Thursday, September 4, 2008

Puttin' it by

There is a certain magic in transforming this...
to this...
Of course, I had hoped that the work involved would yield a few more quarts, but I'll take what I can get. I did have help, though, which is always nice. In addition to the kids, Don's mom joined the assembly line of blanching, peeling, seeding (for a few of the quarts), chopping, and then jarring and boiling.

As you probably noticed in the first picture, most of the tomatoes were very small. Somehow, I bought seeds for those small tomatoes when in reality, that was the last thing I wanted. If you'll remember, we aren't too fond of raw tomatoes in this family. Which means I needed to can those. And if you've ever done that before, you'll know that small tomatoes just mean that you get less yield for your work in canning. The tomato still needs to be peeled, no matter how small. Our peeling efforts, then, resulted in much less tomato to chop than we we would have had after peeling large tomatoes. Oh well. Live and learn, right?

Abby had to get in on the action.
Of course, we did remove her before boiling.

Canning has been just one more thing in the long list of "things I've never done before but do now" since moving to the farm. I must say that it is satisfying. Seven quarts down and more to go.

I do have one question: Why is it called canning if you put it in jars? Shouldn't it be jarring?

3 comments:

Missus Wookie said...

I don't understand that either, but here you buy a "tin" of tomatoes so perhaps it would be "tinning"? I've also heard them called "bottled tomatoes" and they're not in bottles... and in the UK they are called "preserved" no matter how you preserve them...

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/recipes/preserved-semidried-cherry-tomatoes-461810.html

April said...

When I was younger my grandma canned okra and some other veggies. We don't have anywhere to put a garden but I would love to learn how to can. The pic of Abby in the pot is too cute. And I don't understand why it is called canning either.

Akprestons said...

LOL! I love the pic of Abby in the pot! and yes, I agree that it was a good thing to remove her before it went on the stove! haha

and I also agree that canning with jars *should* be called *jarring* lol we did some of that, only with raspberries and blueberries, the other night. Isn't it rewarding?? good work! :)

Take care!
love jessica