What Did You Do In The Garden?

[Zeedman]

picked 180lbs of tomatoes of which about half will be put up today or got ready for Mom to use when she makes some manicotti this weekend. half a bucket already went to the reject bin for burying tomorrow morning. hate to waste anything but when they're leaking juices and smelling like they're fermenting it's not worth risking using them.

From this & previous posts, you must put up hundreds of pounds of tomatoes! Incredible. I'm curious what you do with all of that; you do more in one batch than I use all year.

 

[flowerbug]

From this & previous posts, you must put up hundreds of pounds of tomatoes! Incredible. I'm curious what you do with all of that; you do more in one batch than I use all year.

some years we've done over 300 quarts and it normally runs about 3lbs of tomatoes for a quart of chunks or juice. a full bucket of tomatoes ends up running about 7-8 quarts. today we've processed 4 buckets but not all are getting canned as Mom is going to cook with a large pan full of those i did this morning. the other three buckets are just now waiting for me to get back to them as i heat them up and then hot pack the jars and then seal them up. should be somewhere around 20-24 quarts so the total for half a day is around 30 quarts. some days i've done over 60 quarts. it does make for a long day, but when done it feels good. actually, i've always liked the processes involved of canning tomatoes either the chunks or the juice. this has been a lighter season so far in that the most i've done in one day is 47 quarts. i think we're past the peak now that we've brought in this last part of the harvest. another 2-3 buckets will have to get done in a day or two.

what we do with these? haha... when we have extra we have a cousin who will take a few cases and we have a few others that we give them to. some people offer to buy them from us but i don't want to get into making it a business - but Mom does whatever she wants with them and i don't ask too many questions. what is a quart of organic tomatoes in glass worth? to me if i were doing a business i'd be pricing them about $5/quart depending upon if i had to buy the jars or not. could be more... for the amount of labor involved at the small scale we work at (nothing is automated here other than the well pump) counted at even minimum wage it would be a lot more per jar to earn a decent living at this - something i'm not at all worried about doing - my time is my own, how i gift it and the results of my efforts i don't really ponder much other than asking myself if i'm happy and if i'm doing gardening or dealing with the results of gardening i'm normally about as happy as i can get...

the rest we cook with. Mom loves to cook and she used to cook for a bunch of people, not as a paid caterer, but just because she wanted to do it. this past year she said she wasn't going to do that any more so guess what? now she's cooking for about 1/4 of those people, but she's doing it every week instead of once a month... so it is ending up she's as busy now as she was before. it works out as it keeps her busy and happy and the people we feed enjoy the results.

from last year we ran out of tomatoes, i'm hoping we won't run out this year. next year i hope we don't plant as many plants. i'd be good with about 20 plants (and that was what i was trying to do this season but somehow we came home from the greenhouse with 30 something plants so they all got planted). my goal is about 200 quarts per season for our own use and a few extra cases for the others who we want to give them to. we've given some away and found out years later that the people didn't even use them so we've stopped giving them as gifts to people we'd done it before. for the amount of effort and time involved i don't want to be wasting that nor the jars/expense/space/transportation, etc.

we've also in the past made things like salsa and chili sauce but in the end the things we want to use the most are the basic tomato chunks or tomato juice.

the other reason is that now we are finding that some canned/factory tomatoes and other foods are now having things added to them which cause reactions in me and/or Mom so it is much better for us (and the medical system) to not have to cope with ER/doc visits due to reactions or complications from treating the reactions.

 

[Marie2020]

some years we've done over 300 quarts and it normally runs about 3lbs of tomatoes for a quart of chunks or juice. a full bucket of tomatoes ends up running about 7-8 quarts. today we've processed 4 buckets but not all are getting canned as Mom is going to cook with a large pan full of those i did this morning. the other three buckets are just now waiting for me to get back to them as i heat them up and then hot pack the jars and then seal them up. should be somewhere around 20-24 quarts so the total for half a day is around 30 quarts. some days i've done over 60 quarts. it does make for a long day, but when done it feels good. actually, i've always liked the processes involved of canning tomatoes either the chunks or the juice. this has been a lighter season so far in that the most i've done in one day is 47 quarts. i think we're past the peak now that we've brought in this last part of the harvest. another 2-3 buckets will have to get done in a day or two.

what we do with these? haha... when we have extra we have a cousin who will take a few cases and we have a few others that we give them to. some people offer to buy them from us but i don't want to get into making it a business - but Mom does whatever she wants with them and i don't ask too many questions. what is a quart of organic tomatoes in glass worth? to me if i were doing a business i'd be pricing them about $5/quart depending upon if i had to buy the jars or not. could be more... for the amount of labor involved at the small scale we work at (nothing is automated here other than the well pump) counted at even minimum wage it would be a lot more per jar to earn a decent living at this - something i'm not at all worried about doing - my time is my own, how i gift it and the results of my efforts i don't really ponder much other than asking myself if i'm happy and if i'm doing gardening or dealing with the results of gardening i'm normally about as happy as i can get...

