Saturday, August 21, 2010

Spicy

Well on Tuesday I picked 18lbs of tomatoes. It is no where near Granny's 80lbs, but for me I'm happy enough not to have to deal with processing 80lbs of tomatoes. In addition I pulled out and harvested my tomatillos so I had a lot of those. I wanted to wait until it got cooler on the weekend, but some of the tomatoes were getting soft as where some of the older tomatillos. So it was salsa time.

It took all day to process both kinds of salsa. I love how the tomatillos get sudsy when they are washed, though I hate their sticky texture. They are so easy to make salsa with as I just chop them up in the food processor. The only hard part about that salsa is peeling a million tomatillos. Well chopping up all the onions and peppers is time consuming too. The onions were store bought, but the peppers were harvested this week from the garden. I used a lot of serranos to make the salsas spicier.

Tomato salsa is harder than the tomatillo salsa as I have to peel and squeeze out all the guts. Though there is an advantage to this. I use the guts to make tomato juice. I let all the guts sit in a strainer while I'm doing the rest and they drain right out. I only had a three jars of tomato juice as I mostly used paste tomatoes and they have very little guts and juice. And I made a nasty mistake with them. I forgot to add the citric acid. Tomatoes aren't acidic enough to can plain. The salsa recipes have lime juice and vinegar to make them acidic enough, but not the tomato juice. So this morning I was up and reprocessing those three jars again. Usually I'm really careful to make sure the right amount gets into the jars, but since I was doing salsa I wasn't thinking about it.

Yesterday's bounty: 8 pints of Annie's Salsa, 7 pints of Salsa Verde, and 3 pints of tomato juice. I used one and a half cases of my pint jars. I will need to buy more before the main apple season hits or I won't have enough for applesauce. And while I'm at it I really need some more half pint jars. I wouldn't mind a few smaller cans of tomato sauce. Hmm and I need an ice tray. I used to use the ones from my old fridge, but my new one has an ice maker. I often freeze some small batches of tomato sauce for even smaller uses. You never know when you need just a couple of tablespoons and I hate opening a big jar just for a little bit.

Now I think I'll take the weekend off from processing tomatoes. My counter is almost empty. If only I could keep myself away from the tomato plants for a couple of days I can keep it that way. But the odds are slim.

14 comments:

  1. Great job on the canning! The end products look gorgeous. It's a good thing you realized the ommission of the acid to the tomato juice and reworked them.

    I so wish I was canning tomatoes but our temps went chill again and the lot of tomatoes are stalled out again. (sigh)

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  2. Now that gave me a good idea....make thick sauce (or thin paste) from the rest of my tomatoes, and freeze it in ice cube trays. I have very little freezer space left, most of it has to be saved for green beans, but I could get a couple of bags of cubes in there. I am so out of jars, and I really don't want to buy more. I only have one ice cube tray, but it should freeze pretty fast. I'm off to get my tomatoes juiced and into the crockpot!

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  3. I love both of those salsas. What a wonderful year!

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  4. Laura, usually I'm really good about it. I pay close attention, but for some reason not this time.

    Annie's Granny, I couldn't live without applesauce. I love to eat it over the winter. My daughter loves it too when she comes home. So I'll get more jars. Though I suppose I could freeze it too. I've done it before.

    The Mom, it has been such a great year.

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  5. Nice work!
    I know you're feeling over-tomatoed and burdened by the processing, but I haven't gotten enough tomatoes to do anything but eat fresh! Waaaaah! So enjoy, and your juice idea is very clever.

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  6. You've been working hard in the kitchen! Love all your salsa jars. Looks delicious. One Question - Are you able to use up all of your salsa over the winter?

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  7. Stefaneener, I am enjoying it quite a bit. Well the product at least.

    RandomGardner, I've never made this much salsa before, so I can't tell you. The tomato salsa will certainly go. I have twelve jars right now. That is only one each month. We go through more than that normally so that will easily be eaten. I don't eat as much salsa verde, but I'll have to try this year.

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  8. 18 lbs in one day. I'm only getting close to that for the whole season. You lucky lady.

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  9. All those jars look great! My tomatillos did nothing this year. I had them in a pot, seems potted stuff didn't well this year. Good thing there is always next year.

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  10. What kind of tomatillos do you grow? I have the ones that don't burst their husks so they keep for awhile. Yeah, I have often wondered if the stickiness helps keeps bugs off or something. Lots of work there!

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  11. Cheryl, I'm dancing over the productivity this year. Especially since last year.

    Dan, I've never tried tomatillos in pots before. I would think they would do fine since tomatoes do so well in pots, but you never know. Some years things do well and others they don't.

    Ottawa Gardener, They are Verde Puebla tomatillos that do burst their husks. But one of the tomatillos is a sport. It is taller and puts out bigger tomatillos than the others. Plus it was more productive. I'm saving the seed. I know they cross pretty easily and I have nothing to keep them from doing it, but I'm hoping I'll get a couple of tall ones next year. I think I can tell at seedling stage so I ought to be able to do it.

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  12. I am so impressed by all the canning you did! I had no idea that tomatillos get sudsy when you wash them. I don't like their sticky texture either. That salsa is going to be so tasty!

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  13. How do you know when they are ripe? Or are the unripe ones the lighter colored ones? I have some that are very small but the husks have burst.. so I'm not sure if I should pick them or not??

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  14. meemsnyc, I love salsa verde, not quite as much as tomato salsa but it is great for a change of pace.

    Ohiofarmgirl, Traditionally tomatillos are picked unripe, which means green and they are ready when they burst out of their husk. That being said I also like the ripe ones, which are the yellowish ones you see in the photo. They tend to not be as tart. I've been mixing them in my salsas.

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