Yesterday at the Bloomingdale Farmer’s Market I ran into MVSQ’s Si and mentioned I was going to buy 20-some odd pounds of tomatoes to can. On the Eckington Listserv or was it Scotts Bloomingdale list there was an announcement that one of the vendors was selling a box of tomatoes for $12. I started talking about my plans for canning and Si said I need to blog about it. So, here’s the first.
Supplies- I picked up my canning kit some time ago at the 5th Street Hardware store. They didn’t have it in stock so they ordered it for me and I picked it up several days later. It’s the Ball Canning Kit item # 6096606 and it comes with everything you need for hot water canning and costs about $55 bucks. I also grabbed some 1/2 pint and 1 pint jars from the store as well. The kit comes with the Ball Blue Book Canning Guide, which is how I sort of figured out WTF I’m doing.
So that afternoon I had Mrs. DC Education Blog, BL, come over so the near sighted could lead the blind. I had already canned a lot of strawberry vanilla fruit spread, some pineapples and some peaches. And so BL came to see how this canning thing is done.
I had already pealed and sorta quartered and sort of seeded the tomatoes when she came. They were of the seedy variety and at a certain point I gave up on trying to get all the seeds. I discovered I didn’t have to wait long, or for the skins to crack, after letting them bob around in boiling water and then dunking them in ice cold water. Too long in the boiling water and those puppies cooked in their skins, scalding my hands when I went to peel, core and deseed them.
Okay this post is getting long, so I’ll do a part two later.
oh yay! Thank you thank you!
lovely to see you yesterday 🙂
…. an old trick from my mom when we grew tomatoes… just put them in a ziplock in the freezer and use it for sauces and curries.
Next anon comment gets zapped.
The reason why I'm canning is to make more room in the freezer. Yeah, I can freeze tomato sauce, and have, but the freezers (got two) are filled with stuff I can't can. So it makes sense, with that and the annual lengthy power loss, to can what can be canned.
Anon users don't have to use their birth names, but please use initials, fake names, whatever. I have found that I have a low tolerance for anons and the tone they bring to the discussions. See Comment Policy.