the rest we cook with. Mom loves to cook and she used to cook for a bunch of people, not as a paid caterer, but just because she wanted to do it. this past year she said she wasn't going to do that any more so guess what? now she's cooking for about 1/4 of those people, but she's doing it every week instead of once a month... so it is ending up she's as busy now as she was before. it works out as it keeps her busy and happy and the people we feed enjoy the results.

from last year we ran out of tomatoes, i'm hoping we won't run out this year. next year i hope we don't plant as many plants. i'd be good with about 20 plants (and that was what i was trying to do this season but somehow we came home from the greenhouse with 30 something plants so they all got planted). my goal is about 200 quarts per season for our own use and a few extra cases for the others who we want to give them to. we've given some away and found out years later that the people didn't even use them so we've stopped giving them as gifts to people we'd done it before. for the amount of effort and time involved i don't want to be wasting that nor the jars/expense/space/transportation, etc.

we've also in the past made things like salsa and chili sauce but in the end the things we want to use the most are the basic tomato chunks or tomato juice.

the other reason is that now we are finding that some canned/factory tomatoes and other foods are now having things added to them which cause reactions in me and/or Mom so it is much better for us (and the medical system) to not have to cope with ER/doc visits due to reactions or complications from treating the reactions.

I would just love to eat melon from my own garden, we can't grow them here.
I don't know anyone where I live that has canned their own tomatoes and never heard of it until I came into this site.
If I lived near you I would buy them from you.
I've had physical issues with tomatoes but when a nieghbor gave me some from her green house recently I was just fine with them. So looks like home grown tomatoes are the way to go for me

Your mother sounds like a really lovely lady. I like cooking for people to.

 

[ducks4you]

I would just love to eat melon from my own garden, we can't grow them here.
I don't know anyone where I live that has canned their own tomatoes and never heard of it until I came into this site.
If I lived near you I would buy them from you.
I've had physical issues with tomatoes but when a nieghbor gave me some from her green house recently I was just fine with them. So looks like home grown tomatoes are the way to go for me

Your mother sounds like a really lovely lady. I like cooking for people to.

Canning tomatoes is the easiest bc of their acid. The USA has decided that you need to add some lemon juice so that the tomatoes won't spoil. I have opened/eaten jars of tomatoes that are over 12yo and not gotten sick, still had that wonderful fresh tomato odor.
You need a big pot with a metal rack to keep the glass jars from touching. You also need a jar sized funnel.
You ALWAYS put hot vegetables/fruit in hot jars into hot water. They WILL break if you go hot to cold, or cold to hot. I Have filled jars cold, put them in the hot water bath with cold water, and then heated them all up before, and that has worked.
I can tomatoes withOUT any salt. DH has severe salt restrictions, tomatoes are his favorite food, and, right now, he is pigging on them at dinner.
Here are the instructions:

 

[ducks4you]

I wash my tomatoes, stack them in a huge bowl, then boil them in groups. I watch for the skins to crack, used a slotted spoon to remove, stack all of them in my biggest colander in the sink and let them cool down completely. You can burn your hands on hot tomatoes bc they hold the heat.
Then, I prefer to heat them up in a big crock pot. I can do all of the rest of the prep while the tomatoes stay boiling hot. I use gloves, place the crock on the LH side of the sink, place the hot jars on the RH side of the sink, and ladle in the tomatoes. You use a knife to get out any bubbles. The video is pretty clear about removing bubbles and what 1/2 inch of headspace looks like. It is VITAL that you clean the mouth and Sides of the jars AFTER you fill them. I use a new and wet (water only) partial paper towel for each jar. If you leave any tomato there it will mold on the seal.
You place the seal, Screw down the lid, snug and 2 more turns to allow air to escape--we had a thread on this last year, I think--and I boil my tomatoes for 45 minutes.
When they cool, you test ALL of your seals. You can put the jar back in to boil more if the lid didn't seal.
Remove and place either on a towel, or I use my biggest wooden cutting board. Let cool completely.
Remove the screw lid. They rust and can be hard to remove later...and I mean MUCH later, in my case.
I have recycled rusty screw tops and replaced them with new.
I keep brand new lids and new screw tops. When we eat up a jar, I thoroughly wash it, thoroughly dry it and place a new lid and screw top on it. Looks like I just bought it, but I KNOW that it's clean.
DH really likes to label what I can. I Hate to label what I can. We make a good team.

