3 Steps to Can Your Tomatoes and Keep Them Fresh Longer

We all love tomatoes, and they are often added to all kinds of recipes. Have you ever thought about planting them in your garden?

Store-bought tomatoes seem to lack the delicious taste, and if you decide to grow them at home, you can enjoy them during the entire year!

Yet, this is only possible if you can them. Canned tomatoes are sold in stores, but their quality and flavor again differ from the ones prepared at home. Canning is extremely easy, and you will ensure your children eat them all year long, and you will save your money.

These are the three steps of the process:

Getting the needed Canning Materials

The activity of canning is pretty quick, so you should have the needed materials on hand:

• Several ripened tomatoes
• Two large pots
• Canning tongs
• Canning jars and lids
• Funnel
• Ladle

Additional tip: You can also add cooked red peppers and onions, and fresh herbs like basil and oregano, you don’t need to add tomatoes only.

Preparing the Tomatoes

The next step is blanching the tomatoes, which is again very easy and involves boiling the tomatoes in order to remove the skins. Make a shallow cross-cut on the top of the tomatoes and boil until the skins slide right off.

While boiling, you can add onions, herbs, and peppers. When the tomatoes are diced up along with the vegetables, you can start canning.

Canning

One of the large pots should serve you to boil some water, while the other pot should be filled with cool water. Salt is a natural preservative, and it will keep the tomatoes fresh, so add 1/2 teaspoon to the pint-sized jars, and in the case of quart-sized jars, a teaspoon.

Use the funnel and the ladle to fill the jars, wipe the rim of the jar off to make sure it is fully sealed, place the lid, and screw band tightly.

Next, place the jar in some boiling water, but leave at least 1 inch of water between the jar and the surface of the water. You need 40 minutes for pints and 45 minutes for quarts.

Remove the tomatoes with tongs, and transplant the jars to a large pot of cool/room temperature water.




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Source: Healthy Food House