Tomatoes!

I had just about given up on canning tomatoes this year until my good friend, Donna, mentioned we should try to find some.  So we went online and found a great farm out toward Winchester, Virginia, (about an hour West of where we live) that had a few bushels left.  I love farm markets that are right on the farm - the ones that have a small store where you can buy fresh ice cream with the fruit of the season,  milk and vegetables, and other specialties!  Also, it may be a good place to look for small quantities of honey - like the little squeeze bears!





We picked up a bushel each of tomatoes.  Can I just say "That's a LOT of tomatoes!" And when you have a LOT of tomatoes, it calls for some special canning tools that help get the job done better and faster.  I was very pleased with myself because Donna had never seen my very special kitchen gadget, and I love it when I have something to share that others have not seen or possibly heard of.

My gadget is called a "Squeezo."  I know, funny name for a kitchen tool!  But it is the dream tool for a canner!  Let's see if I can bring up a picture.  Yep, there she is to the left!  Not a cheap kitchen gadget but worth every penny you spend on 'er.

This is a multiple-use gadget (tomatoes, squash, apples, whatever).  Once a fruit or vegetable has been properly prepared (usually dropping it in boiling water to loosen the skin), you drop it in the hopper, turn the handle and the rest it magic.  If you want chunky fruit, well then you do't want to put it all through the Squeezo, but for sauces, it's the dream!  There's an auger inside that moves the product down from the hopper through to the strainer part on the left.  The hopper is the top part that looks like a giant funnel.  The strainer (that's what I call it) has holes in it - it's to the left.  And you can buy them with different size holes for different produce.  The tomato is forced through the holes but the peel, seeds, stems and anything else undesirable is pushed on out and ends up in the pan (that's the silver pan to the left).  There's not one speck of waste - well except for the peel and seeds.  If you try to do the same job by hand, it takes longer, it's messier and you end up tossing out a lot more than you need to lose.  If you want chunky tomatoes, it's important that you skin them after the dunk in the boiling water.  Then you take out as much of the seeds by hand as possible and cut up the chunks so you will have chunky tomatoes.  The good news is that you can then take what you have left - the skins and other pieces left from deseeding and toss that into the Squeezo.  It will remove any remaining usable pulp that you can add to your sauce.

I also discovered another handy way to do my canning this year.  I purchased a portable propane grill that has 3 large burners on the top - perfect for a couple of large pans of boiling water.  And I put it on my deck right outside my kitchen.  We had a wonderful time!  We also made a mess!  But I brought out my hose when we were finished and got things cleaned up very quickly.  It's been my best year yet for canning.

It's always important to follow proper guidelines when canning!  Whether it's produce or meat, it is very important to do it right so you know that your product will be safe when you take it off the shelf.  These days I'm sure you can find just about anything on the internet, but I like the Ball Canning Book.  And it's important that you check once in awhile to make sure there is not an updated issue.  Our farms have changed over the years and so does our produce.  You want to make sure you have the right amounts of whatever is needed to make your canned product tasty and safe.   We decided to freeze our tomatoes this year.  They are wonderful!  I need to get Donna to give us her recipe.  Stay tuned.