http://www.thegreenestdollar.com/2009/09/how-to-can-tomatoes/#utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=how-to-can-tomatoes Save Money. Save the Environment. Be Happy. Sat, 04 Sep 2010 15:23:49 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 http://www.thegreenestdollar.com/2009/09/how-to-can-tomatoes/comment-page-1/#comment-10596 Christy Tue, 08 Sep 2009 17:47:36 +0000 http://www.thegreenestdollar.com/?p=2165#comment-10596 We did almost the same thing this past weekend as we have for many labor day weekends for years. We make tomato sauce and picante sauce. You start the same way as the above story, but after cooking the tomatoes and running them through a colander you add in your onions, peppers and spices and then cook everything to cook down the sauce (getting out the water) and then put it into jars and waterbath when done. We grew what we canned, but since the tomatoes come off slowly, I put them in the freezer along with the peppers and onions I want to use. Over labor day we thaw it all out and cook it up. We ended up with 152 pints of picante sauce and 24 pints of tomato sauce. This is a years supply for us. Just a note: Granite black kettles work well for cooking the tomatoes and waterbathing the jars, they can also be used for picking in the garden, hauling water, using for waste, or many other uses. They come in many different sizes. Find them at your hardware store. Stainless steel kettles are the best if you can afford them. A hand colander will also work well for getting the "meat" out of the cooked tomatoes, and it gives you a wonderful upper arm workout. The tomato waste stays inside the colander and the meat gets squished out the holes. You place it over a pan or bucket and the juice falls out the holes. Once you can your own tomatoes, you will always can your own tomatoes. And messy is right, there is no way to keep clean when canning tomatoes. It's alot easier than it looks or reads. And so healthy. I honestly would not know how to cook without our home canned sauces. We did almost the same thing this past weekend as we have for many labor day weekends for years. We make tomato sauce and picante sauce. You start the same way as the above story, but after cooking the tomatoes and running them through a colander you add in your onions, peppers and spices and then cook everything to cook down the sauce (getting out the water) and then put it into jars and waterbath when done. We grew what we canned, but since the tomatoes come off slowly, I put them in the freezer along with the peppers and onions I want to use. Over labor day we thaw it all out and cook it up. We ended up with 152 pints of picante sauce and 24 pints of tomato sauce. This is a years supply for us. Just a note: Granite black kettles work well for cooking the tomatoes and waterbathing the jars, they can also be used for picking in the garden, hauling water, using for waste, or many other uses. They come in many different sizes. Find them at your hardware store. Stainless steel kettles are the best if you can afford them. A hand colander will also work well for getting the “meat” out of the cooked tomatoes, and it gives you a wonderful upper arm workout. The tomato waste stays inside the colander and the meat gets squished out the holes. You place it over a pan or bucket and the juice falls out the holes. Once you can your own tomatoes, you will always can your own tomatoes. And messy is right, there is no way to keep clean when canning tomatoes. It’s alot easier than it looks or reads. And so healthy. I honestly would not know how to cook without our home canned sauces.

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