Putting up Stewed Tomatoes

We have been harvesting several gallons of tomatoes every day and I must report that Tricia's concoction that she whipped up of grated lye soap dissolved in water and sprayed on the tomatoes is really working to repel stink bugs!!  The tomatoes we're picking this year are big and beautiful without the cloudy spots that the stink bugs usually leave on them.

Of the 14 tomato varieties that we planted, I would say that the top 5 producers have been Black Krim, Black from Tula, Big Rainbow, Pink Brandywine, and Money Maker.  You can see all the varieties that we planted by clicking Here! 

Homegrown 'Maters

Now Tricia has been slicing them for eating them raw with some salt and pepper. She's also made pico de gallo and a Greek tomato salad that has olives, olive oil, peppers, onions, and basil. But now it is time that we start putting some up.  First, we're going to can a bunch of stewed tomatoes.  That way, whenever we cook with tomatoes, which is a lot, we'll go to the pantry instead of the store.  Let's get going.

Tomatoes(of many varieties) all lined up

First thing we do (after shelling a bunch of peas in the background) is wash the tomatoes read good to remove any dust, bugs, and lye soap residue from them.

Splish, Splash

Then we drop them into some boiling water for 30 seconds.  It doesn't take long at all. This loosens their skins.

Hot Water

Pull them out with a slotted spoon and dunk into some cold water.

Then cold water

Then start to slip their skins off, coring them to remove the stem, hard parts and any brown spots.

Slipping off the skins

It didn't take long with two of us working to have a nice big platter of skinned, cored tomatoes all ready to go.

Almost ready for processing

Then we start cutting up the tomatoes in bite sized chunks, but you could really can them at this point whole, halves or wedges.

Cutting them up

We use a canning funnel to help pack the sterilized jars with tomatoes, filling the jars to within 1/2 inch of the tops.

Filling the jars

We add 1/2 teaspoon of salt to the top of each jar of tomatoes.

Adding salt

Then we put the gaskets, lids, and rings on the jars and place them into hot water. Then we add hot water to cover the jars by 1 or two inches and bring to a gentle boil. Then we set the timer for 40 minutes and allow them to process in the hot water bath with the lid on until the timer goes off.

Processing the pints for 40 minutes

We remove them after 40 minutes of processing and because they are Tattler lids we tighten the rings down real tight once we remove them.

Removing from the water

We set them on cooling racks and allow them to cool for 12 hours. 

Cooling them down

After 12 hours of cooling, we pull off the rings and test the seals by lifting the jars by just holding on to the lids.  If the seal holds, we label the jars and stack in the pantry. If the seals don't hold, we pour the contents into a quart freezer bag and freeze it flat so we can stack a bunch of them together, maximizing freezer space.

Stewed Tomatoes

We'll do this many more times for the next several weeks.  Our canner will hold 9 pint sized jars per batch. We've decided that we'll do a bunch of stewed tomatoes and then will make some tomato sauce and salsa. Thank the Good Lord for a good harvest this year!