Annual Canning Start - Go!

The canning season started last night with strawberry bay leaf jam. I had two cups of berries fresh from the garden, and two and a half quarts in the freezer from last year's glut. Now? I have more freezer space, since all those berries and a cup and a half of sugar (and two lemons) cooked down into three half-pint jars of jam. Maybe I'll see if there's room in the freezer for the ice cream maker and do up some lemon sorbet if so.

Everything got washed up this morning before work, so when I get home, I'm going to (1) start a new loaf of whole wheat sourdough going, and (2) turn my attention to the five pounds of tomatoes I picked yesterday. Some of the recipes in my canning books are being tempting, but I suspect I'm probably going to go simply for crushed tomatoes since that ends up being a mainstay for making salsa or sabzi. Five pounds probably is two quarts at most, more likely a quart and a pint.

But it's saving what I grow now for a time in the future when I'll want it to eat, so in its way it's a labor of love. And this year, I'm thinking, I won't try too much all at once. One thing per day, spreading out the work onto some weeknights so I don't end up spending the entirety of Saturdays or Sundays on my feet in the kitchen.

Canning Inertia / Inevitability

I looked at the five pounds of tomatoes. I looked at the fact that I wanted to make salsa. I decided to go the easy route and make the salsa with the fresh tomatoes rather than going through the process of canning them, then opening a couple other jars of tomatoes to make the salsa.

Essentially cutting out the middleman step that involves "boil for 85 minutes."

Tasting the salsa, I am reminded anew of the difference this makes. Fresh tomatoes taste sweeter in this recipe. Interesting difference. Used up the last of the garlic and onions, as well as the very last of the frozen habeneros from a few years ago.

Yum.