 1/4 cup of frozen basil. We had gotten the basil from our CSA and weren't going to eat it all, so I ran it through the food processor and then froze it in roughly tablespoon servings. I think I may have overshot the basil on this recipe because I was supposed to be making a half a recipe, but added the whole amount of basil. It tasted ok when I sampled it, though. Half a recipe starts with 10lbs of tomatoes and produced 5 pints. I think that I didn't boil this down enough because it looks pretty thin in the jars, but I figure that I can always boil it down some more when we eat it.
5. Basic tomato sauce: From the Complete Book of Preserving (pg 262). At this point in the evening, I was tired of working with tomatoes. I took the rest of them, washed them and quartered them and boiled them until they were soft. Then they went through the food mill and were boiled until I was tired of boiling them and they were thicker (it's still a fairly thin sauce). This started with probably slightly less than 20lb of tomatoes, but I didn't weigh them. It was just all the ones that were left. It ended up making 3 quart jars and 1 pint jar worth of plain sauce.
Something to note is that you have to add 1 tbsp of lemon juice to all the jars (2 to quart jars), which uses up WAY more lemon juice than I had originally anticipated. I don't know that I've used as much lemon juice in my entire life as I did canning these tomatoes.
According to the U-pick lady, they will have tomatoes in season until probably close to the end of October. That means that I can make another try at canning tomatoes with a different type.
Two 5-gallon buckets of tomatoes turns out to be roughly 50 pounds of tomatoes. Saying "50 pounds of tomatoes" sounds way larger than they looked in their buckets... but 50 pounds of tomatoes is a CRAPLOAD of tomatoes to can.
I couldn't get to the tomatoes on pear-canning day, then I had to work all of Tuesday. Tomatoes got canned on Wednesday. They were slightly the worse for being stored for two days, but we put them down in our basement storage area (wrapped in garbage bags) and they came through ok.
Here's what I ended up canning:
1. Quartered tomatoes packed in juice: This recipe was taken from online and sort of combined with the recipe in my Ball canning book. Basically, the tomatoes were peeled by dipping into boiling water, then quartered and cored. About 1/6 of them were mashed in a pot and brought to a boil, then the rest of the quarters were added and boiled for 5 minutes. Then they were packed into jars. The recipe called for 10lbs of tomatoes (I started with about 11 because some of them had bad spots that I needed to cut off) and produced 4 pints of canned tomatoes.
2. Seasoned tomato sauce: This is from the Ball Complete Book of Preserving (pg 364), which my mother got me for my birthday. This was actually the first thing that I started because it needed to cook for so long. Tomatoes get washed and quartered, then a few go in the pot to start boiling and they get mashed. As they boil, other quartered tomatoes get added to the pot and they get cooked for about 2 hours (with onions and spices). Then, it all got ran through the food mill to separate out the skins and seeds. This worked quite well - better than anything else I've ever put through the food mill. After that, the sauce gets boiled some more and then packed into jars. This recipe also started with 10lbs of tomatoes and it made 5 pints of sauce.
3. Herbed seasoned tomatoes: Also from the Ball Complete Book, this is basically the same recipe as the first one, except that spices were added to each jar. The tomatoes have floated to the tops of their jars and all the spices are sitting on top of the tomatoes. It's fairly funny-looking, but will hopefully be tasty. I started with 36 tomatoes (or maybe 38, rounding up) and made 6 pints.
4. Tomato-basil sauce: From my Ball Blue Book of Preserving. Onions and garlic are sauteed, then washed quartered tomatoes get added to the pot. This is all boiled for about 20 minutes, then run through the food mill. After that, I added about 1/4 cup of frozen basil. We had gotten the basil from our CSA and weren't going to eat it all, so I ran it through the food processor and then froze it in roughly tablespoon servings. I think I may have overshot the basil on this recipe because I was supposed to be making a half a recipe, but added the whole amount of basil. It tasted ok when I sampled it, though. Half a recipe starts with 10lbs of tomatoes and produced 5 pints. I think that I didn't boil this down enough because it looks pretty thin in the jars, but I figure that I can always boil it down some more when we eat it.
5. Basic tomato sauce: From the Complete Book of Preserving (pg 262). At this point in the evening, I was tired of working with tomatoes. I took the rest of them, washed them and quartered them and boiled them until they were soft. Then they went through the food mill and were boiled until I was tired of boiling them and they were thicker (it's still a fairly thin sauce). This started with probably slightly less than 20lb of tomatoes, but I didn't weigh them. It was just all the ones that were left. It ended up making 3 quart jars and 1 pint jar worth of plain sauce.
Something to note is that you have to add 1 tbsp of lemon juice to all the jars (2 to quart jars), which uses up WAY more lemon juice than I had originally anticipated. I don't know that I've used as much lemon juice in my entire life as I did canning these tomatoes.
According to the U-pick lady, they will have tomatoes in season until probably close to the end of October. That means that I can make another try at canning tomatoes with a different type.