Once again, it’s that time of year; where did the summer go? It’s time to preserve the summer’s local bounty, starting with canning tomatoes.
Here is a pictorial of how I canned more than 2 cases, about 50 pounds of local tomatoes. 40 pounds came from Verrill Farm in Concord, MA; the remaining 10 pounds were from my backyard garden.
First, using a small sharp knife, I cut the core out and put a shallow X, just through the skin on the opposite side of each tomato. I then blanched the tomatoes, in several batches, in simmering water for not more than 30 seconds, then I placed them in an ice bath before removing and discarding the skins.A bucket full of peeled tomatoes.I then cut all the tomatoes in half along the equatorial line.I then gently squeezed out the seeds, reserving and straining them, pouring some of the strained liquid into the pot with the peeled and seeded tomatoes. I wanted to have some liquid in the pot for when I started to cook the tomatoes; this will cut down on the possibility of burning the tomatoes before they break down from the heat in the pan.50 pounds is a lot of tomatoes! This 4-gallon pot is almost full and all set to be cooked.The tomatoes are on the heat and are starting to break down.After about 45 minutes on medium-high heat, the tomatoes were fully cooked and mostly mushy. At this point, I ran them through the coarse die of a food mill.Hot milled tomatoes are ready to be placed in mason jars.All jarred up, in a simmering water bath for 15 minutes.50 pounds of tomatoes worked down to 13 quart jars.Jars are dated only with the year. I won’t be doing more tomatoes this year, so the year is the only date that I need.Put-up in the cellar for use throughout the following year.
