Canning is NOT hard

Let me start out by sharing a concern of mine.  I have mentioned to some of my mom friends that I worry Jonathan is going to come home one day and find me like this-

Sitting in the kitchen with a bonnet on churning butter so something.

The joke here is I am spending most of my time doing lots of domestic stuff.  Not necessarily a bad thing, it messes with my mind at times though.

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Back to canning-
Tomato plants are pumping out some major fruit these days.  It's a bitter sweet thing....
Sweet because, YAY!, we have lots of 'free' and tasty produce.  Bitter because, yay, now I have to find something to do with it before it goes bad.

This lovely basket was hand made by Dad Trexler

Thankfully, canning and preserving fresh tomatoes IS NOT THAT HARD.

On a side note, raw whole tomatoes freeze great for later use in soups, stews and sauce.  You don't even have to peel them.  Once they thaw the skin slips right off.

Back to canning-

If you are canning fresh tomatoes alone, you DO NOT need a pressure canner.  Only a pot big enough to hold enough water to cover your jars.  Last year I used a lobster pot (it was one of my New England welcome presents when I moved here).  This year I actually have a pressure canner thanks to a birthday present.  I recommend looking at the below websites for expert tips.  This post is just to show you how easy it is if you are thinking about trying it.
Also those that already can, feel free to share your tips!

USDA tomato canning guidelines - http://nchfp.uga.edu/publications/publications_usda.html
Pick Your Own website - http://pickyourown.org/canning_tomatoes.htm

First set up your 'processing line', which should include:

• A boiling pot of water to blanche the tomatoes (big is good)
• A bowl of ice water to quickly cool the tomatoes
• A large pot for heating and crushing the tomatoes (if crushing)
• A large boiling pot for the water bath with enough water to cover the tops of your jars by an inch
• Cutting board
• Hot jar handling tools (I got a simple canning kit that included jar tongs and a hot lid picker upper, that has to be its name) but maybe you could improvise here if you don't have the tools.
• Ladle, strainer spoon, jar funnel and potato masher
• Lemon juice

Also get your jars HOT and clean.  I do this just by putting them in the dishwasher through a washing cycle.  They come out, like I said, hot and clean.

You will also need new canning lids for the jars.  They are easy to find at the grocery stores or Walmart.  I re-use my rings and jars each year but they recommend you use new lids for sealing reasons.

1.  Blanche your tomatoes just until the skin cracks.

2.  Cool the tomatoes, slide the skins off and cut out the hard tops.

See so far not so bad-

The next steps are for canning crushed tomatoes.  See the previously listed websites if wanting to can whole or cut up tomatoes.

3.  Put some of the peeled whole tomatoes in an empty pot.  Heat pot quickly and crush when hot.  You want to crush when hot because the tomatoes (the pectin) start breaking down once they are cut or crushed.  Heat deters the breaking down process.  This breaking down causes separation (solids from the liquids) once in the jars.  This doesn't affect anything, just give them a shake before use.
4.  Cook crushed tomatoes for about 5 minutes.
5.  Add proper amount of lemon juice into hot jars (see websites for amounts and reason why).  I add 2 Tbsp for my quart jars.
6.  Ladle into hot jars.  Make a strange face (optional).

7.  Place a warm lid (I warm them in hot, but not boiling, water) and tighten the ring onto the jar.  Make sure lid seal and jar lip are CLEAN so to get a good seal.
8.  Place in the boiling water bath.

9.  Process/boil per recommended time.  For quart jars its 45 minutes.

DONE!

See I had quite a bit of separation (for a known reason but not interesting enough to share).  Like I said though, this doesn't affect taste or anything when using for cooking.  It all gets remixed back together.

I used about 45 Amish Paste tomatoes (similar to Romas or Plums) and 5 large Brandywine tomatoes to  get these 4 quarts.

I use our canned tomatoes for making sauce, soups and stews.  Last year we discovered how amazing (and ridiculously quick and easy) making homemade tomato soup is.  My favorite recipe here- http://www.marthastewart.com/343299/creamy-tomato-soup
Just a note, Campbell's tomato soup second ingredient is High Fructose Corn Syrup.  Not that I am against eating HFCS but prefer to limit it as much as I can.

