Stocking the Pantry

This time of year is the culmination of many hours building the soil, sowing the seed, pruning, weeding, feeding and ultimately harvest.  The produce begins piling up in the kitchen, in the ice box, on the counter.  We cook a lot of it.  We eat a lot of it raw.  We give a lot of it away.

Here is an example of some homegrown tomatoes.  Black Krim on the left.  Big Rainbow Organic on the right:

Some of the crop, we preserve for later.  We'll dry some in the dehydrator.  We'll blanch and freeze some.  And some, we'll process and can to restock the pantry.  We were completely out of canned tomatoes, so Tricia worked yesterday on replenishing the inventory in the pantry.

A big basket of tomatoes were put in boiling water for a few seconds, the skins were removed, they were cored, and put into a big pot.  They were crushed up and boiled for 5 minutes, then ladled into sterilized pint jars with 1/4 salt in each jar and a Tablespoon of lemon juice, Tattler brand lids were put on and then the rings, and then they were placed in a hot water bath canner for 35 minutes.

Once done processing, we removed them and set them on a dishrag to cool.

We watched with anticipation as the lids sealed!

When all was said and done, we had ten pints of stewed tomatoes to line up in the pantry.  Tricia found that 13 pounds of tomatoes made 10 pints.  We have lots more to do.  The plants are still producing.  Not our best tomato crop, but not near our worst, either.  We are already planning the fall tomato crop.