canning tomatoes

[rydogg 186]

I planted a large garden this year but the heat and drought pretty much wiped it out I got quite a bit out of it but not enough to do any canning I heard of a produce auction that is every Monday Wednesday and Friday from May through October I finally went to it this week Monday and Wednesday I was able to purchase 250 pounds of tomatoes for under $30 these are locally grown and the farmers bring them to the auction to sell them and they are very nice size and flavor. Now I am busy canning salsa, pasta sauce, tomato juice and tomato soup. After going there I am trying to decide if I should even take the time to put in a garden next year since they sell every kind of vegetable you could think of the only problem is you usually need to purchase them in lots like when I got my first batch of tomatoes I had to purchase 7 boxes at 25 pounds per box I paid $3 per box, pumpkins were selling for 50 to 75 cents each, squash was selling at $50-$75 for a tote of 400 the prices were great but what would I do with 400 squash.

[shorts 182]

tomato products look good, I gave up on the vegtable garden several years ago, all it ever fed was the critters, I support my local farmers market and still have better produce to put up on my schedule, not the gardens.

try working with or setting up a food coop to make buying in bulk work, properly stored hard squash should be good for several months

[AMC RULES 36,941]

Reminds me of growing up on the farm...some beautiful work right there.

[rydogg 186]

No garden this year but I went to the produce auction and my brother and I picked up 1,125 pounds of tomatoes thats 21 bushel they were selling for $8 to $12 per bushel, I also got a tote of 55 watermelons for .75 each and 20 dozen sweetcorn for .65 cents a dozen.  We had the truck loaded down pretty heavy I should have gotten a picture but with the 90 degree heat I was in a hurry to get everything down to the cellar.  Now I am canning pickles, salsa, pasta sauce, relish etc.  it'll probably take me a week to get it all done.

[rmaynard 14,864]

My tomatoes are just coming in. From three Early Girl plants, I have about 75 just getting ready to start turning red. Should be enough to put up a few jars for the winter. My mother used to can when we were kids, and I can still remember the smell of those tomatoes when she would pop open a jar.

 

That's a good looking bunch of tomatoes right there. Happy eating!

[Kimtal 4]

Canning veggies sounds right up my alley, do you do anything special to the tomatoes to make sauce?

[MaineDad 85]

We also freeze tomatoes to make sauce in the winter. Our growing season in Maine was perfect. I literally never had to water any of the gardens this year, first time in 16 years! Those look great, enjoy... 

[shorts 182]

I just processed 2 bushels of canning tomatoes, 22 quarts of sauce and 4 pints of paste, the easiest way that I've found is to run them thru my commercial meat grinder, strain out the seeds and skin then cook them down to sauce in a stockpot, the tomato paste works good in a large roasting pan in the oven, just keep an eye on it as it starts to get thick, it doesn't take long to go from done to burnt. I add a little lemon juice and then pressure can them.  I'm waiting for a second crop of roma's to peel and process whole since I missed the first batch.

 

I just cook the water out to make sauce, I don't add anything until I'm ready to use them then It's a matter of adding what you want to make pasta sauce,pizza sauce, tomato soup or whatever

Edited September 20, 2013 by shorts

[Fun Engineer 859]

Rydogg

Nice looking pantry of tomatoes you have there.

Do you have a good salsa recipe?