Saturday morning, we went the the University Farmer's Market and bought 23 pounds of #2 tomatoes and headed up to my family home so my mom could guide us through the canning process. We ended up doing a mix--mostly whole tomatoes but some pureed for sauces. In the end, we turned out 13 jars of deep red and bright pink colored jars, more than we thought, but still at $5 a jar. We have 35 more jars to go to set us up properly for the winter, and on the next round, I'm going to road trip to Eastern Washington to see if I can get the price down on the tomatoes.
23 Pounds of gorgeous tomatoes:
After blanching the tomatoes and dropping in ice water, it was time to peel the tomatoes (as my amazing husband did to all of these!):
Then you fill the jars, top off with hot water, seal and drop in the boiling water for 45 minutes. After you do all that, you get the joy of pulling them out and seeing if they seal properly!
Our finished product, round one.
Beee-utiful!! Yes, a tad expensive though... Maybe we can find you some cheaper ones when R&R pick up the kids next week. Nice work though - I love canning and standing back to admire my larder! I say your next step is to get a few Earth Boxes and GROW YOUR OWN!! Totally doable even in small spaces:)
ReplyDeleteYES!! That is the next step--NOTHING has inspired me more than this process to raise our own tomatoes. :)
ReplyDeleteI'm planning a little road trip to E. Wa. for the next round of tomatoes to try to get the cost down. Can't wait to tap into them this winter! :)