Having a well-stocked pantry of home-canned goodness is on my master plan, and right now, we’re in the heart of canning season. It’s some ridiculously good times here in my little town and, having my favorite farm stand less than two miles from my house — filled with good things grown right up the road — I have plenty of opportunities for such projects.
I haven’t been writing about all of them, just because there’s only so many posts you need about jam or fruit, but when I tackled a box of gorgeous tomatoes last week, I knew I’d need to share this one.
Tomatoes used to scare the heck out of me. You really need to pay attention to what you’re doing. But after reading “Animal, Vegetable, Miracle” by Barbara Kingsolver (and admittedly letting that percolate for a few years until I felt like I could do it), tomatoes just seemed like a really good thing to master on the canning front.
Because I buy a lot of tomatoes, mostly in canned form. My fall and winter days are full of sauces.
And you can’t read a passage like this and not want to go all in:
” … All those gorgeous, red-filled jars lining the pantry shelf in September make me happy. They look like early valentines, and they are, for a working mom. I rely on their convenience. I’m not the world’s only mother, I’m sure, who frequently plans dinner in the half-hour between work and dinnertime. Thawing takes time. If I think ahead, I can dump bags of frozen or dried vegetables into the Crock-Pot with a frozen block of our chicken or turkey stock, and have a great soup by evening. But if I didn’t think ahead, a jar of spaghetti sauce, a box of pasta, and a grate of cheese will save us … I think of my canning as fast food, paid for in time up front.” — Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, page 201
Sing it, Barbara Kingsolver! Let’s do this thing!
(This is actually my third year of canning tomatoes. It gets easier every time.)
I even remembered to take pictures! And I should add I did this on a weeknight, after dinner. As long as you have your jars already sanitized in your dishwasher, that’s half the battle.
Core those tomatoes, then make an X on the bottom. I was smart this year and got huge, meaty ‘maters instead of Romas. Romas are nice … but there’s something to be said about beefy tomatoes, mostly that they take less time to peel.
Then place into a boiling water bath. I think my canning book recommends 30 seconds to a minute, but I leave them in there a bit longer because time is boring and also because I forget to set the timer.
I’m bummed this is so blurry. It was meant to show you how easily the skins peel off after their water bath. Johanna LOVED this part.
Beautiful bowls of tomatoes. My book said to can them whole or halved, but as these suckers were so big, I cut them into quarters. Johanna was a big help on that front.
The process for canning tomatoes is just like the process for canning peaches, which you can read HERE. The important thing, though, is that you must add bottled lemon juice to ensure there’s enough acidity — 2 tablespoons per quart jar. Add that, then add your tomatoes, then cover with boiling water. Wipe the mouth of the jars, add your lids and rings, and toss into the water bath for 45 minutes.
I definitely recommend a canning book if you’re going to tackle tomatoes — the steps are laid out in colored drawings, which is helpful — or go to your extension office’s website for up-to-date instructions. (HERE is what Oregon’s extension office has to say.)
So far I’ve managed to can blueberry, raspberry, cherry and peach jams/butters (and my mom just gave me four half-pints of blackberry, bless her), peaches and applesauce in addition to these tomatoes. I’d actually like to do another batch of tomatoes … and pears. I had hopes of making pickles, too, but Eric is going to have to rely on the jars he still has from last year — we were having some stove and dishwasher issues smack in the midst of prime pickle time, and I fear the season has passed.
The thing with canning is that I love that I know exactly what is in these jars, where the produce was grown, and that I’m not only eating locally, but supporting my neighboring farmers too. It’s just full of win. Not to mention I feel like a complete badass.
P.S. If canning tomatoes seems like too much work, you can also freeze them — core and make that X in the bottom, then toss them into bags (whoops, plastic, well, try to reuse what you have) and into the freezer. When it’s time to use them, take out what you need and run under hot water, and the skins will magically loosen and practically peel themselves. They’re not good to use in, like, salads or for fresh eating, but they make a great sauce or soup or whatever needs to be cooked. HERE is a tutorial I found on the subject.
What are you canning these days?
Next up: I’ve finally got my coffee making situation sorted. Yesssssssss.
Tomato season is usually accompanied by 100 degree weather here,and I’m just not ok with increasing the heat and the humidity that much. So I use the Barbara Kingsolver freezer method, and it works BE-U-TI-FUL-LY! When I want to use canned tomatoes in soup I pop the frozen tomato in to the soup for 10 seconds, pull it back out, peel the skin off (in one or two pieces). Chopping the frozen tomato is actually easier than cutting up a fresh tomato. If anyone is hesitant to can their tomatoes, I definitely recommend the freezer method! (Only down side is the use of freezer space).
Frozen tomatoes are great! This week I also roasted tomatoes (cut in half, drizzled with olive oil and thyme, 2 hours in 325º oven) and then, having some room in my food dehydrator, decided to give that a whirl — worked amazingly well. (Hello, December pizzas.)
I’m told that in Oregon we have no concept of humidity. 100º days are also pretty rare. Anyway, I don’t blame you for not wanting to can in those conditions — that would be so miserable. I like the idea of dipping the frozen tomato in the hot soup … that would save some water.
Has anyone had trouble with their tomatoes tasting super metallic. I did one year of tomato canning which ended in unbearably metallic tomatoes and a lot of sadness (wasted tomatoes, wasted time…)
I haven’t experienced this, but I just did a search and it sounds like that happens when tomatoes have been overcooked. (Other sites were about industry canned tomatoes and people were blaming the tins. I’ve never had that happen either.)
I’m sorry that happened — that is such a bummer!
Hmm, except I used the “don’t cook, just add hot water and then process” method. Guess I’ll stick to freezing.
This is actually one of my biggest simple living/waste reduction challenges, I enjoy a good project but I really hate when the results are duds. Not only is it a giant waste of time, but now you also have a bunch of stuff (that was once perfectly usable) that has to be thrown out. Every time I have a dud project, I end up backing away from my goals because I don’t want another failure.
Hmm. You know what, I’m going to ask one of our extension agents here … she’s on my contact list at work, let’s see what she says.
I also really hate the failures. It really sucks when you’ve not only put in a lot of time, but resources into a project. I’ll get back to you when I get an answer!
Heh, it’s like having a journalist on speed dial 🙂
Man, and now I’ve dated myself since speed dial isn’t really a thing these days.
Hey, I haven’t forgotten, I just haven’t heard back from my “source” yet. We’ll get this sorted! I’m totally on a mission.
The fun part of being a journalist is that you can just ask people whatever question you want and they actually answer. Sometimes I forget that I can’t do that in real life. 😉
I’ve been canning tomato sauce over the last few days. I managed to grow 27 lbs of tomatoes in my tiny back yard in pots which I was super excited about. I don’t usually peel them since I’m making sauce. I freeze the tomatoes as they ripen and then toss them into the pot once the growing season is done. As they defrost the skin slips right off. Then I use a special colander to strain everything (which I use for applesauce as well).
I made 9 batches of jam (peaches and various berry combinations). I usually freeze our peaches, but they are done too. I will can about 24 quarts of applesauce in a few weeks when Michigan apples are ready.
Canning things is super satisfying to me….but I’m nerdy like that.
Oh, I LOVE this! So awesome! (Fellow canning nerds unite!)