Canning Tomatos

[Weekend_Sawyer]

 I would like to give you a look at how The Lovely Miss Celest and I canned about a bushel of tomatos out of our front yard garden.

First dip tomatos in boiling water for one minute.


Next, as my assistant Vannah, ah I mean Celest, is demonstrating, we dunk them in cold water. When you take them out of the bag (pillow case) they will be sluffing their skins.


Pull off the skins, cut into hunks, leave out any bad looking gook.


Sterilize the jars.


Fill the jars. This was the last jar we filled and what you see in the cup at the top was all that was leftover, not bad eh?


Pressure cook. 5 lbs for 10 minutes.


After you take them out of the pressure cooker you have to wrap them up and let them cool for 24 hours.


Finally you have some nice canned tomatos, after unwrapping them you have to tap in each lid if it pings it took a good seal, if it is dull dump it out it did not seal correctly.


Our yield was 14.6 quarts. Not bad for about 4 hours of work.

Weekend Sawyer

[pappy]

DanG --  started mine to late --  bring me some will ya -- mine are just starting to flower  :(

on second thought  why don't you just mail em and we can have some fresh ones when you get here. !!!!!!!

 ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D

[Larry]

Make's you feel pretty good when ya got plenty of canned goods put up and the root cellar is full of potatoes, onions, and all the good stuff.

We put up about 150 quarts of juice and 20 quarts of whole tomatoes this year.



About ready to start on the fall beans.

[Paschale]

Those look great!  Just curious how many plants did you plant?  What variety did you grow?  

It was a bad year here in Michigan for tomatoes.  Cooler and wetter than usual.  I had a lot of problems with fungal diseases, blight and leafspot--kinda disappointing.  I still have some ripening, and I should have a banner crop of tomatillos too.  I usually freeze my tomatoes, or dehydrate them, though if I had more this year, I was thinking of canning them.

I really enjoy growing the heirloom varieties myself.  They're more susceptible to diseases, but man, they're tasty!  Plus, they come in all colors and sizes.  I'll try and take some pictures of the varieties I grew this year.

Those tomatoes will sure taste great in the dead of winter!  Way to go!   8)

[etat]

Yeah buddy, one a my most favorite foods.  Only thing we do different is we don't pressure cook em anymore, havn't in quite a few years now.  

The wife heats the tomatoes in a big ole pot and  heats the rings and lids in a sauce pan on the stove.  She also has hot water to pre-heat the jars.  She fills the jars half full of tomatoes, adds a teaspoon of salt to the quart, and then finishes filling the jars up.  Then puts on the flats and rings and sets em on the counter on a towel and covers the top of em with a towel.  She's saying the most we have had that didn't seal was two in 6 dozen.  She checks em in the morning and if an odd one doesn't seal she puts in the the refrigerator for immediate consumption. We usually put about half of ours up in juice.  

[Woodcarver]

There's nothing better than home grown.  We would normally be putting up tomatoes now, but not this year.  We got them in late because of cold, wet spring weather.  Temperatures stayed below normal all summer and they didn't come along like they should have. We've had a few for the table, but none to can.

We have been doing snap beans, green and yellow wax.  We did a couple of canners of green beens today.  We have a bushel of apples in the basement that I picked Saturday.  We'll make canned applesauce with those sometime this week.  Maybe freeze a few for pies.  

[Kirk_Allen]

My wife has canned about 100lbs of tomatoes so far and the plants are still producing 8)

She makes the best home-made katchup you can imagine.

We now  have Katchup, Tomato Past, Tomato sause, Tomato Juice, and whole tomatoes 8)

We also picked 2 bushals of Apples that she is now canning.

Oh, almost forgot she canned sweet pickles and peppers.  This was one of the better years for the garden and I think its because we planted it at the farm and not here in suburbia.

Kirk

[etat]

Kirk, I never thought I'd say this to someone else but I gotta tell ya.  I am in LOVE with your wife!    Just kidding, hope ya don't tell mine what I said!

[ScottAR]

I'd have to agree Kirk...   :D

I must say this thread is pure torture.... I havn't had any homemade tomato juice in several years...  I can still taste the extra salt my grandmother used to put in it...  

[Kirk_Allen]

Yeh cktate, I am too 8)
I cant wait to finally get down to the farm full time.  She puts together an awesome garden and once were their full time I cant even imagine what she is going to make.

She wants Chickens for fresh eggs and fresh chicken ;D, homegrown fruits and vegetables and with all the deer and rabits in the area meat will never be a shortage on our table 8)

Ok, have to go eat now ;D

[etat]

Sure wouldn't mind if it ain't top secret or something hearing a bit more about that ketchup recipe.

[Engineer]

nice thing about tomaters is that you don't need to pressure can them.  water bath works fine, and is recommended by Ball in their canning book.

i usually can tomatos by dicing, skin and all; put in a pot with a little bit of salt and cook for a short while, then put through a food mill to remove skins and seeds and can as a smooth sauce.  we don't eat too much in the way of stewed or chunky tomatos, but we eat a lot of pasta sauces and such.  i also render a few pints down to paste each time i have enough tomatoes

this year stunk big time for the tomato crop up here in the great wet northeast, to the point where all my heirlooms are producing leopard spotted rotten tomatos before they even ripen up.   :(

[Larry]

We put in a few Early Girl plants to have eating tomatoes before July 1.  Bulk of canning tomatoes are Better Boy.  We mix a few Roma tomatoes in which make the juice a little thicker and we think better tasting.  Had about 65 plants this year.  We could get by with a lot fewer plants if we spent more time taking care of them.

