Do you say tomato?

Jerry and I had picked tomatoes this weekend and they needed to be "put up." Because of the great amount of rain we've had this year, the tomato plants are no longer putting on flowers. I won't have the number I usually have to can and use all winter.

On the plus side, all the tomatoes are finally turning and are very meaty. I did the old stand-by Better Boy, Better Girl, etc. which are doing exceptional. The heirloom "Mortgage Lifter" tastes wonderful, is a pinkish color and is very large. It must be used as soon as it turns or it will split and rot. Many of the heirlooms are more fragile but typically have the old "down home" tomato taste we love so much.

I canned all of this batch since my new freezer isn't big enough to hold as much tomatoes as we will use plus everything else. This is fine with me because I really enjoy canning.

My large stock pot was about 3/4 full and I ended up with 7 quarts, 7 pints and a large refrigerator container full of tomato veggie juice.

It's a lot more work to make juice but has more uses in recipes. I thought I'd record this recipe (in general terms since quantities are never measured):

I put olive oil in the bottom of my stock pan.

Add:

Loosely chopped yellow onions to cover bottom of the pan.

Loosely chopped and smashed garlic cloves (I probably had ten large)

Cook until transparent but not brown.

After washing tomatoes, I cut them in half, core & remove any serious blemishes.

Add:

Tomatoes

Loosely chopped celery, including leaves

Grated carrots

Loosely chopped sweet peppers. (We don't like it hot/spicy but if you do, add those, too)

Fresh parsley and fresh basil (Use as much as you desire for taste - I used a good hand full)

5 leaves of fresh sage

1/2 C - Vinegar

1 C - White sugar

1 T - Celery seeds

1 tsp - Ground cloves

Salt & pepper to taste

Cook until it boils (occasionally stir to make sure it doesn't burn), turn down and simmer until the tomatoes become mushy.

If you've never canned, the best advice is to do it with someone who knows what they are doing the first time. Also, I often refer to "BALL Blue Book of Preserving".

Mom used to can - all farm women had huge gardens and had to can if you wanted to eat during the winter. I still have some of her jars although I don't use any of the glass lid ones for preserving food.

Other things I have put in tomato veggie juice depending on what's in my garden or at the farmers' markets: Spinach, beets, squash and lettuce.

You can use cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower and brussel sprouts but it will give the juice a cabbage flavor and I prefer to only use these in the veggie soup mixes.

Other recipes for canning tomato things can be found on www.davesgardens.com or cue in Amish Mennonite Canning Recipes.

Now, I need to get a batch of tomato soup fixed for Jerry's supper!