HOMEGROWN Life: Canning Tomatoes 101

Reader Contribution by Farm Aid And Homegrown.Org
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We do a lot of canning here, especially with tomatoes. We harvest several hundred pounds every year with most of it being preserved. This year I’ve been getting a lot of questions about canning and tomatoes seem to the most popular.

Tomatoes are the gray area of canning. They’re not quite acidic enough to just straight can like fruit but the right amount of added acid can keep you from having to pressure can them. Here are the basics on canning them (and much of this can actually be used for water bath canning other things like fruit and pickles. This will mostly be for making sauces, paste and juice. Crushed, diced and whole tomatoes can be done in a similar manner but you need to skin and core them first and the process is slightly different. The amount of acid is the same though. Even with pressure canning tomatoes you will need to add acid. If you’re adding other vegetables to your recipe you will need to pressure can because you’ve dropped the acidity too far. But don’t be mistaken, if you skip the acid or add other low acid ingredients tomatoes can effing kill you. Botulism is no joke.

Start with your water bath canner and canning rack at the bottom. If you don’t have a canner and rack use a large pot and put a towel on the bottom or use lid rings on the bottom. The rack/towel/rings serve to protect the jars from breaking. Put jars in your canner and fill with water. I usually will fill until the water is just above the rims to ensure that the water is at least an inch above the top of the jars when they are filled. Heat up on the stove.

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