The tomatoes have finally produced, and I've been busy this week canning and freezing, and trying to stay on top of everything. So, when a piano students mom looked at my 3 bushels of tomatoes and said to me, you could have those done in 3 hours, my ears perked up. I of course wanted to know how on EARTH that could possibly happen. So, she shared with me her way of canning, and I am in love! It's SO much easier for me, especially with a little kiddo who needs my attention without warning. There is no blanching and skinning of tomatoes involved which is pretty much amazing to me because that's the part I hate. You also don't have to process them, you just flip them upside down.
See?
I love learning new tricks of the trade, and this is by far one of my favs thus far!
4 comments:
This processing method looks super quick and easy--awesome!
As far as the flipping them upside-down method, I don't want to rain on your kid-friendly-canning parade, but you might want to look up some articles regarding food safety for fruits like tomatoes. According to any ag-extension, you're actually supposed to make sure to pressure cook tomatoes, or at the very least hot water can them for an appropriate amount of time with added acid.(http://www.extension.umn.edu/distribution/nutrition/DJ1097.html) The jars WILL seal with the flipping them upside-down method, but bacteria can still grow inside. I know you mentioned you'd cooked the tomatoes prior to packing them, so it's possible that takes care of this step, but there's probably still a chance of re-introducing bacteria as you move them to the jars...
It's obviously your decision, but I know I did a lot of research before processing my tomatoes last year and some of the information suprised me. I just wanted to make sure you had all the information before deciding how you want to proceed.
Happy Canning!
Oops, link didn't work--too long. Here's a shortened version (that should actually work)from the University of Minnesota's Agriculture Department: http://bit.ly/8FnoO
liz.. thanks for the link. i had looked into a little bit. the lady i got the method from has canned like this for 40+ years, and has never had any trouble because i did question her on it. she said that because you cook the snot out of them on the stove, that gets rid of the bacteria? i don't know. i'm going to try some this way this year, and see what happens. i figure it can't hurt, and if it works, then it's awesome!
The cooking could do it--it'll be interesting to see how they turn out. It certainly would be a time saver! And hey, even if you find you have to process them just not having to blanch/peel/cut, etc. will be a big time saver. If we ever get enough tomatoes to can this year (most of ours were lost to late blight) I'll have to get the whole method from you! :) Though I think I'm still too much of a worrier to put them on the shelf without actually processing them in the jar...
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