Putting Up Tomatoes

by | Sep 4, 2012 | 2 comments

I had One day to relax after cooking for twenty two people all local food three meals a day. The cob workshop was fun here, but exhausting. So what happens the next week ? My husband shows up with twelve huge boxes of the most beautiful, splendid tomatoes. Grown by his brother at their “home place”, Mom and Pops; in sunny hot Geyserville. Usually we’ve been putting up about 50-60 quarts of tomato sauce, salsa and spaghetti sauce, all we need for the year. We typically do this over two to three different harvest periods. This is manageable. But the last week we put up 92 quarts, all at once, plus about 35 pints and half pints of tomato sauce, enchilada sauce and salsa. Also some oven roasted tomatoes for the freezer ( yum! pizza ). My friend Maria help all one day my husband helped the whole time and more. Whew.

My mother in law confirmed that if your jars are washed, sterilized, hot, packed with boiling hot sauce, placed with a boiled hot lid, water bathed for the time specified, that everything should be fine, provided the lids seal. Store in a cool place. I know that I’m doing the easy canning, not meat, fish or green beans, but the higher acid foods like tomatoes.

I now have many questions about canning.

When do you need to use a pressure canner?
How do you use a pressure canner ?
How to you make pie filling ?
What else can you do with apples? I know- apple butter, apple sauce, chutney.
What if I want to can dried tomatoes in olive oil ? Maybe some garlic ?
How do you can soups ?

I will reread my BALL jar caning book and my other caning resources, anyone have any other feedback ?