Tomato Canning... with kids

I managed another tomato harvest yesterday afternoon. I'm really surprised at the quantity of tomatoes coming from the plants. Surprised and, of course, thrilled.
Mid-week canning can be a bit torturous and difficult since it's just me and the kids. I generally try my best to involve them in most of what I do, when my sanity allows (haha). Yesterday the kids were strangely agreeable so we got all the tomatoes cleaned and cut and roasted. I decided to do this batch something like this sauce recipe from Collecting The Moments. It really does make a great sauce to either can or freeze. I prefer to can my tomatoes so they're at the ready without having to think ahead to defrost them. There is a measure of comfort, too, knowing that if we lose electricity I won't lose all my hard work.

We made time for silly crafts with the oddball tomatoes too. Both kids were laughing at these two little surprises I set out for them SO HARD that they made me laugh so hard I cried. It was really hilarious.



There is plenty of taste testing for quality control as well.

And a few Hot Wheels and various other vehicles add to the adventure of the day.

This is a mix of Green Grape and a volunteer type. We all thought they were so pretty mixed together.
Roasted tomatoes cooling.

As a side note, one of the many things I love about preserving my own tomatoes is that I have full control of what goes into it. These go the chickens... I wonder what a factory would do with them? Yuck.

Here are our pots of sauce all blended and ready for canning. Gorgeous!

That's as far as we got yesterday. This morning the sun cleared to beautiful skies so the canning pot went out on the bbq side burner. I used to be such a bbq snob and would ONLY eat food that had been cooked over hardwood charcoal (no packed briquettes for me still unless I'm being a gracious guest). Once the kids came along and I realized how hard it was to get and keep those coals just so while juggling everything else we caved and bought a big dumb gas grill. I'm disgusted by how much I love that thing. It's just so darn... usefull. ha! And really, how great is canning OUTSIDE while the kids run around and play in the mud?!

And by noon the cans had made their way to a shelf in the pantry. I'm hoping to fill that shelf with more preserves as the tomatoes ripen. My shelves are looking much more sparse than usual this time of year!