tomato canning; basics.

In my last garden update, I mentioned that we had been very lucky with our tomatoes. Suddenly realizing that we had much more than we could possibly eat (after sharing with three different households), we rushed to can what we could one night. We ended up with seven quarts. I think that will already last us most of the winter, but I am excited to can some more with some variations. For these, we canned them very basically as we didn't technically have all of the supplies necessary. In a few weeks, when we do another canning, I think we may add a variety of seasonings to create some flavorful tomatoes! Anyone have any experience or advice?

I thought I would write up a short instructional with photos to show the basic process of canning tomatoes. First, you start with some tomatoes from your garden or local farm:

When canning, sterilization is important, so make sure to boil all jars and lids you will be using. Running them in the dishwasher on a hot cycle without detergent would work the same way.

Once your storage container and prepared, boil up a big pot of water. You'll boil the tomatoes in this water for 45 seconds to a minute each. We went with a minute. If you transfer the hot tomatoes into a bowl of ice water, the skin comes off very easily. You'll want to remove all the skins or the tomatoes and tomato sauces that you can will end up quite chewy when the time comes to eat it. 

I peeled all of the skins off while Zak cut out the stems and harder portions of the core. I love the color of the fleshy skinned tomato. They're very beautiful!

To help keep the canned tomatoes tasty, add two tablespoons of lemon juice to each quart.

After chopping the skinned tomatoes in halves, fill the jars with them and add the lemon juice. Add hot water to the jars, leaving about an inch at the top of the jar. It's important to make sure the jars are warm when pouring the hot water in to prevent them from cracking. It's good to be prepared for this step as you finish sanitizing the jars.

Add the lids. You'll need a pot large enough so that when filled with water, the water covers the jars completely. The lids should not be above the water at all, a half an inch or more below the water line is best. Boiling the jars in the pot with water will sanitize and protect from botulism. These need to boil for an hour to properly sanitize what's inside. You'll know if the jar is ready to store if the lid of the mason jar has popped up. 

Canning tomatoes is lots of fun! It's exciting to grow your own food or collect it from a local source and prepare it to last you through the winter! More seasoned tomatoes and pickles are next.

water painting, the easiest activity in the world!

If I'm not feeling particularly up to setting up a project and the clean up involved afterwards, I grab a big bowl of tap water and a couple of paintbrushes and set it out in the courtyard. The babes love it and spend an hour or so just "painting" the ground.

growth spurts

I hate growth spurts. This past week, Odin has been an absolute mess, wanting to be held constantly and whining at my ankles when he isn't. If I try to hand him off to someone else, he immediately cries and shouts "ma maaaa," in a way that makes me feel ridiculously guilty. I'm tired. I thought he may be sick at first but today, both Zak and I noticed him being obviously bigger. I remember the first growth spurt and how I woke up one morning looking down at my sleeping week or two old laying beside me and realizing that he had grown in the night. They grow so much during that first year. He's still hitting milestones and growth spurts and other things that change his behavior temporarily, but nowhere near as often as during that first year. 

These were some of the few peaceful moments this week, I'm thankful for little Paloma who always seems to be very good at distracting him, even if only for a very short while. He's recently started mimicking us to a T and paying more attention to the things he does. He's always been the destroyer of block towers and this week, he finally started helping me build them! I love little milestones like these. <3

spiderweb

The babies made a yarn spiderweb all over the front courtyard. I swear I played no part!

A Garden Update

Our refrigerator was looking a wee bit bare yesterday, so Odin and I made a trip out to our garden to "shop." There are few feelings that can compete with that sort of self reliance. 

The tomatoes are looking magnificent and bearing more than we know what to do with! Our plants have grown quite a bit and just this week we harvested enough to give away to our upstairs neighbors, Aunt Linda, Zak's mum, and some for ourselves- in addition to canning seven quarts for the winter. And all of that was just from this last week. (A huge thank you to Kaity of Fare Isle for giving us such wonderful plants). The beets are all finishing up their growth and the squash are growing larger every day. I think we're nearing the end of the cucumber harvest, we'll be pickling some tonight! I'm thinking we should pickle some beets too. We pickled some of our beets from last year and Odin loved loved loved them. Pickled beets were one of Odin's first 10 foods, I'm fairly certain.

We have two large melons growing. Well, one now. I couldn't help but pick one to try! I've never successfully grown melon and it's a very exciting treat.

I'm so happy with our garden this year. We started later than we should have but everything seemed to come together in just the right amount of time. Having such a successful harvest and going through the process of pickling and canning to store for the winter has made me think a lot about living off the land and eating seasonally. Imagine not having the convenience of the grocery store where items are shipped from far away and having to wait until a fruit or vegetable was in season! I'm actually craving a lifestyle where we eat seasonally, I feel as though it would create a huge appreciation for the things we eat and where those foods come from. There are many issues with the way our country treats food (Monsanto is evil) and I think that we need to move into a more self reliant direction. I feel as though I am seeing more and more of my friends grow their own food every year and it's very exciting. More people are realizing the harms involved with processed food and the damage it does to our bodies. "Organic" is such a strange word to me.. Shouldn't it just be food? And anything other than food should be labeled otherwise? We have a few things backwards and like always, I think humans need to take a few steps back and rediscover their roots before it's too late.