Thursday, August 16, 2012

The Tomatoes are Done

Vacation, the beginning of school, and canning got all mashed up together this year.  I was stressed about it, but after today, I feel so much better.



Ben's first-day-of-school shirt is done and I'm starting on the lunch buckets.


The bushel of tomatoes is canned and the children helped enormously.  Yesterday, I canned 9 pints of pizza sauce and 10 pints of salsa (both recipes from Simply in Season).

Today, Genevieve washed 20 quart jars and Ben placed them in the oven.


Then I ran all the tomatoes through boiling water, dumped them in ice water, and cored them.  The children peeled the skins off all the tomatoes with their fingers.



 I smushed them down into jars, added a splash of lemon juice to ensure acidity, and canned them.  I got 19 quarts.  Everything sealed.  Nothing broke.  There wasn't even a big mess, really.  What a happy, happy sweet summer day!


We celebrated with some candy and a picnic supper at the pool, all of us together. 

9 comments:

Lisa said...

Sounds like a great day, Margo. You're like the squirrel gathering his nuts, or, like the virgins with their lamps trimmed. :) Or, Proverbs 31.

Lisa said...

By the way, my verification number was 31! ;-)

Rachel said...

well done!!! Evie's hair is adorable, too :)

Unknown said...

Wonderful! So glad to hear you had a productive day and ended it with some fun too : ) Sounds just right!

I tried canning dried beans yesterday - everything sealed and looks like it worked well. I'll open a jar for lunch today and see how they taste ; )

Sarah Barry said...

Your kitchen is lovely in that last photo.

Yay for tomato success!

Unknown said...

I love the way you include your kids. I did that too and they were much more educated about where food came from and how to cook. Good for you! Nice kitchen too!

BLD in MT said...

Well, that all sounds like it came off wonderfully and I so appreciate how you let your kids get in on all the fun/work. We picked our first tomatoes of the season yesterday and made them into fresh sauce. It was great. Hopefully we'll can some sauce before they all get directly eaten up!

Sew Blessed Maw [Judy] said...

Fantastic..what wonderful help the kids were to you today..looks like they were having fun too. And everyone got the work done...and had a fun evening.Yea!!!

Anonymous said...

These are the best kind of days with the kids, aren't they?....everyone pitching in, & having something so good & yummy at the end to show for all that work. :o)

Brenda