More About Tomatoes

66 this morning, some clouds. A few showers during the day and more expected tonight.

Jenny asked about our process for making tomato juice. Its very simple really. I wash the tomatoes,  cut off the stem end and any bad spots, and quarter if the tomato is a large one. Then I put a little water in the bottom of a large pot-- I have a LOT of large pots--and cook til the tomatoes are very soft, stirring often to prevent sticking. We have a Victorio strainer, which is the same as a Squeezo, and run tbe cooked tomatoes through that. The Victorio removes all skin and seeds, leaving us with the juice. Its very fast; a canner pot full can be run through in about 10 minutes.

I reheat the juice and add salt, pepper, Worchestershire sauce, and hot sauce to get the taste i want. I have no exact amounts for these; I just taste until it's what I want. The juice tben goes into the jars, and put in the water bath canner for 15 minutes. 

Larry and I do this job together so it goes pretty fast. He gets jars, stirs, runs the Victorio, and brings me baskets of tomatoes. I do the cutting up, some if the stirring, wash and sterilize the jars, heat and season the juice, jar and process it. We both do the cleanup. 

We ended up with 90 quarts, and still have 2 bushels left. A friend took two bushels too, so we actually processed 5 bushels to get this much juice. The skins and seeds go in the composted.

So that's it. Not hard, just a lot of time, but well worth it in the end.

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