I think tomatoes are one of the easiest foods to can, as well as to grow. They are also one of the main foods where the taste difference between home-canned and store bought is undeniable! Making home-canned tomatoes is well worth your while. On the health front, store bought tomatoes are often sold in cans and since tomatoes are an acidic food they tend to “pick up” a metal taste. Most metal cans now are sold with BPA free liners, but with or without the BPA or the liner, food (especially acidic foods) are not the healthiest when coming out of a metal can.

Plus nothing beats the taste of a fresh tomato vine-ripened in the summer sun, preserved in a jar with fresh basil to brighten that winter soup or late fall chili!

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You will need:

• A Water Bath Canner
• 7 Canning Jars (Quart)
• 7 New Canning Lids and Rings
• Large Pot for blanching tomatoes
• Tomatoes
• White Vinegar
• Fresh Basil (optional, though highly recommended)
• Kosher or Canning Salt (salt is optional, though highly recommended) Do not use iodized or standard table salt as the additional ingredients in theses salts will prevent the tomatoes from canning properly.

Start by cleaning and sanitizing your jars, prep your lids and rings according to the manufacturers instructions. Set aside.

Get a large pot of water heating up on the stove. You will use this in a minute to blanch the tomatoes. Blanching makes removing the tomato skins much easier.

Next wash your tomatoes. Don’t try to salvage a tomato with bad spots. One slightly bad tomato can ruin your whole batch—its just not worth it! Instead cut up the ones with blemishes for fresh salsa or salad.

Start by coring your tomatoes.

Then proceed with blanching the tomatoes. Working with a few at a time, place your cored tomatoes into the pot of simmering hot water. When they are blanched and ready to remove the skins will start to peel back and split.

Using a slotted spoon remove the blanched tomatoes and set aside until cool to touch.

While you are waiting on your tomatoes to cool, place in the bottom of each of your prepped jars 2 or 3 fresh basil leaves.

With the basil add 1 teaspoon of salt per jar. The basil and salt are both for flavor and can be omitted if desired. But I definitely recommend adding them.

Last, but not least, you will want to add in 1 tablespoon of white vinegar to each jar. I think this adds a lot to enhance the flavor, but the main reason for the addition of vinegar is to insure the safety of your finished product. The acid level of tomatoes differs by variety and growing conditions, so adding the vinegar is the safe guard to insure the acid level of your final product is high enough to prevent bacteria growth and spoilage.

Once you have added the salt, basil, and vinegar to your jars set them aside and return to your hopefully now-cooled tomatoes.

Carefully remove the skins from the tomatoes, being careful not to smash them and loose the juice in the process. The skins should slip off with a gentle touch. If they don’t the tomato was not blanched long enough or was not fully ripened.

Now it’s on to the messy part—crushing your skinned and blanched tomatoes! I normally do this by hand, so start by washing your hands well. Although if you prefer, you can do this using a food processor. But if doing so, only pulse a few times with each batch as you do not want to end up with tomato puree.

Now it’s time to fill your jars. Carefully scoop your crushed tomatoes into your prepared jars. Make sure to leave a one inch head space.

With a clean damp cloth or paper towel wipe the rim of each jar to insure a clean sealing surface.

Add your lids and rings being careful to not over or under tighten. This is best done using the finger tip method as shown below, rather than tightening the ring using your whole hand. You want the lid secure not torqued down.

Place jars into a water bath canner and fill with warm water, covering the jars by one or two inches.

Start the canner off on a med-high heat and bring to a boil. Once boiling, turn down heat slightly if needed and process (boil) for 20 minutes. After processing is complete, turn off and let canner cool slightly before removing jars. When you take your jars out you will noticed the tomatoes will have separated. This is natural, let your jars cool completely. Once cool, check the seals by pressing gently on the tops of the lids; they should not spring back when lightly pressed.

After jars are completely cooled and sealed you may leave them as is, or gentle shake/mix the separated tomatoes back together. It is your choice. Each look adds something different to your pantry shelf.

Keep on canning, the Homesteading Hen