Time (once again) for tomatoes!

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Last year, a friend of mine invited me to a his tomato crush.

He had several crates of roma tomatoes that we boiled, drained, milled, and canned.

Since I was only a helper, I only asked for two quart jars as my share. Last February, I used these two jars to make some sauce (or gravy as some call it).

It was FANTASTIC!!! I had been living on cheap canned tomatoes from the grocery store, and was happy with them until I used the "home canned" stuff. It was like having garden fresh in the middle of winter.

This year, My pal decided to host this as an event. This ended up being much in the style of the grape crushes I have each year. It boiled down to hard work, good friends, and fantastic food. In total, we were a crew of 5 guys. We made a great team with each one of us falling into tasks as needed.

We processed 15 crates of tomatoes (1 and 1/9 bushels per crate). The tomatoes were firm and had a beautiful bright red color.

The process went like clockwork. First, the tomatoes got washed and sorted. Once sorted, the tomatoes were boiled until the skins broke, removed, and drained for 10 to 15 minutes.

The softened tomatoes were then sent through one of two machines (I think designed specifically for processing tomatoes). The skins and seeds were collected and sent back through the machine twice. By the time the tomatoes were all processed, all that was left was about 10 gallons of seeds and skins.

The resulting tomato puree was then collected and poured into mason jars that were boiled for at least 30 minutes to sterilize. Each jar was then wiped, lidded, and then placed into boiling water for 20 minutes to process. Once out of the boiling water, they were wiped down, lids given a final tightening, and then left to cool and seal. Surprisingly, only a handful of jars did not seal.

What a great time we had! I had remembered to bring several loaves of good bread so that we could dip and taste the benefits of our labor. WAS IT YUMMY!! we did a total of 219 quarts of puree. My share came to 48 quarts. I just may make some sauce next weekend!


Here are some pictures...

1) The crates!

2) Washing and sorting tomatoes in a portable sink.

3) Sorted tomatoes waiting to be boiled. A view of the milling machine (one of 2) is on the right.

5) Boiling pots of water. Some have empty jars being sterilized, and some have filled jars being processed.

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Love the whole canning tomato process!
Just used the final 3 quarts from last year yesterday and made a fantastic Bolognese!

We have ours scheduled for September 5th, start around 5:00 a.m. (smoking a brisket on the Weber)
This year we ordered 10 bushels of tomatoes which should yield us around 100 -115 quarts.

Thanks,

Steve
 

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