You can do the can can too!

So awhile back my husband and I started a garden, nothing too big. We went to the small garden area at our exchange just before the tomatoes were about to die in there small pots and they were being sold something like $1.99 for 5 plants. Practically nothing. Well those tomato plants have grown out of control and we have been lucky to get a few great harvests of tomatoes so late in the season. I didn't want this last harvest to go to waste before our next harvest comes in so I decided to can. Canning can get kind of expensive, so I decided to check our local yard sale facebook page to see if anybody had canning jars they were willing to part with. ALWAYS check your local yard sale pages if you're wanting to save money. You never know what you will find, especially when you are a part of a military community, so many people are moving so often and have to downsize or just don't want to travel with so much to their next duty station. So I posted, "ISO canning jars", and almost immediately another spouse responded she had some and she sold them to me for $0.50 a piece. That is half the price I would pay at Wal Mart for them AND I didn't have to spend money on gas to go get them. ALWAYS be sure to sterilize your jars and lids before you start. This is important because you do not want bacteria growing in your food which could obviously make you sick.
If you want to can your own tomatoes I took a few pictures that can almost explain themselves as I went along.

Rinse the tomatoes

Bring water to a boil and place the tomatoes in that water. For riper tomatoes you could boil them for 3 minutes for the less ripe tomatoes I would say 5 minutes would have been perfect. This step is just to soften the skin. Don't walk away from this step because you don't want mushy tomatoes.

Start peeling! I like to keep a plastic bag nearby to put my scraps in it. I suppose I could have put the scraps in my compost but I didn't, I placed them in the trash. I can almost feel all the crunchy mamas glaring at me through their computer screen right now. Sorry ladies!

Now dice them up and fill up your jars. I also added water to the first line in here and 1/2 teaspoon of salt.

Place the jars into water and bring to a boil for about an hour. My husband and I couldn't come to an agreement on this part. He said they have to boil til there aren't anymore bubbles coming from the jar. Don't tell him I said this but he is usually right, so I went with what he said, and guess what... He was RIGHT!

Then let your jars cool, push down on the middle of the lid if it doesn't pop then that means you have done your job correctly. Pat yourself on the back, and tell yourself how freaking awesome you are!

 

The plants have practically paid for themselves with all the produce we have got from them, so in the end this project has only cost me $3.00! And I have 2 unfilled jars leftover. I'm going to give you a fair warning though canning is a process that can get addicting. So just call me a pioneer woman. ;)

Put your aprons on and get to canning you guys!

Love, peace, & happiness.