Canning

BicycleBride10

I'm not sure which board would have the most info on this question but I'm starting here.

I am growing a vegetable garden this summer for the first time and I want to can tomatoes.  I have never done this before.  I have many questions:

-How many tomato plants?

-Recipes for various ways to can tomatoes (sauce, spaghetti sauce, pizza sauce, salsa, etc.)? 

-When to can?

-What do I need? 

-General experiences?  

Thanks so much! 

Alisha_A

Ok, so I've never canned YET, but I'm planning on it this summer!

The number of plants really depends on how many tomatoes you guys can handle, how prolific the plants are, etc. I will probably do 4-5 small tomato plants (grape tomatoes and sweet millions) and then 4-5 large tomato plants and I'm single.

Your best bet would probably be to get a canning book. There are lots of them at the library!

treesapplaud

From our experience, you don't ever have too many tomato plants. I'm still very new to canning. We canned salsa (our own tomatoes, onions, garlic and herbs!) and some green tomato chutney last year. I only can really vinegary things as I just can in a water bath and don't have a pressure canner.

PurposelyVague

alisha, will you tell me when you can and how it goes? i want to try canning tomato sauce this year if i get the courage. lol

jehan

Absolutely buy a canning book to start out with!  The Ball Blue Book (not expensive and available lots of places) is a great book with good info and recipes in it.  If you want to get into lots of detail, get Putting Food By, which is a sort of bible of canning (this was the textbook for my mom when she was a Master Canner back in the 80s).

I did some canning last summer, and it was a lot of fun, but also way more work than I thought.  I loved it, but I am glad I did smaller batches for my first few tries.  Timing is everything, and it gets a little crazy with hot food, hot jars, sanitizing, sealing, etc.  Be sure you stick with a tomato sauce recipe *specifically* for canning, since sauce contains low acid foods like onions and pepper, which can change how the food has to be processed.

juno

I have the Ball Blue Book and the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving, and I much prefer the latter.  There are hundreds more recipes and an entire chapter on tomatoes.

SuperGreen

We bought the Ball Canning Kit which comes with everything you need for water bath canning, including the Ball Blue Book.  We've been very happy with it.  We did a test run a few weeks ago and the canning part was a success, but our apple jelly didn't jell   Anywho, I highly recommend this set.

We also love the book How to Store Your Garden Produce.  It details which veggies to freeze and how to freeze them, which to can, and which to store (like onions).

We have 2 raised beds (3x6) and are doing 6 tomato plants (a variety called San Marzano which is supposed to can well) and 2 cherry tomato plants for salads and whatnot.  We plan on canning our own diced tomatoes (we go through tons of cans of these), pasta sauce, and salsa.

lisaiesha

SuperGreen:

We bought the Ball Canning Kit which comes with everything you need for water bath canning, including the Ball Blue Book.  We've been very happy with it.  We did a test run a few weeks ago and the canning part was a success, but our apple jelly didn't jell   Anywho, I highly recommend this set.

We also love the book How to Store Your Garden Produce.  It details which veggies to freeze and how to freeze them, which to can, and which to store (like onions).

We have 2 raised beds (3x6) and are doing 6 tomato plants (a variety called San Marzano which is supposed to can well) and 2 cherry tomato plants for salads and whatnot.  We plan on canning our own diced tomatoes (we go through tons of cans of these), pasta sauce, and salsa.

lisaiesha

SuperGreen:

We bought the Ball Canning Kit which comes with everything you need for water bath canning, including the Ball Blue Book.  We've been very happy with it.  We did a test run a few weeks ago and the canning part was a success, but our apple jelly didn't jell   Anywho, I highly recommend this set.

We also love the book How to Store Your Garden Produce.  It details which veggies to freeze and how to freeze them, which to can, and which to store (like onions).

We have 2 raised beds (3x6) and are doing 6 tomato plants (a variety called San Marzano which is supposed to can well) and 2 cherry tomato plants for salads and whatnot.  We plan on canning our own diced tomatoes (we go through tons of cans of these), pasta sauce, and salsa.

Did you use pectin for your apple jelly? I like to use Pomona pectin (which I can only find at the co-op and whole foods) because you can use less sugar. I have only once had a problem with a batch of jam not jelling, and that was because I totally messed up the sugar content (too much sugar causes the pectin to be ineffective). I called the Pomona Pectin Jam Line (no really!) and they helped me troubleshoot my recipe. You can re-batch it.

SuperGreen

lisaiesha:

SuperGreen:

We bought the Ball Canning Kit which comes with everything you need for water bath canning, including the Ball Blue Book.  We've been very happy with it.  We did a test run a few weeks ago and the canning part was a success, but our apple jelly didn't jell   Anywho, I highly recommend this set.

We also love the book How to Store Your Garden Produce.  It details which veggies to freeze and how to freeze them, which to can, and which to store (like onions).

We have 2 raised beds (3x6) and are doing 6 tomato plants (a variety called San Marzano which is supposed to can well) and 2 cherry tomato plants for salads and whatnot.  We plan on canning our own diced tomatoes (we go through tons of cans of these), pasta sauce, and salsa.

Did you use pectin for your apple jelly? I like to use Pomona pectin (which I can only find at the co-op and whole foods) because you can use less sugar. I have only once had a problem with a batch of jam not jelling, and that was because I totally messed up the sugar content (too much sugar causes the pectin to be ineffective). I called the Pomona Pectin Jam Line (no really!) and they helped me troubleshoot my recipe. You can re-batch it.

We didn't use pectin b/c the recipe in the Ball blue book didn't call for it.  We discovered later that because the apple cider we used from the Farmer's Market was pastuerized, it probably didn't have enough natural pectin to jell without adding packaged pectin.  Which is what we'll do next time.

cat8thstreet

jehan:

Absolutely buy a canning book to start out with!  The Ball Blue Book (not expensive and available lots of places) is a great book with good info and recipes in it.  If you want to get into lots of detail, get Putting Food By, which is a sort of bible of canning (this was the textbook for my mom when she was a Master Canner back in the 80s).

I did some canning last summer, and it was a lot of fun, but also way more work than I thought.  I loved it, but I am glad I did smaller batches for my first few tries.  Timing is everything, and it gets a little crazy with hot food, hot jars, sanitizing, sealing, etc.  Be sure you stick with a tomato sauce recipe *specifically* for canning, since sauce contains low acid foods like onions and pepper, which can change how the food has to be processed.

This.

I would also reiterate what other posters have mentioned about the time it takes to can.  Especially when I first started canning, I noticed that it would consistently take me more time than I had expected.  It is a really fun and relaxing activity, but it can quickly become hectic and tedious when you are running short on time or have to be somewhere else!  Good luck!