Colt Case Ingersoll Garden Tractors

A freind with a large garden went on vacation and left a txt, "The tomatoes will need to be picked while we are away." That txt kicked another item off of my bucket list. Tuesday evening in less than an hour M and myself picked over 3 flats of large and small tomatoes. We went with a blanch and cold pack whole tomatoes and compared times on water bath vs pressure canning. Pressure canning uses way less heat and the cycle time is almost twice as fast. The pressure canner only needs 3 quarts of water to produce enough steam for 7 quarts. A side note that a 16 quart canner is not large enough for quart jar pressure canning. The steam head space is required. The first batch was blanched about 2 Wed. afternoon and the last of 36 quart was on the table by 11. It was a long day and a pain in the back. The small tomatoes were left for today, 3 flats, 1 layer deep. M wanted salsa or spaghetti sauce.We started about 11 this morning cutting 36 cloves of garlic from our garden, onion, jalapeno, bell pepper, plus other spices. by 3 this afternoon the last of 14 quart were proccessed and by 5 the kitchen was clean and tools put away.

I am ready for a break to work on tractors.

Spike

We will be doing ours in a couple of weeks . This weekend it is the last of the cabbage into canned coleslaw . Almost time to pick the last of the peas and beans for drying for next years seed and soup stock . Canning can be a lot of work , but in the dead of winter when you open your own stuff it tastes that much better. We have 2 gas ranges and industrial hood fan in the garage for canning and summer cooking (keeps heat out house ). Enjoy your friends bounty and your hard work . BTW home made tomato juice is great .
Dave

That's a lot of work Spike and Dave! But so rewarding!

Before this year we did some preserving but not on the scale you are doing. This year we're skipping a lot of things we used to do

I am enjoying seeing you guys gardening and canning.

For tomato juice I did the blanching, peeling, and running them through a cullender with the wood roller thing (ONCE). Then picked up a modern juicer for $3 at a garage sale. Cut the tomatoes just small enough to fit in the juicer, the juice goes in the kettle and the pulp gets run through the juicer again. The remaining pulp gets run through a "Foley Kettle". Turn the handle a few times so the shoe pushes the pulp down to the hole, then reverse the rotation a few times to clear the holes and stir things up and repeat this till it is relatively dry. This leaves only a few bits of skin and a lot of seeds.


Gordy

Oh and don't forget to throw in some cyans, jalapenos, or ghosts to liven it up a bit Excellent poor man's bloody mary I also made V-12, some of everything from the garden, it came out nice and thick, just needed some Italian seasoning for spaghetti sauce