A Bushel and a Half of Tomatoes

I spread out the work over a week or so mid-August.  I almost didn't take any photos because tomato canning is basically routine in my kitchen in August.  But hello Margo! that is the point of your blog:  making sure you remember the work that is not news, but rather is familiar and rhythmic and therefore often discounted as interesting, real, or hard.

Well, I worked hard and competently to put up all these tomatoes.  My big kids did all the blanching and peeling all by themselves.

So far for 2016, I have:
12 pints salsa
24 quarts whole tomatoes
9 quarts tomato soup
9 half-pints ketchup
8 pints pizza sauce

Some clarifications:
1. The half-bushels of seconds tomatoes cost $6 apiece this year.
2. The salsa came from a bunch of really ripe tomatoes and peppers that my friend Naomi gave me one Sunday, not from the bushel-and-a-half.
3. I would still like to can at least 4 more pints of pizza sauce.  A little more ketchup, too, if the opportunity arises.
4. I set goals for canning after taking an inventory of my basement canning shelves this spring.  So these jars are being added to some food left from last year.  The only canned food I try to use up every year is pickles because they seem to get mushy with time.

5.  And a dirty little canning secret:  I have been re-using my canning flats.  All the authorities tell you not to do this, but everybody in my mother's generation re-used their flats with no ill effects.  I did it this winter with a few small batches to see how they would hold up because I was awash in used flats.  No poor sealing that I can see or taste.  But of course, you must decide who to listen to and how to keep your family safe: I just wanted you to know what's going on over here.