Canning tomatoes

 

Mrs. Wages spice packets

I love Mrs. Wages.  Don’t tell my wife.

 

Actually, I think my wife loves Mrs. Wages too.

I have harvested over 18 pounds of tomatoes so far this year from the back yard.  I have also learned to do canning in glass jars!  I’m very excited about having this skill now.  It’s very comforting to know that I have not only saved the food I’ve grown from rotting unused in the kitchen, but that I’m not counting on the freezer to keep running either. These have all been labeled as experiments to see if our family likes the recipe.

I have canned:

• 7 1/2 pints of salsa (some in half-pint jars)
• 5 pints of spaghetti sauce
• 5 half-pints of chili sauce
• 2 1/2 pints of bread & butter sweet pickles

By far my favorite thing has been the sweet pickles.  I experimented with cucumber slices ranging in size from 3 inch shorties to a big 8 inch cucumber with semi-developed seeds.  They all taste awesome, but I do like the smaller ones a bit better.

My wife’s favorite, and a close second for me, has been the salsa.  It is truly awesome salsa and I can’t believe I made it myself!  Then again, I’m pretty sure I’m not really allowed to take much credit because I used the Mrs. Wages spice pack.

Using the tomato based spice packets does add a significant cost to the tomato-based products.  $2.25 per packet makes 5 quarts.  I would spend less than half of that on spices if I used my own recipe.

The pickling packets make far more product…10 to 12 pints I think it said, so I’ll definitely continue to use those.

Oh!  I canned up experimental jars of bread & butter Jalapeños and Banana Peppers.  The sweet brine flavor was tasty, right at first, with the jalapenos, but then…FIRE!  By *FAR* the hottest jalapenos I had ever tasted.  I’m not going to have another one.  They are HORRIBLE by themselves they are so hot.

By the way…aren’t the quarter-pint jelly jars just FUN?  Too bad they cost the same as halves and full pints.