TOO MANY TOMATOES....IS THAT POSSBILE???

My aunt calls in distress telling me how her and her husband have "too many tomatoes!" Being a lover of ALL things tomato, I do not believe that to be possible. However,she continues to say that they are eating them with EVERY meal, she is giving them to people whether they want them or not and yet, she is overrun with tomatoes. I told her what any reasonable niece would and that is,"You HAVE to can them so you will be able to enjoy them later in the year!"  After a lengthy conversation about how to go about preserving her tomatoes, we decided I should make a day trip to her house and we could do it together.

The next week I loaded up the supplies:
pint size mason jars (if your jars are not new, you will need to purchase new lids but not new rims)
canning kit (items that are priceless when dealing with boiling hot jars)
large boiling water canner
Ball Blue Book
camera (so I could show you all our process)

She provided:
grape tomatoes (I don't know how many pounds she had, but it was two large tubs FULL!)
lemon juice
salt

Following the directions in the Ball Blue Book was simple and VERY self-explanatory. As with all canning/preserving it is nice to have multiple sets of hands! 

We began by heating up the jars, lids and rims for sterilization purposes. As well as heating the water to blanch the tomatoes to get the skins to peel. I will say that grape tomatoes have a tougher skin and it did take longer than the 30-60 seconds in boiling water to get the skins to crack for peeling.

Pre-blanch 

Post-blanch

Then let the peeling begin!!! This was TIME CONSUMING...but we will be glad we did it when that winter stew with these wonderful summer tomatoes are enriching the flavor, right!?!? We also had some little hands helping us and it became a game to see who could get the highest mound of tomato peels on their napkin! Get the little ones involved, they LOVE it!

some of the peeled tomatoes

Choosing to pack the tomatoes in water, I returned them to boiling water and let it go for 5 minutes. BE CAREFUL not to fill your pot too full!! I put a little too many back in the pot and we had a MESS!! I just chalked it up as part of the fun:)

As recommended, we added 1 tablespoon lemon juice to each jar prior to packing in the tomatoes.

Next, we began adding the tomatoes, a small amount of the water in which they were boiled, and 1 teaspoon salt per jar. Using the handle of a wooden spoon, we did remove any air that was trapped, then cleaned the rim of jar with wet cloth, then secured lid and ring. (THIS is the part where the canning kit is priceless!! The jars are SUPER hot and will burn your hands if you are not careful!) My hands were a little busy during this process and I did not manage to get any pics of this step...:(

Back into the boiling water canner the jars go to process for 40 minutes...if you choose do to quart jars, they need to process for 45 minutes. During this step my jar lifter handle broke and we called in assistance for repair...never underestimate the versatility of duct tape!!

To protect counter tops, I use a bath towel folded in half to place the jars. Carefully lift out each jar and place on counter to cool. When the lids start to "pop" it is music to my ears! So after a day of laughter, gabbing, and hands that became quite like a prune, we had 12 pints of tomatoes!

If you don't have "too many tomatoes", then go grab some at your local farmer's market, call family or friends and have a great afternoon preserving food for the winter!

Thanks for stopping by and happy canning!!