Canned Tomatoes

For over 35 years I have been canning my own tomatoes. Being a northern person that worked out great. However once moving to the state of Missouri it changed drastically. Up north you can go to the fruit market in August and get bushels of beautiful grade A tomatoes at bushel prices. Down south here the farmers and farm stands use the a and b grade tomatoes for selling by the pound only. Therefore to get tomatoes for canning you get the left over tomatoes that are very small and almost always half or more are bruised and spotted. This does not make for a good product and takes lots of work and has lots leftover trash to be thrown out.

I have since learned to use the number 10 cans of crushed tomatoes and add my onions, celery, green peppers, jalapeno peppers, and spices to that and then can it. It turns out great. Actually even better because the texture is perfect for pasta sauces and chili or anything else you would want to use them for. I made sauce just using the store tomatoes and adding the stuff to it and simmered it and it just was not the same as using my own tomatoes. Therefore it is much easier to do it this way. It cuts out 90% of the work and the flavor is the same and the texture is better. I got one of those new choppers at the store this year and everything chops so small and perfectly fine therefore mixing very evenly throughout the tomatoes. This is fantastic. You also can do it any time of year and don't have to wait for August when it's 95 degrees outside and too hot to be canning stuff. 

Bon Appétit!