 

[flowerbug]

we have a dual sink where the water from one side can flow over the divider in the middle so we can fill the sink on one side with cold water and let it run a bit while we are dunking the tomatoes to loosen the skin.

once the skin is loose enough we put them in the cool water side so they don't have to be cooled off to handle. after a few minutes of being in the cool water we put them in the other side of the sink where the water is not at. so we can stack that sink really full of tomatoes that have their skins mostly ready to come off and to have anything else cut away that we don't want to go into the pots. once we have enough tomato chunks in the pots then we warm them up and then once those are warmed we hot pack the jars and then seal them up.

certain types of tomatoes do not have enough acid in them and the recommendation is to increase acidity with the addition of lemon juice or vinegar or ... depends upon what you might like to use. we never bother to do this because the type of tomato we use has enough acid in them. we also do not add anything else to the tomatoes or tomato juice. we are so used to no added salt or sugar that we'd really notice it if we did. the only thing i've added to sweeten up a batch of tomatoes is if we have some cherry tomatoes left over for juicing - not something i've done very often.

today was a day of putting up tomato chunks.

 

[Trish Stretton]

What type do you grow for canning?

 

[Marie2020]

we have a dual sink where the water from one side can flow over the divider in the middle so we can fill the sink on one side with cold water and let it run a bit while we are dunking the tomatoes to loosen the skin.

once the skin is loose enough we put them in the cool water side so they don't have to be cooled off to handle. after a few minutes of being in the cool water we put them in the other side of the sink where the water is not at. so we can stack that sink really full of tomatoes that have their skins mostly ready to come off and to have anything else cut away that we don't want to go into the pots. once we have enough tomato chunks in the pots then we warm them up and then once those are warmed we hot pack the jars and then seal them up.

certain types of tomatoes do not have enough acid in them and the recommendation is to increase acidity with the addition of lemon juice or vinegar or ... depends upon what you might like to use. we never bother to do this because the type of tomato we use has enough acid in them. we also do not add anything else to the tomatoes or tomato juice. we are so used to no added salt or sugar that we'd really notice it if we did. the only thing i've added to sweeten up a batch of tomatoes is if we have some cherry tomatoes left over for juicing - not something i've done very often.

today was a day of putting up tomato chunks.

I wash my tomatoes, stack them in a huge bowl, then boil them in groups. I watch for the skins to crack, used a slotted spoon to remove, stack all of them in my biggest colander in the sink and let them cool down completely. You can burn your hands on hot tomatoes bc they hold the heat.
Then, I prefer to heat them up in a big crock pot. I can do all of the rest of the prep while the tomatoes stay boiling hot. I use gloves, place the crock on the LH side of the sink, place the hot jars on the RH side of the sink, and ladle in the tomatoes. You use a knife to get out any bubbles. The video is pretty clear about removing bubbles and what 1/2 inch of headspace looks like. It is VITAL that you clean the mouth and Sides of the jars AFTER you fill them. I use a new and wet (water only) partial paper towel for each jar. If you leave any tomato there it will mold on the seal.
You place the seal, Screw down the lid, snug and 2 more turns to allow air to escape--we had a thread on this last year, I think--and I boil my tomatoes for 45 minutes.
When they cool, you test ALL of your seals. You can put the jar back in to boil more if the lid didn't seal.
Remove and place either on a towel, or I use my biggest wooden cutting board. Let cool completely.
Remove the screw lid. They rust and can be hard to remove later...and I mean MUCH later, in my case.
I have recycled rusty screw tops and replaced them with new.
I keep brand new lids and new screw tops. When we eat up a jar, I thoroughly wash it, thoroughly dry it and place a new lid and screw top on it. Looks like I just bought it, but I KNOW that it's clean.
DH really likes to label what I can. I Hate to label what I can. We make a good team.

I really appreciate your taking the time to explain in such detail. Thank you so much

 

[flowerbug]

What type do you grow for canning?

beefsteak varieties, they have had various names over the past few years, but before these we were normally using tomatoes called Balls Beefsteaks which were doing ok for us in terms of production and resistant enough to the blights that we could get a crop in. the past two years we've grown newer varieties and they have done ok but not quite as resistant to the blight so they are finishing up sooner.

none of this is a bad thing. we like to get the tomatoes grown and harvested and put up more all at once than just a few at a time. if i'm going to do juice and have to clean the food mill it is nice to have it more than just a few quarts. same for chunks. the perfect sized batch is 20 quarts. i can seal those up in one batch.

 

[Scott Hucker]

I cut and hung in the barn more oil seed sunflowers. It is balance between ripening and the birds.
Scott