I picked these this morning about 7. There was a man walking around on my roof the whole time I was picking. That was both weird and kinda cool (he was doing a re-roofing estimate for my husband.) This is about 1/10th of the tomatoes on the vines and about 1/2 as many as will be ripe next week about this time (about 20 pounds total). Just for the record, they are mostly 'Celebrity' hybrids with a few 'Early Girl' thrown in.
After a few hours of research done over the last few days, I finally decided to try the Crushed Tomatoes recipe for bottling from my Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving. I had originally wanted to raw pack them, but from all the recipe research as well as the opinions of some of my canning friends, the crushed tomato recipe is supposed to yield a superior product in terms of texture and taste. My plan is to use a bottle of these soon so I can conduct my own taste test before I bottle many more.
The process was lengthy but easy. I peeled, seeded and roughly cut the tomatoes then brought them to a boil in the new, heavy-bottom stock pot that Mike bought me last year. Thanks Mike! It turned out to be a life-saver as the tomatoes were determined to get themselves scorched, but that awesome stock pot fended them off.
After pouring boiling hot squished tomatoes into the quart jars, I added salt (for taste) and lemon juice (for safe canning). The jars process for nearly an hour, way longer than the simpler recipes, but necessary since the mixture was quite thick. After I removed them from the canner, I hovered, waiting for the delightful pinging that signals a good seal. One of those rascals made me wait an hour before it sealed! The finished product...
Total time in the kitchen: a bit over three hours.
ETA: I tried the leftover few spoonfuls of tomato after they'd chilled in the fridge. They were absolutely delicious, way better than the canned ones I've been eating lately. I'm going to need to make some more of these!
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