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I finally canned some of the tomatoes

Yesterday, I warmed up by bottling a 500ml Weck jar of crushed orange and yellow tomatoes -- it looks very pretty.

Today, I did a manageable batch of reds, filling 3 pint jars with crushed and 1 pint jar with juice.

Nice and easy. I don't like doing huge production batches, because I get overwhelmed and sometime in the middle of it all, start feeling like it's drudgery. Today was fun.

I'm thinking salsa next....

Awesome Apple. I need to start doing some canning my freezer is about full. Not really sure what I will doing with it all. I am still very green to canning. Maybe you can come by and walk me through it Applestar.

My Grandmother tough me to DATE my Canning jars and to organize jars in the pantry from left to right according to date.

When I cook I use the jars from left to right, using up the oldest jars first. There is nothing older than 3 years in my pantry but food is still good for many more years.

I plant my garden according to how many jars I want to add to the pantry. I always want fresh summer vegetables but if I don't need to Can green beans this year then I plant only enough beans to pick and eat all summer. If I plant only 1 row of beans instead of 3 rows it makes room in the garden for 2 rows of something else.

If you loose a crop one summer to bad weather, blight, bugs, drought, etc. it is good to have a pantry. Maybe next summer weather will be better and you will have a great harvest for Canning.

YES......canning is fun. Best part is fresh garden vegetables all winter.

I canned some tomato soup this week. I finally got some to turn red for me. It has been a slow red tomato season this year. A lot of tomatoes but they are real slow to turn red.