OK, hope this was helpful.

Just Some Summer Happenings

Just a hand full of some summer photos-

A few more Jamaica photos-

Trip to Tennessee
(FYI, pics of a DEAD pig below)

Pickin' onions-

 Tram ride to Ober Gatlinburg

Chair lift ride to Alpine Slide

Smoking a whole pig.  I forget how many hours it smoked, 10 hours?  I know it went all night and Dad had to keep getting up through the night to put wood in it.

Dad and brothers pulling the meat.  Probably the most delicious and flavorful meat I have ever eaten.

My brother's dog Sterling.  He is a rescued pit bull mix and a big, sweet boy-

And photogenic-

This is my old dog Boss, still full of energy (we think he is 16 years old, but we stopped counting).  Mom and Dad are letting him live at the farm where he gets more attention than I am able to give these days.  Kids want him to come back and live with us though.

Another reason I miss home (this table is stocked by the church community, sharing with their neighbors from their gardens, I thought it was a great idea)-

Some pictures of us enjoying Douglas Lake-

Yes, little man was as hesitant at first as he looks here.  He ended up liking it though.

My Dad (he's 64) showing us all he still has IT.  My sister-in-law, Kalissa, was quite good too.

Back home, enjoying our pool-

First face painting experience-

Double piano lesson.  Baby girl doesn't seem to be paying attention.

Rest up, summer isn't over yet. :)

Making Our Family Barn Mural

During our recent, yearly family get together we completed a family barn mural.  You maybe have seen barn quilts, we went with a symbolic mural design instead.  My family has owned and farmed the land my parents live on for over 100 years.  The mural shows some of the main crops and livestock that have been a part of the farming history:  tobacco, corn, cattle and pigs.  A tree was added in the middle to represent family.

First, the painting process.  Everyone chipped in on the painting-

And done!
The gray was painted around the edges to blend with the weathered barn wood.

I wonder if my great great grandparents would approve.

Beets Are Beautiful

Some of you have already heard this story but I would like to share again for those possible beet haters.
First some beet photos to warm you up to them-

Lovely-

Beets modeling in a row-

How about if I add a little girl-

Does a pouty face help?

How about with a cat?

Yeah, the last one isn't so appealing.

Back to my story-
Beets used to taste like dirt to me.... literally.... they tasted exactly.like.dirt.  I had only tried home canned pickled beets and boiled/steamed beets.  Some people love these and that is great.  I did not.
That is until my husband, who was a beet lover before we met, insisted that we grow them and eat them regularly.  He liked them steamed and I just could not eat them (and I am NOT a picky eater, I will eat most anything).  So to save our marriage (*exaggeration) I tried roasting them instead since I knew roasting usually makes all vegetables sweeter.  It worked!  And our marriage was saved.... then this happened:

Yes, we became known as a beet loving family (notice the shirt, what did you think I meant?).

I was willing to continue to give beets a try because of their nutritional value.  More on that here.  Also, since it is a cool weather vegetable, you can plants them early in the spring for an early summer harvest.  Then plant something new in their place for the summer.  We also plant some beets late summer for a fall harvest.

So what do we do with the beets.  Like I said I roast them, like this-
Wash, crop tops to steam the greens (don't peel):

Drizzle them with some oil, seal them in a pouch and roast for around an hour at 375F (depends on size and amount):

Pierce with fork to ensure soft, let cool to touch and skins should slip right off:

Our favorite way of eating them is quartered with roasted almonds and feta or goat cheese.  Really good.  The kids even love these.  They are sweeter than roasted carrots, almost as sweet as roasted sweet potatoes.  Jonathan LOVES the beet greens steamed (yes, I used to think this was weird too).

The excitement of eating beets might cause problems with eye hand coordination.

There we go.

I have also substituted beets for carrots in shepherds pie.  We will also roast them with carrots.  Roasted beets and carrots are a classic combination.
Recently, I skinned and grated raw beets to make a slaw with aioli dressing.  I would assume there are other dressings that will work.  It was very good, kids were not as fond of this one though.
(Used red and golden beets)

I am sure there are many things you can do with them, like beet chips, but as insinuated before I am new to this beet cooking.  If you have a beet favorites please share.