cooling on the table while the last round
is in the processing and will be done in a
few more minutes.

this puts us at about 120 qts of tomatoes,
juice and salsa for the season. which is
grand (last year was mostly salsa so we're
running low on tomatoes or juice).

and to think we were worried they'd not get
ripe... we'll pick again in a few more days
but most of the large tomatoes are off the vines
so we'll probably be limited to a few more dozen
quarts of either tomatoes or juice.

tomorrow Ma will be making another round of
stuffed green peppers and i'll be burying
buckets of tomato and pepper leftovers for
the wormies to feast upon.

then she says she wants to do the beets this
week... hmm...


songbird

In article >,
songbird > wrote:

> cooling on the table while the last round
> is in the processing and will be done in a
> few more minutes.
>
> this puts us at about 120 qts of tomatoes,
> juice and salsa for the season. which is
> grand (last year was mostly salsa so we're
> running low on tomatoes or juice).
>
> and to think we were worried they'd not get
> ripe... we'll pick again in a few more days
> but most of the large tomatoes are off the vines
> so we'll probably be limited to a few more dozen
> quarts of either tomatoes or juice.
>
> tomorrow Ma will be making another round of
> stuffed green peppers and i'll be burying
> buckets of tomato and pepper leftovers for
> the wormies to feast upon.
>
> then she says she wants to do the beets this
> week... hmm...
>
>
> songbird

How many people are you feeding, Songbird? Holy crap! That's a lot of
tomatoes. I've put up about a dozen of Ball's new 24-ounce jars and was
impressed with myself. Now I so 'bareassed. :-)

What do you use to make them juice? Are you waterbathing or pressure
canning? Just curious. Crushed tomatoes or whole. In juice or in
water? I did the "crushed" tomatoes version from the U of MN (NCHFP,
too) with no added liquid. Hot packed everything.
--
Barb,
http://www.barbschaller.com, as of April 8, 2013.

Melba's Jammin' wrote:
....
> How many people are you feeding, Songbird? Holy crap! That's a lot of
> tomatoes. I've put up about a dozen of Ball's new 24-ounce jars and was
> impressed with myself. Now I so 'bareassed. :-)

i won't count it against anyone who gets it
done even if it's just a few pints... besides
not everyone has the kind of time we do.

we're canning the last batches of tomatoes
in the next few weeks as the greenies ripen up
(we leave them out on tables/towels in the garage)
all the vines are picked. 24oz jars would be
grand, but Ma won't get anything bigger than
a quart (too heavy and hard for her to move/clean
and store). we have a shortage of storage space
in this tiny house.

we feed ourselves most of the time, but we also
feed a mix of people once a month (the greenhouse,
the dentist office, and my brother's and their
families, besides if we have freezer space (rare)
we'll put some extra servings in the freezer) that
count puts it at about 40-50 people. and for
christmas gifts we give away jars of items because
we much prefer that to buying stuff at the store
that nobody really wants or needs.

one of our favorite meals is macaroni and tomato
juice, so it is always good to have a supply of
tomato juice on hand for that.


> What do you use to make them juice?

big pot with chunks (cored and cut into quarters),
cook on medium heat to bring up to a simmer then
turn the heat back to low to keep them there, once
ever few minutes i smash them with a masher until it
is mostly skins floating around (half hour to 45
minutes). it is very low tech here.


> Are you waterbathing or pressure
> canning? Just curious.

we are unapproved by the USDA or whoever it
is as we use Ma's methods of oven canning (how
she's canned everything for 60+ years). the
equivalent to water bath as far as i'm concerned.
i do not recommend it to anyone else as a method,
but our oven is steady enough that we do not have
problems with it. we tried some new lids (the
mainstay brand at wally's world) this year and we
don't like them but they do work. when they
plink it is more like a *kerpow!*.

we only have done acidic items, but she used
to put up beans, beets, carrots, etc using the
oven method, but it was for a much longer time
period (several hours).

i think we're up to about 160 quarts of tomatoes
or salsa by now with a few more to go yet.


> Crushed tomatoes or whole.

some jars of chunks, just peeled and cut up, no
crushing needed as they mostly fall apart anyways,
then heated up to hot pack and then oven canned
for 45 minutes.

for juice we mash them good as they heat up
and cook for a while, then we run them through
a hand-cranked food mill to get the seeds and
skins out.


> In juice or in water?

ack! we never add water to them. the soaking
in hot water to get the skins to come off (for
chunks) may add some water but in the end the juice
or chunks come out tasting like heaven. every time
we open a jar through the winter/spring/early summer
we're always glad for the effort.

adding water would cut back the acid levels and
we're not interested in doing that. for salsa we
add some lemon juice and vinegar to compensate for
the chunks of peppers, onions and garlic.


> I did the "crushed" tomatoes version from the U of MN (NCHFP,
> too) with no added liquid. Hot packed everything.

we hot pack the jars, i also make sure the jars
are at least warmed up before adding anything. i've
never had one crack or break on me, but i don't
want there to be a first one if i can help it.
so far only one lip chipped jar in a new case
that we couldn't use. had a good sale the last
time we stocked up where we could get one case for
$8 + the second case for $4.

and for pickled beets we plinked 12 quarts of those
a few days ago and she just picked another two buckets
of beets for the next round. i don't think i'll be
planting as many of those next year and we'll see what
happens with the tomatoes this winter. if we have a
pretty good supply then we'll back off on planting this
year for those too. we didn't really plan on planting
so many plants, but Ma was planting gardens for other
people who wanted one or two plants and then she
couldn't get rid of the leftovers so we put them in
here. then after we were done someone else dropped
off another eight tomato plants, so i stuck them in
odd places around the yard (outside the fenced gardens).

i'm in fall bean picking mode and will be doing that,
shelling beans, and getting gardens ready for winter.
already have some nice rye, wheat and oats sprouted
and growing. the oats will not survive the colder
weather (they'll be spots for planting peas in the early
spring).

strawberries are trying to set yet another crop, but
the cold will likely take those out. we've had a few
light frosts already so it won't be long before old Jack
knocks them out. the taste in the early fall is ok, but
as the cold gets going the flavor is not all that great.
too bad as it would be nice for that last crop to be
nice and sweet. we just opened a jar of the strawberry
freezer jam as my sister was in town for a quick visit.
it turned out well. i much prefer it to the
cooked version.

eek! that's a rambly reply, ...


songbird