Canning Tomatoes

Our giant tomatoes have been doing really well, and every couple of days we pick a bowl-ful of them. We have had to start picking them right when they start turning red, because if not, they split. Someone told us that means there are too many nutrients in the soil, but I'm not really sure if that is the reason or not.

So with no less than 3 calls to my grandmother and 3 to my mama, I started the process of canning the big bowl of ripe tomatoes. First, I dipped them into almost-boiling water for a few seconds. This makes the skin come off easily to peel them. After peeling them, I cut them up into smaller pieces. You can leave them whole if you would rather, but since I will probably use them for spaghetti sauce, I decided to go ahead and cut them up.

Then I packed the jars and added 1/2 teaspoon of salt to each one. I had already boiled the flats to sterilyze them. I closed the lids with the flats and rings and placed them into the pressure cooker with 2 quarts of water.

Once I put the pressure cooker on the burner and turned it on high, I waited for it to "jiggle." The first try didn't work, because I hadn't gotten the lid sealed properly, and too much steam was escaping through the handle. I had to turn it off and let the pressure go down and reseal the lid.

Here's the finished product. When I do the next batch, I will pack the tomatoes into the jars tighter. Now I'm really feeling like a farm wife--maybe I'll get some chickens next...on second thought, maybe not.