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Canning tomatoes: easier than I thought


My garden is finally starting to produce tomatoes.

I grew heirloom tomatoes from seed for the first time and it has been a learning experience.
The hardest part was keeping moles/voles away from them one they were transplanted into the garden.

I planted 6 Beefsteak plants and only have 2 left.
I planted 12 Amish paste plants and only have 4 left.

The plants that are left are doing well and I was able to can my first few pints of diced tomatoes.

I use a lot of canned tomatoes throughout the year for soups, sauces, and other recipes. 
My goal, this summer, is to can or freeze 60 pints of diced tomatoes and 100 pints of tomato sauce. 
This week I canned 3 pints of diced tomatoes.  I think I've got my work cut out for me.

I used a tutorial from a wonderful blog called Thy Hand Hath Provided.  This blog is full of very helpful foodie type posts.  What I liked about her way of canning tomatoes is that you can can in any amount.  By that I mean if you have 4-5 tomatoes that are ripe, you just can that much.  If you have a bushel of tomatoes you can that much.  No recipe to follow, really.

Well, I'm off to the garden to see if any of my tomatoes are ripe.  I'm thinking I'll have to buy some from my farmer's market if I want to meet my target amount this year.
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Comments

  1. The Apple Pie GalJuly 29, 2010 at 10:53 AM

    Good Job on your first round with the tomatoes! They come in so handy in the winter and you know exactly where they came from and what's in them!

    ReplyDelete
  2. HeatherJuly 29, 2010 at 1:53 PM

    Bravo! They look beautiful. I love to can tomatoes and use them all winter for soups and chili... summer in a jar. I have never diced them but leave them whole and kind of give them a little squish when I empty the jar at the time of use. You will be so happy this winter when you lift the lid off of your own home grown tomatoes:)

    ps. thanks for the link:)

    ReplyDelete
  3. You Can Call Me JaneAugust 1, 2010 at 10:34 PM

    They look beautiful. Nice work.

    By the way, I just added one of your aprons to my Etsy mini. I only just discovered your shop:-)!

    ReplyDelete

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