7:10 a.m., Sunday, August 11.
At 5:30 a.m. this morning I arose and headed for the kitchen.
The first thing I did was take the Chili Sauce out of the refrigerator and put it on the range to cook. Attila prepared the ingredients last night, and they sat in the refrigerator, ready for me this morning. I will can the Chili Sauce this morning.
Two of the jars of Salsa canned yesterday did not seal. I removed the lids, marked them with an X, cleaned the rims of the jars, applied new lids, and back into the steam canner they went. A quart jar of water with a used lid and ring went in with them, to make the minimum load of three jars. The second canning sealed the salsa jars, and the water jar. I’ve been finding that the used lids almost always seal, but I don’t use them to can, as the food is just too precious to risk failure.
This morning the remaining 27 jars of Tomato Salsa were labelled, I use a Sharpie. Then rings were removed and washed and strung on a large wooden spoon to dry before storage. In a sink of warm soapy water the jars of salsa were washed, then set to dry on a towel on the counter. The jars were then dried with a tea towel and placed in canning boxes, ready to go into the pantry in the basement.
Today will be a busy one. The goal is to process ALL of the remaining tomatoes, over a bushel left. They will all be milled to remove the seeds and skins, then either made into pizza sauce for canning, or canned as plain tomato sauce.
I am grateful to be sitting with my feet up for a wee while before Attila arises for the day. Together we are going to be really, really busy today.
Ginger hates this! He would rather I was sitting in the living room beside him, exchanging loving squinty looks with each other from time to time. He would rather Attila sit beside me, so he could sit on his lap and have his belly rubbed. Not today though Ginger, not yet, give us another day or so with these tomatoes, and we will be right with you!
9:10 a.m., Sunday, August 11.
Just sitting down to breakfast now.
I’ve canned twice this morning, the two jars of salsa that had failed seals, they sealed successfully the second time round. And seven jars of Chili Sauce are now processed and cooling on the table.
Attila is up and out in the garden harvesting things that are ripe and ready this morning.
After breakfast, back to tomatoes!
2:20 p.m., Sunday, August 11.
Lunch time at last!
All of the tomatoes have been washed, cut up, and softened on the range in big pots. At last they are ready to go through the tomato mill. A quick bite and we will get right back at it!
3:40 p.m., Sunday, August 11.
That was fast! The tomato mill makes removing skins and seeds from the tomatoes a quick and easy task. We didn’t have it assembled properly at first, so it leaked everywhere, what a mess. Consulted the video on assembly and one small, but not insignificant change, resolved the issue. It is a messy job, and in a small kitchen, this means splatter all over the place. Easy enough to clean up though.
We ended up with a stock pot with 52 cups of tomato sauce in it, which will become pizza sauce. There are at least 52 more cups, looks like it is probably more, to can as tomato sauce. We have a busy night ahead of us!
8:00 p.m., Sunday, August 11.
Finally, the extra milled tomatoes boiled for 10 minutes, it took soooo long for my very old 16 quart stock pot to come to a boil, hours. Had to be done slowly though, the stock pot I was using is one of those cheap ones, with the paper thin base, food burns so easily in it.
So two steam canners are now processing 12 1-litre jars of tomato sauce. I am putting my feet up while I can, because in 40 minutes the jars will have to come out of the canners, and I will be up and quite busy again.
The pizza sauce is slowly boiling down, and that seems to be taking forever too. But again, we don’t want it to burn, so the temperature stays low, just at a simmer. There will be about 24 jars of pizza sauce, give or take a few. The canners hold eight jars each, so after the first batches are processed, there will be a second canning session to follow. They have to be processed for 35 minutes, with a 5 minute cooldown, so this is going to take some time.
Attila keeps feeding me, so that I don’t wear out before we are finished. Right now he is making me a grilled cheese sandwich, so that I can sample the newly made Chili Sauce with it. Yum.
9:45 p.m., Sunday, August 11.
Still waiting for the darn pizza sauce to boil down to the correct consistency! Lots of time to get the jars and lids ready for canning!
I forgot to mention that while I was canning the tomato sauce, Attila was busy spreading the tomato skins and seeds on parchment paper for the dehydrator. When dry they will be powdered to add to soups and casseroles.
12:04 a.m., Monday August 12.
Phew! Just took 16 500-ml jars of pizza sauce out of the canners. From 5:30 this morning, until just now, I’ve been totally focused on getting those tomatoes into jars. There weren’t quite as many jars of Pizza Sauce as I had anticipated, I had not considered how much they needed to be reduced, that decreased the volume considerably.
There are about three quarts of processed tomatoes that are raw, in jars, in the refrigerator. I will need to deal with those tomorrow.
All of the tomatoes are chopped, or milled. We didn’t lose a single one to spoilage.
Attila is celebrating conquering the tomatoes with a quick soak in the tub. Me, well I am here, expressing my relief at finishing the job.
There are splatters of milled tomatoes everywhere in the kitchen, and some even baked on to range around the burners. The floor is sticky. The equipment is sticky… the place is a tip.
Of course in the morning I will have to remove and wash lids, label full jars, wash full jars, dry full jars, and store away full jars.
Tomorrow will be the morning after the night before.
Worldly
Weather
18°C
Date: 9:00 PM EDT Sunday 11 August 2024
Condition: Mostly Cloudy
Pressure: 101.3 kPa
Tendency: Rising
Temperature: 17.5°C
Dew point: 11.9°C
Humidity: 70%
Wind: W 14 km/h
Visibility: 24 km
Quote
“Everyone wants to be Cary Grant. Even I want to be Cary Grant.”
Cary Grant (1904 – 1986)
I love this, it says so much about human nature.
A grilled cheese sandwich with chili sauce. Is that chili sauce spread inside the sandwich or do you dip it in the chili sauce?
Teri, our chili sauce is a little bit runny, so I like mine in a small bowl with a little spoon. Attila likes his on the plate, he doesn’t mind soggy sandwiches, and he dips and scoops the chili sauce with his sandwich.