Canning

I've been putting this off as long as I can, but with the abundance of tomatoes that I am daily accruing, I can't put it off any longer..



It's time to learn how to can!
I googled: "how do you can fresh tomatoes" and found a nice step by step tutorial with pictures.
To start, you first need cans, a big pot, and a can lifter thingy (thats the technical word for it)







Krogers had cans and this cool kit:



It contained the much needed can lifter thingy.

To start, the tutorial said to sterilize the jars, either in the dishwasher or by boiling them. Since my dishwasher was full, I decided to boil them:



The tutorial said to also boil the tomatoes for 45 seconds to 1 minute. This loosens their skins so that they slide right off.



After 45 seconds, you dunk them in an ice water bath:



See, the skins just slide right off!



I didn't think that they would come off so easily but I was pleasantly surprised!



I sat a pot under a strainer in order to catch some of that delicious tomato juice that squeezed out as I was peeling and chopping up the 'maters.



I used two strainers as I needed one to work with and one to put chopped up tomatoes in. After about 20 tomatoes, I had enough to make 3 pints.
I used my can lifter thingy to get my sterilized cans out of the boiling pot. Here they are all clean and shiny and ready to go:



I filled up 3 of them with the chopped tomatoes. The tutorial said to boil either water or the collected tomato juice to add to the pints. I boiled that delicious tomato juice (who would choose water over this, I have no idea!) and poured it into the jars until they were 1/4 inch from the top. The tutorial also said to add 2 Tbl (or whatever the abbreviation for tablespoons is- since I rarely measure anything I cant remember what it is!) of lemon juice. It said this helps to preserve the color. Then you just screw on the lids and they are ready for the next step



Boiling for 40 minutes


After 40 minutes, use the can lifter thingy to extract the jars from the boiling pot.
Ta-da!






This was a lot easier than I thought it would be. Good thing, because I'm sure I will be doing a lot of canning this summer.

Y'all will be thanking me this winter when you get a hankering for some fresh summertime 'maters to cook with. Apparently canning brings out the country girl in me. Y'all come back now, ya hear!