Canning Tomatoes

This morning we had 15 tomatoes sitting on our counter.  I selected the ripest of the bunch and decided to try my hand at canning.  I have made jam, and bottled beer, so I felt like I had an idea on how the process would unfold. 

I filled a pot of water and brought it to a boil.  Once it was bubbling away I dropped the maters in to blanche for about three minutes.  When the skins started to bubble I removed them from the pot and sprayed them down with cold water. 

I then peeled the tomatoes (Black Prince, Better Boys and Celebrity varieties) and put them back into the pot. When they were all peeled I covered them with water and brought them back to a boil for five minutes. 

While the tomotoes were being blanched and boiled a second pot of boiling water sanitized the jars.  Using tongs I removed each jar, filled it with several tomatoes, and covered them with the hot liquid from the tomato pot. 

When the four jars were filled I covered each one and placed them into a pot of boiling water and processed them for 40 minutes.  At the end of the 40 minutes I checked to make sure each jar was sealed. 

The entire process took a little over two hours.  I am pretty happy that I got four jars of canned tomatoes, and I can’t wait to use them once the summer is over.