Celebrate the culture of agriculture & share skills (Growing! Cooking! Eating!)

Getting Canned - first attempt at canning

Cross-posted from Local Me.

No local food journey would be complete without preserving the harvest. Freezing, drying, pickling, and...canning. I grew up with dusty glass jars shelved like aged books below the basement steps, each lid personally labeled by my mom or an aunt.

I recently ordered canning equipment through Amazon.com and set aside time on a Saturday to can crushed tomatoes, pasta sauce, and apple butter.

Tomatoes back from the market
First step: Pick up 25 pounds of tomatoes from the Union Square Greenmarket.

Scoring tomatoes
Second step: Score, peel, and cook tomatoes for a really, really long time.

Tomatoes in canning bath
Third step: Sterilize jars, fill with sauce, seal, immerse in canning bath, and boil until processed.

Canned tomatoes
Final step: Cool jars and store for up to a year.

The process was somewhat tedious and surprisingly enjoyable. I mean, what New Yorker spends a weekend afternoon canning tomatoes? My small supply would never fill the shelves below the basement steps, but I do grin whenever I open my Manhattan kitchen cupboard and see a handful of jars filled with tomato goodness.

Comment by Caroline Malcolm on October 19, 2011 at 10:19am: Jay - these look beautiful! I am tempted to do some of this myself...how did the apple butter go?

Comment by Kristen on October 19, 2011 at 10:30am: "what New Yorker spends a weekend afternoon canning tomatoes?"

Um... lots? http://www.handjobsforthehome.com and http://www.autumnmakesanddoes.com off the top of my head...

Comment by Jay Geneske on October 19, 2011 at 10:58am: @Caroline - apple butter was great!

@Kristen - love the site examples! thanks for passing them along.

Comment by Caroline Malcolm on October 19, 2011 at 11:36am: Kristen, great link!

Comment by Kristen on October 19, 2011 at 1:36pm: Aw, don't thank me -- they're both kind of my canning heroes. Haven't quite worked up the nerve to try it myself, but both of those blogs make it seem easy, even in a tiny NYC kitchen.

Comment by HOMEGROWN.org on October 27, 2011 at 2:21pm: Thanks for sharing this excellent recipe! Consider submitting it in the First-Ever End-of-Season HOMEGROWN Fair. All you have to do is edit the title to include “HOMEGROWN Fair Submission”. Prizes awarded to the best of the best!