Tomato Jarring 101

Growing up, the end of Summer meant two things: my birthday was upon us and my parents would surely begin jarring what seemed to be a never ending supply of tomatoes.  That is right, while most children have memories of apple or berry picking, we were off  to the farm to pick those very tomatoes that would end up over our Sunday pasta in the coming months.
See local is now the "in" term, but it was always just what was done in our household.  My father has had his own garden for almost as long as I can remember and my mom would make her own pasta from scratch.  During the Winter months or to supplement what he was growing, my father would patronize the local fruit and vegetable store.   Both being originally from Italy, this was not local living, it was just living.  To this day (soon hitting my 33rd year), I have never bought a jar of tomato sauce off a store shelve.  Even looking at the rows of jarred sauce while shopping I could hear my dad's voice, accent and all, saying "that is no good and I do much better" and he was right.
So after many, many years of watching the process and then stealing jars for my own use, I have finally decided to get my hands dirty and jar tomatoes myself.   Today, down in the basement of my parent's house, local Lisa jarred her first tomatoes..

Since I have to work and my dad is retired, he went to pick the tomatoes on a Friday morning when the crowds are less. I would have love to have gone, but the bills must be paid.  With that done already, we were ready to go.


First, hit above mentioned garden for fresh basil.







Rinse and dry both basil and all the tomatoes.  I believe we were working with a 1/2 bushel here.









Next you best to line of the jars.  Add in a teaspoon of salt and basil.














Dicing the tomatoes takes most the time.  I did a good bunch and then my mom took over so I could start to stuff the jars.   Those are mom's hands..she does not like to be photographed, but is a great hand model!

Stuffing the jars, use your hands and pack the tomatoes in there.  Try to remove as many air bubbles as possible.  My hands were too goopy to take a picture, but you will get the idea.  At this point the large pot of water is on the burner warming up.  The jars have to go into the hot water and spend 45 minutes in there after the water starts to boil (so it may really be close to an hour when all is said and done.)

After the boiling time, take out the jars.  They have had an explosion in the past, so you have to be careful!  This is why we send dad in for the heavy lifting!

Then they cool and viola..Tomatoes for the whole year!  In keeping with my grandmother's tradition, these will not be used until Christmas time-ish.  I will at least try to wait that long, but I love a hot bowl of tomato soup on a cold New England day so I may open the stash on the first brisk Fall day!

What a fun way to spend a Sunday afternoon!