Every August our garden gives us vine ripened tomatoes. The year Attila grew regular Beefsteak, Health Kick (a Roma variety), and Sicilian Saucer tomatoes. The Beefsteak and Sicilian Saucer tomatoes are very tasty, and both make wonderful toasted tomato sandwiches. I do love a BLT sandwich, but bacon is a rare treat, and lettuce is over in our garden, so a tomato sandwich it is.
I’ve been having toasted tomato sandwiches for breakfast, and for lunch, every day since last Wednesday. This wonderful meal is only available to us for a few fleeting weeks, when our garden tomatoes are ripening through August and into September.
We toast my homemade whole wheat bread, spread it with mayonnaise, sliced vine-ripened tomatoes, and fresh slices of sweet onion. I like mine with a little pepper, and some garlic plus. Attila likes his with a little salt and pepper.
After canning the two bushels of Ontario tomatoes we purchased at the grocery store, we are now harvesting tomatoes from the garden every day. This means we are “slow canning”, a term I use when canning small batches as the produce comes in from the garden. Yesterday we canned Pickled Banana Peppers, today we canned more Chili Sauce. Tomorrow who knows, it all depends on the garden.
Canning is not the only way we preserve the produce from our garden. Beans are blanched and frozen. Basil is made into pesto, which is placed in paper muffin cups, frozen, the stored in plastic bags in the freezer. Basil is also dehydrated, we can’t have too much dehydrated basil! We are still processing the skins and seeds from our two bushels of tomatoes from the grocery store, they take a very long time to dehydrate.
As I poke about on the internet, I find that a lot of people throw out a lot of viable food. If the BB date, best before date, has come and gone they feel the food is no longer good and needs to be thrown out. The BB date is not the same as an Expiry Date, which indicates the perishable food may not be safe after that date has passed, such as with milk or meat. There may be some confusion for people as to the actual meaning of product dating.
We do not throw out much, but will throw out questionable perishable foods. We use the look, smell, and if that is OK, then taste, to see if a food is OK. Older foods, past their BB date will have diminished quality, but not necessarily diminished safety (one must use common sense on this, if it looks bad, smells bad, or tastes bad, we would not use it.)
All this is to say, that we use a lot of food well past its best before date. Well past.
A perfect example of that is my pickling spice. I purchased this pickling spice prior to 1986, perhaps well before 1986, but I cannot remember the where and when, but I know I had it during some events in 1986. I no longer have the original packaging, I can guarantee is it well beyond any best before date, well beyond. It is so old, that is was sold before they started adding preservatives to things, whether it was needed it or not.
We still use this very pickling spice to make our Chili Sauce, and I am saddened that it is almost all gone now! I can make my own pickling spice, but will I ever find the unique blend of herbs and spices that match my vintage jar of pickling spice? I sure hope so!
When I started canning on my own in the late 60s, I used a big pot for water bath canning, canning jars and lids and rings, a pair of tongs for lifting hot jars, and a mug to ladle the product into the jars. Pretty bare bones, and perfectly safe. Most households could afford that equipment.
Now I am quite spoiled! I have lots of gadgets to make the job super easy. Pictured in this post are a collection of some of those gadgets that I find truly helpful. The little white dish holds a bit of vinegar, to soak a small cloth in, to wipe the jar rims before putting on the lids and rings (any container that will hold a liquid will do the job, and any cotton cloth will do.) The oldest gadget here is the ladle, which I received as a wedding gift in the late 60s. I switched from using a mug to using this same ladle way back when. The next acquisitions were the funnel, the jar lifter, and the bubble measurer, and these are used for every single canning project. I bought these after decades of canning without them. The chopper (large green device) is a much appreciated addition. The produce is placed on the cutting grid, the lid brought down to force it through the blades, and the base holds the chopped product. This makes quick work of chopping tomatoes for Salsa, and Chili Sauce. The most recent acquisition is the large stainless steel tea ball, which I now use instead of cheesecloth and a string, oh so much easier!
Not pictured are:
16 quart stock pot to cook the mixture before jarring it,
8 quart stock pot to blanch the produce,
bowel to hold the chopped produce,
measuring cups, and
steam canner.
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I used to grow cherry or roma tomatoes. I only wanted them for salads, sandwiches or just to eat fresh off the vine. (washed of course) I think those little ones just taste better but that’s just me.
I buy more fresh fruit and veggies because of your blog. Its like a reminder to try to eat healthier. So thanks for that. : )
Aja, you are welcome! Cherry tomatoes are great aren’t they, particularly in salads. I used to pickle them, but got away from that recipe, Attila tired of them.
I’ve always loved vegetables, but it got a little bit complicated when I had to give up butter, I love butter but have doctor’s orders to avoid it. And I am also told to eat a low-sodium diet. But we have found ways to enjoy vegetables anyway. Fresh salads are so good! And I love oven roasted vegetables, drizzled with a little olive oil, some herbs, so good. Enjoy your vegetables!
Your pickling spice story reminded me of when we ran out of a spice about 5 years ago. DH laughed and said that it was about time it ran out, he’d had that spice since his older son had been a toddler. Older son turned 40 this year! Lol!
My oldest gadget is a meat mallet that was my grandfather’s. He was a butcher around the 1920s or so. It has a very solid wood handle that fits in a hole drilled through the solid about 3 inch cube, which has raised ridges on one side and raised pyramids on the other side. It doesn’t tarnish and it doesn’t rust. It’s great.
Teri, I bet that spice was good to the last drop. I find as time goes by I have to use slightly more to get the same flavour, but with the pickling spice I’ve never needed to increase the amount called for in the recipe, probably because none of it is ground.
Your meat mallet sounds like a real treasure! My maternal Great Grandpa was a butcher’s apprentice in England before he came to Canada to live with his Uncle, who had emigrated much earlier. He became a lumber camp cook in the bush, a great baker by all accounts.
Hi Maggie. It’s been quite a while since I last commented. Since I no longer get your email notifications (just couldn’t get it to work) I catch up every couple of weeks and read the posts I’ve missed. Your food preservation posts are always a pleasure to read. We seem to be moving in tandem though you are ahead on the tomatoes. We had an abundant crop of peaches this year so I made peach jam, peach salsa, peach chutney, peach scrap syrup and tomorrow, peaches in a light syrup. My husband is the baker (and all round chef) in our house. He made peach and peach/blueberry pies for the freezer. Cowboy Candy is also coming up. I made it last year for the first time but found it got hotter the longer it was on the shelf. Do you leave all of the seeds in? I’m thinking of removing half of them to reduce the heat a little.
Hi Sandra. Sorry to hear the email notifications are not getting to you! So glad you come and read anyway! I suspect that my domain is blocked by your service provider, sometimes they block all small volume domains to avoid the hackers.
Last year I canned peach jam, and peach pie filling, and we still have some, so we are just gobbling up the peaches fresh this year. I hope the crop is good next year, I’ll be ready to can peaches again. Thos pies sound so delicious! I leave the seeds in the Cowboy Candy, and it is hot, Attila likes it that way. I don’t notice it becoming hotter over time, but I consume it in muffins, which mediates the heat considerably. I have just started to use the Cowboy Candy peppers as a pizza topping, and love the combination of the peppers and zucchini pineapple (drained of course); I may begin to notice increased heat over time eating them on a pizza. Removing the seeds should tone down the heat.
Our canned food can stay on the shelf for years, although most of it is consumed within two years. We just finished off the last jar of Chili Sauce made in 2016, it was still delicious. We are making more Chili Sauce this year, quite a bit more, as I plan on tossing it with pasta and cooked vegetables for winter meals.