Canning!

Quite overwhelmed by the output from our tomato garden, we finally took the plunge to give canning a try! We did twelve half-pint jars (mostly because we don't have a gigantic pot big enough for pint jars), and it was really fun, and our cans are beautiful. When we crack open those jars in the middle of winter and taste the tomatoes from our own garden, I can tell you... we are going to be extremely SMUG.

Tales of long hours spent over the stove, I can tell you, are overdone. We did all the work in about 2 hrs, and then waiting patiently while the jars boil in the pot. Basically, you just boil the jars to make sure they're squeaky-clean, then you blanche the tomatoes to slip off the skins, then you stuff the tomatoes in the jars, then you put the lids on and boil them again.

If you're interested in trying it, I mostly used these two sites:
Martha Stewart, which is kind of basic, and this one, which had more details.

One of the most exciting aspects of canning was discovering just why one of our heirloom varieties was called Amish Pink and Yellow. Here you can see an average haul from our garden, where the orange Amish Pink and Yellow are virtually indistinguishable fro Betty's Orange (an orange tomato from M's Gran's friend Betty, you see.)

When canned, we saw this lovely (wait for it) pink and yellow emerge!

Anyone else canning? I'd be interested to hear what you've made!