[Woodcarver]

Our mix of plants is very similar to yours, Larry. We grow Early Girls and Better Boys, along with some Amish Paste, Brandywine and Morgage Lifters. Also a few cherry tomatoes for salads.  

The  only ripe tomatoes we've had this season have been Early Girls. We're finding that they are susceptible to early blight, though, more so than the heirloom varieties we grow. Blight has been a problem this year with the cool wet weather we've had. I think we'll try a different variety of early tomato next year.

[Kirk_Allen]

cktate I will be at the farm tonight and get the recipe for you.  My wife is down there now doing the apples 8)

I should have it posted tonight.

Kirk

[SwampDonkey]

Early girl and Better boy are most widely available varieties here now, also beefsteak. Used to get Scotian and Siberian, although those first two varieties are similar to Scotian. I have been eating some from my garden too. But, I only have 4 plants. I picked a small box of half ripe ones to ripen in the house. My idea was to pickin before blight hits them too. The folks always liked to can vegetables here also, only now the bottles and seals are more expensive than buying it all done off the shelf. I sure use a fair bit of tomato paste and sauce for different dishes. Some of them dishes have nothing to do with spagetti and alot or experimental. I'de eat most anything tomato, while some may not. ;)  I know nothing beats home made, for sure. The folks just make bean pickles, lady ashburn, and beat pickles now. I had an aunt down in Mass. that made watermelon pickles which were real nice too. We used to eat'm over at the camp in NH. I never tried canning myself. My favorite pickles has to be lady ashburn, even my uncle makes those from grandmother's recipe which includes a few hot red peppers. Yummy.

[Engineer]

I made some bread 'n butter pickles a couple years ago, with one secret ingredient (well, not really secret if you were looking at the jar) - one large thai dragon hot pepper per jar.  The thai dragons are right up there below habaneros on the heat scale - something like 100,000 scoville units (compared to jalapenos at 10,000).    

Well, the pickles were nice and sweet and crispy, and about eight seconds after someone took a bite out of one, their eyes got nice and big and tongue came out and usually there was some cussin' going on.  I was nice enough to warn folks they had a bit of a "bite" to them before they took their own first bite. :D  Funny, I never had anyone stop at the first one.

[SwampDonkey]

Ashburns aren't nearly that hot Engineer, cause the old folks in my family don't take to that too well. Personally, I use a dash of chilly powder with most any dish with hamburgh associated with it and also I use garam masala - 1 tablespoon per lb. If you haven't tried garam masala, you may actually take a liken to it. I found it in northern BC and haven't seen it here in the east. I got it from an East Indian spice shop. Oh, and I also tend to add some table sugar to my hamburgh/tomato anything dishes because of the acidity. ;)

[SwampDonkey]

Well I couldn't believe it neither but we found a tomato growing wild in the middle of the woods on a logging road. Also, 60 miles from the mainland.



Yeah, that's me holdin the DanG thing. :D

Here's a closer look.


We figured the logging crew tossed a tomato sandwich out on the way to the dry land sort. Its still amazing since this was in late November in NW Canada. :D :D ;)

[Engineer]

Easy to get garam masala.   Or any other spice for that matter.  

<insert blatant plug here>

I get my spices at Penzey's.  They have several retail stores in the upper midwest and have a great catalog and website.  www.penzeys.com.  No affiliation, just a very happy consumer.

Weird place for a tomato plant, that is.

[sprucebunny]

My tomatoes are the same varieties mentioned and were about eight feet tall when put outside!! I'd cut them off once or twice ,too.
They didn't care that it was a wet summer. Got more than I know what to do with.The cherry tomatoes were huge ,too.
What happens if I just cut them up and freeze them?
We can get garam masala at the supermarket.

[EZ]

We use to do all the growing and canning and now I really miss it. The last 2 or 3 yrs that I drank, thats all I wanted to do was drink. My wife was doing everything at the house and I think the garden thing was one of the things she hung up because I was no help. DanG, now I fill like a piece of crap, again.
EZ

[Norm]

The reason you cook them srucebunny is to halt the enzyme actions in them. Supposed to make em last longer.

We grow romas to freeze, I don't peel them just cut in half, put in a baking dish and sprinkle with olive oil salt pepper and various herbs. Bake them at 350 for 45-60 minutes, cool and put in freezer bags. When I thaw them I put them in the food processor and puree em.

Nothing like homemade tomato sauce no matter how you make it.

[Patty]

EZ, don't keep beatin' yourself up over the past. That isn't gonna change things abit, and it just makes you feel lousy. Celebrate and feel proud that you no longer drink and get out there and plan a garden for next year!  ;)
Norm's process for tomatoes works for Big Boys and sweet 100's, too, they just turn out a different flavor is all. All of them are wonderful come the middle of winter.  

[Jeff]

YEA!  E.Z. is bringing tomatoes to the next pig roast!