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By bethany (dreadlock girl), October 26, 2009 4:38 pm

Canning tomatoes is one of my favourite fall things to do. I don’t really absolutely love the whole canning process, but I love to crack open the delights one at a time throughout the year until next fall comes. I also enjoy knowing what is in them, and that they are better by far than the ones processed by the thousands on a production line.

This year was the first year when I actually was able to tell the difference. Before that I had gone with all store bought canned tomatoes, but this year since we finished ours up that I canned last fall early I had to buy some. It isn’t that the store ones aren’t good, because I know I ate them my whole life and never complained-it is just that there is no comparison to the home canned ones. None.

I canned about 40 quarts of roma tomatoes this year. I did 27 last year and that wasn’t enough to get us through, this year we’ll keep our fingers crossed. And yes, I do hoard tomatoes!

Have you canned anything lately? If you could can one thing what would it be? For me it would be certainly tomatoes- and I would store TONS of strawberry, marion berry, and black berry freezer jam! YUM!

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By bethany dreadlock girl, October 20, 2008 5:35 am

27 quarts of red delight (aka roma tomatoes). I go through as many as we can every year. I hope to get my hands on more tomatoes, but it is not looking good. These are my favourite to can. What is your favourite thing to can? Or if you don’t can, what is your favourite thing your mom used to can, or your grandma? I was scared of canning for a long time. It seemed way to hard. I am over that now. Maybe because the home canned tomatoes just taste so good.

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By bethany dreadlock girl, September 4, 2008 5:47 pm

(B)’s grandparents have tons of apples, tons. We picked one bucket and we could have picked many more for sure. They are all irregular and funky so you have to quarter and de-core them by hand. I am a pro now! (kind of)

steralized hot canning jars ready for the using. I did this while baking the apples…for over 12 hours at low heat.

a funnel, makes life much easier (as far as canning goes

delightful. what can I say? This is the first thing I have canned by myself…I always head over to the Marble Ranch for canning. I have to say it was well worth it, and made me understand the process. It is not difficult, just a LOT of work. I now see why people don’t can too much anymore, however I also see why I am going to make a habit of it now. There is something so neat about taking something and storing it for winter- just like ants and squirels for sure.

Baked Apple Butter (recipe from Joy of Cooking: All About Canning & Preserving, p. 82)

This is the easiest and perhaps the finest, apple butter of all.

Stem and quarter:
6 Pounds unpeeled cooking apples
combine in a large, heavy saucepan with:
8 Cups apple juice or water
Cover and simmer, stirring occasionally, until the apples are soft, about 1.5 hours.
Preheat the over to 200 degrees F.
Pass the apples through a food mill or medium-mesh sieve. Return to pan and add
Juice and grated zest of 1 Lemon
1 and 1/4 Cups sugar (half may be brown)
1+1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
Slowly bring to a boil, stirring frequently. Stir in:
1/2 Cup port or dry red wine (optional)

Pour three-quarters of the puree into a crock or deep backing dish, reserving the rest. Bake, uncovered, until thick enough to mound on a spoon, about 10 hours. As the mixture shrinks, ass the reserved puree. Pack the hot fruit butter into hot jars. See putting up preserves, p. 50. Leave 1/4- inch headspace, (p.12) and process for 10 minutes (p.14).

my notes: I left my skins on. I didn’t pass it through a sieve at all, just mashed them up and the peels end up breaking all up and not being obvious (unless a little peel here and there bugs you).
I used water and not apple juice. I probably quadrupled the recipe, so I had to cook it for longer. Make sure you don’t try and get done faster by turning up the heat, it will burn. I did turn it up to 300F for a while, and that was fine but you need to stir it often.

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enjoy!