Canning

I’m canning today. This morning I harvested from all the tomato plants – Ace, Celebrity, Better Boy. I wish I had a scale to weigh the baskets I brought in. Next, I culled the fruit. Ace has been giving me troubles with blossom end rot; but they are good producers. Only a few of the tomatoes had sunburn. Any cracked fruit was set aside to make more salsa.

I peeled and cored the tomatoes and put them in hot quart jars along with 1 Tablespoon of vinegar and 1 teaspoon of kosher salt. The fruit should be covered with the juice and leave about 1/2 inch of room from the contents to the jar rim. I got rid of the big air bubbles, cleaned the rims, screwed down the lids. Down they went to the canner for a 45 minute bath.

After that, the jars come out onto a towel on the counter and are covered with another towel to avoid drafts. Draft dodgers?! This is the same process used when I made salsa on Tuesday.

While these babies were cooling down, I made some more salsa from the imperfect tomatoes. I just love salsa (y cheeps!).