Un-CANNY tomatoes

$9 worth of farmer's market tomatoes

After months of pale and mealy impostors, we finally get the real deal: fresh tomatoes!! Midwesterners can stuff our faces with ripe delicious beauties - and safely put them on our sandwiches and side plates once again, late August through September. Usually. 

But this summer's record-breaking rains  and early cold snap have made tomato pickings slim. We only got one, an heirloom variety, in our farm share box on Sept. 13. 

The cherry tomatoes in my front yard (that's where I get the most sun) are doing okay but they need sun to ripen and our weather has been dreary. Still, I cherish each cherry tomato I harvest as if it were my last - because you never know when the last one will be, right?

After simply freezing the first batch of tomatoes (after blanching, coring and peeling them), my husband and I made a date to can the next batch last Saturday. We wanted to do a test run to see how it went and find out how many tomatoes it took to fill a jar. The answer: about 6 to 8 good-sized tomatoes. We had about 30 ripe tomatoes and filled 4 quart jars, with a little leftover.

The first step is getting everything set up, cleaned and sterilized, including the jars, lids, bowls and equipment. We made sure to have bottled lemon juice on hand because it has a consistent pH so you know the tomatoes will be properly preserved. Real lemons, and tomatoes for that matter, vary in their levels of acidity and it's the acid that preserves them. 

We had 3 pots boiling away on the stove: a small one for lids and seals; a normal large stainless steel pot for blanching the tomatoes and for extra hot water if needed; and a large canning pot that holds 6 jars, which we borrowed from our awesome neighbors.

First, we cored, scored and blanched  the tomatoes in hot water for 30 to 60 seconds then into a cold water bath to easily remove the skins. Next we peeled and quartered; larger tomatoes were cut into 8 or 10 pieces to more easily fit in the jars. 

We measured 2 TBSP of lemon juice and 1 tsp of salt into each sterilized jar and were ready to roll with the wide-mouth funnel to carefully and cleanly fill the jars one at a time. We let the air bubbles out and filled the jars to 1/2 inch from the top. We added a few spoon fulls of boiling water from the tomato blanching pot to make sure all the fruit was covered in liquid in each jar.

Next we popped on the seals using the magnetized lid grabber, wiped the rims to remove any spillage and screwed on the lid to finger tightness. When they were all secure, we immersed them in the big canning pot - and brought it to a boil then let it simmer for about 45 minutes.

When the timer went off, we carefully lifted the lovely red-filled jars onto a clean cloth on the countertop to prevent any crackage and let them sit for 24 hours before we touched or moved the jars. They're now ready for our pantry.

We felt good about our successful first run and don't mind admiring our handiwork. Just look at them, aren't they lovely?! And I expect they will taste as good as they look when we crack them open to make chili or spaghetti during the cold winter months ahead.

But are 4 jars enough? I don't think so.....

Today I went to the Lincoln Square Farmer's Market - open Tuesday mornings (7am to1pm) and Thursday evenings (4pm to 8pm) with the intention of picking up a few mums to brighten up the garden in the chilly weeks ahead. I got 4 large, beautiful mums for under $30; plants this big and healthy would cost $30 EACH at the local garden store (I even checked). 


And I couldn't resist getting more tomatoes, when I saw this whole box for just $5! The vendor called them 'seconds,' and that's just what I wanted to do my tomato canning sequel this weekend. I figure if I do this a few times in a row, I'll have it down so I can get even more adventurous down the road.

But first: I'm canning these beauties.