Tomatoes

Unfortunately, this post is unseasonably late, but I'm am so going to love having all these tomatoes as winter comes in a hurry. 

I was inspired by my favorite tomato sauce to grow and can my own tomatoes this year. I had a decent crop with my 3 plants, but still needed to supplement with my mom's tomatoes, her neighbor's tomatoes and a couple boxes from the local fruit stand. 

Canning took way longer than I expected. The actual peeling, cutting, and filling jars was a breeze, it was the hours of processing time (filled jars in boiling water to seal the lids and kill bacteria) that was a beast.

Beautiful red jewels

Peeled and ready for dicing.

After dicing the tomatoes, they were place in jars with salt, lemon juice, and a little extra water.

Ready for lids and processing. 

To can raw tomatoes:

1) dip tomatoes in boiling water, allow to cool to the touch, peel skins and dice.

2) put diced tomatoes into clean, hot quart jars (we wash our jars in the dishwasher and remove them for filling while still hot) with 2 tsp lemon juice and 1 tsp salt. We added a bit of water to level off the jars. 

3) simmer lids and seals in boiling water, then tighten onto jars.

4) submerge jars in boiling water bath. Water level should be at least 1-inch above the top of the cans. 

5) process jars in boiling water for 50 minutes. Check to make sure the lids pop down to seal (they just need a tap on top if they don't pop down themselves).