Canning Homegrown Tomatoes
First and foremost… My number one pet peeve with following recipes on other blogs, is the ridiculously long blurb of information. It seems to go on and on forever, by the time you get to the recipe, you’ve either lost interest or literally that brief moment of time you had to cook! If you’re a mom, surely you get it… your child woke up, or needs you now, so that baking ship has sailed. SO, with that being said, let’s get to the point, before Maeve tosses my laptop. (This has happened, RIP to the last one.) HAHA.
Homesteading doesn’t have to be extra hard, prevent procrastinating by simplifying your process. We all know that bowl of tomatoes that keeps staring at you day after day, until the gnats infest them and they die on your counter. It happens haha, but let’s do better.
SIDE NOTE: If you don’t have time to process your hard earned tomatoes and you have any amount that you don’t want to spoil… wash those bad boys, remove the stems, dry & FREEZE them in freezer safe bags or vacuum seal. Use within 3 months ideally. Yes, I’ve done it a thousand times, (maybe like 20 times to be honest) with the skin on. Pop them out of the freezer on a rainy day, let them thaw, toss them in a stir fry or throw them in a blender with a few cloves of fresh garlic, salt & pepper and you’ve got yourself an amazing homemade pasta sauce. It is really that simple.
Lets get started!
Step 1: Harvest your tomatoes. A practice I learned this season, especially with heirlooms, is to pick them at their first blush of color. Let them ripen on your counter before processing. This prevents cracking and sun spots.
Step 2: Rinse your organic, pesticide free produce.
Step 3: Remove stems, any bruising or blemishes and cut or dice the tomatoes into smaller pieces. Place in a bowl to the side.
Some of you may be wondering ummm why isn’t she taking the skins off?! Back to that comment I stated above, about simplifying your process… Sometimes I do, sometimes I don’t. There is a lot of controversy over this, but as long as you're removing any blemished pieces, we feel this is fine for our family. The skins are delicious and nutritious don’t let the Internet fool you. If it’s not for you, simply add the step of blanching the tomatoes briefly, set them in ice water immediately out of the boiling water and peel.
Step 4: Now is a good time to fill your water bath canner, including your CLEAN jars and turn it on a medium flame. Take the lids, rings and set them in a pot, bring to boil. This is another step in sanitizing your jars for safe and effective processing.
https://amzn.to/467m8h0
water bath canner & supplies linked ^.
After the water has heated the jars, lift the glass jar out, dump the water back into the canner and set on the counter to begin the next step.
Step 5: Wash, cut in half and press enough lemons to add 2 tbsp per quart or 1 tbsp per pint.
https://amzn.to/46dbrJM
Manual Stainless Steel Lemon Squeezer linked ^.
Step 6: Add SALT to each of your jars, 1 tsp per quart to 1/2 tsp per pint.
Step 7: Raw pack the tomatoes. This means, do not heat your tomatoes. Bring a few cups of water to boil. Pack the jars with your tomatoes and press them down, literally packing them in there. Add either the hot water to cover the tomatoes or the juice leftover in the bowl. Making sure to leave a 1/2 inch headspace. Make sure to remove any air bubbles with a non metal tool and adjust headspace. Wipe the rim with a paper towel dipped in your boiling water to ensure a perfect seal.
Step 8: Add your seal & ring, tighten. Not too tight, just finger tight. Place them back in the water bath one by one. Ensure your water is not at a rolling boil or there’s a good chance your jar will blow up. Learned from experience haha!
Step 9: Put the lid on the canner, bring the water bath to a rolling boil and process (time starts when it begins boiling). 85 minutes processing time for both pint and quart due to using tomato juice to pack. After the 85 minutes, turn off the stove, take the lid off and carefully remove the jars one by one, placing on a heat tolerant surface. DO NOT TOUCH for 24 hours. Shortly after removing you should hear the sweet sound of success. The pop of the lid, if it sealed correctly, the lid will pop inward. Cover with a towel and let sit before removing the rings, labelling and putting into storage.
It is recommended that jars be stored without ring bands to keep them dry as well as to allow for easier detection of any broken seals.
