Saturday, August 14, 2010

Canning Tomatoes with Dad

The 15th of August has always reminded me of stories from my parents about it being a day of rest after doing a lot of canning of tomatoes. Yes it is also the Feast of the Assumption but something about those tomatoes always stuck in my mind. I always imagined my grandmother and my Aunt Marie and my mom working over the hot stove canning bushels of tomatoes.

When my dad asked if I knew how to can tomatoes and I said no, he offered to show me. Wow! What an opportunity.

Wow it was a lot of work. First we wash out the jars. Next we blanched the tomatoes and peeled them. Then into the jars they go. Boil for 20 minutes and wrap the jars in newspaper until they cool. I had a basket of tomatoes that I got at Jake's Farm Stand in Madison. We ended up with 7 jars of tomatoes and 3 jars of tomato juice.... Bloody Mary anyone?
I just want to thank my dad for showing me how to can tomatoes. Will I do it again? Yes I will because it is something my mom did. And if it helps me achieve her level of sauce... that's what this is all about.







After all that we had a wonderful dinner. Steak and grilled zucchini and potatoes from a recipe I found on A New York Foodie. WoW!



1 comment:

Anonymous said...

This is a nice memory for you to have, canning with Dad, just wonderful.