Canning Tomatoes
Here I am again, 6 years later and still tackling the bushel of tomatoes! This year they were only $13.99, which is less than previous years. It may be because they ripened early from the heat?
I am about 2/3 through the basket and my lower back is getting a little tired, lol. I first filled two stock pots with quartered tomatoes. Each was then cooked down in the crock pot and put through a sieve to remove the skins and some seeds. The result was a thick tomato juice, much runnier than sauce. It will be really nice in soups. Combined, it made eight 3-cup jars in the pressure canner.
Next I filled two stock pots with quartered tomatoes – some blanched and some not. 7-quarts of raw tomatoes only cooks down to five quarts once it’s been boiled through. I did the first batch in the pressure canner but it takes a really long time to come down and 1 or 2 fail per batch. It’s a balance between the steam and heat from boiling water vs low heat and no steam from the pressure canner. Given that we’ve had a heat wave and are running the dehumidifier, pressure canner it is (and I shall rest while the jars settle).
