Canning tomatoes??

[jgenie]

Our CSA is offering canning tomatoes this week - $2/25lbs. We've never canned before, but we're wondering if we dare undertake this. Anyone BTDT? Tips / tricks? Will we need to buy equipment to do this? Can we use these tomatoes to make sauce? Recipes? TIA

[Serafine]

Wow...I would be all over that. Canning takes a lot of time, but is not difficult.

If you can get the Ball Blue book of Canning - it is the "gold standard" of canning, per se.

THe only real equipment you need is a large canner/stockpot and a rack to put in (so you can keep your jars off the bottom), jars (I prefer the widemouth), lemon juice, salt, and some kind-of utensil to remove the jars from the canner (they sell a jar lifter for 3-7 dollars at most stores).

Waterbath canning is SUPER easy...it just takes a while to wait on them to be done.

Making sauce is easy to...you would just need to make regular sauce (tomatoes, salt, some italian seasoning)...no mushrooms, onions, garlic, etc. added, unless you were going to pressure can (b/c those additions change the acidity).

You can also freeze them (the tomatoes whole or the sauces)...organique gal has an awesome roasted sauce that she makes and freezes.

[jgenie]

Originally Posted by firefighterwife

If you can get the Ball Blue book of Canning - it is the "gold standard" of canning, per se.

Waterbath canning is SUPER easy...it just takes a while to wait on them to be done.

Making sauce is easy to...you would just need to make regular sauce (tomatoes, salt, some italian seasoning)...no mushrooms, onions, garlic, etc. added, unless you were going to pressure can (b/c those additions change the acidity).

You can also freeze them (the tomatoes whole or the sauces)...organique gal has an awesome roasted sauce that she makes and freezes.

Thanks for the tips. I'll look for the book - hopefully I can get it from the library. I"m assuming I need to cook the tomatoes before freezing? Would 25 pounds be a good starter batch?

TIA

[Serafine]

Nope, you don't necessarily need to cook the tomatoes before freezing. You can pop them in whole, skins on and everything. Then, when you thaw them, the skins will pop right out. You would only want to use them in sauces, etc. after being frozen...but that is pretty much the same with canned tomatoes (b/c of the change in texture after processing).

As far as how much...25 lbs. of tomatoes isn't a ton, when you actually start canning, but depending on what you want to do..it might be enough for you. I can't remember right now, but I think I was able to get about 8 quarts of canned whole tomatoes from around that much.

[mountainash]

I like freezing tomatoes better, but not everyone has tons of freezer space. I think it's easier and I like the taste of the frozen tomatoes--they retain more of their zing.

These are the instructions I use:

http://www.pickyourown.org/freezingtomatoes.htm

[Barefoot Bookworm]

Do it!! I canned a ton of tomatoes this year and while it took forever, they turned out well.