As I placed my order for a half bushel of pasting tomatoes, also known as Roma, I had what is commonly referred to as an impulse buy. Some people exercise their impulse buys at the check out counter by grabbing that US Weekly, or pack of gum. I found myself impulse buying bulk veggies. In this case a half bushel (20 lbs.) of sweet delicious onions. Oh yeah, then I threw in eight heads of garlic too!
A few days later I lugged to my office two HUGE boxes of tomatoes and onions, which required help from Adam to carry back to our apartment. Thus started my first foray into canning.
Some may be intimidated by the process, which involves sterilizing everything and then boiling the canned jars in a water bath for at least 45 minutes. But the process is pretty easy, as long as you've got a few hours to dedicate to it.
On Sunday I started out to can whole tomatoes. Since we don't have a dishwasher to sterilize the jars, I boiled the jars and lids, and then blanched the tomatoes in order to remove their skin. After filling up the sterile jars with peeled and quartered tomatoes, I added a tablespoon or so of lemon juice to each. This prevents botulism, which is some pretty nasty stuff. Peeling tomatoes was probably the most painstaking part, but really not as hard as I expected. There's a simple technique for peeling tomatoes, or any skinned fruit or veggie. Bring a pot of water to a boil, throw the tomatoes in for a few minutes, then remove them and dump 'em in an ice bath. The skins just slide right off. Messy, but simple.
After filling and sealing the jars, you simply boil them in a water bath for about 50 minutes. After the jars cool for a day they're done. As long as the lid didn't pop up, you've got sealed tomatoes to keep you through the winter!
Here is a step by step photos for tomato canning.
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