By Vanessa Richins

One of my favorite possessions at the moment is my food dehydrator.

I picked it up for only $7.50 at a garage sale.

It currently features 4 trays, and someday I can expand it up to 12 high.

I’ve been mainly drying apples this season, since I picked some for free and got a really good deal on another batch. Today, however, I decided to throw in a couple of tomatoes that I had on the counter.

As Hunter Angler Gardener Cook points out, “Getting 85-90 percent of that water out, which is what you need to properly preserve tomatoes (or anything, really) without cooking the tomato is tricky.”

A dehydrator is a good choice since many have temperature controls where you can set it low enough to dry without cooking - somewhere around 100-130 degrees. (Mine, unfortunately, is devoid of that feature.) Plan on keeping the tomatoes in the dehydrator for at least 8 hours to dry them out as needed.

A good choice for drying are Read the rest of this entry »

By Vanessa Richins

Jim says:

“In the canning process, it calls to add 2 Tbl lemon juice to quart jars, totally blew it and forgot.  They are all sealed correctly. Should it be thrown away? Can I reprocess with the lemon juice, or reboil and go through processing again?”

Hi Jim! First, we should explore why they’re asking you to add lemon juice to your tomato juice.

The main culprit you’re trying to battle when you’re canning foods is a bacteria called Clostridium botulinum, which occurs in the soil and is the cause of botulism, a paralyzing illness.

There are two basic styles of canning - boiling and pressure. The method you use is determined by what you are canning. If you are working with highly acidic (below 4.6 pH) fruits and vegetables (which includes many tomatoes), you can Read the rest of this entry »

By Michelle Fabio

If everything has gone according to plan, and I hope it has, you’re swimming in tomatoes right now.

There are plenty of ideas for what to do with your crop here on Tomato Casual from freezing to canning to homemade tomato juice, but have you thought about tomato jam?

Before you crinkle your nose (not that you would, tomato lover that you are), this fabulous concoction was recently featured in no less than the New York Times when writer Mark Bittman shared Read the rest of this entry »

By Vanessa Richins

Tomato Casual reader Chris W writes:

“I just started canning and I am having trouble. I canned whole tomatoes by the BALL BOOK. They started to bubble and produce gas. I threw them away. I didn’t want to mess with it.

So I tried making my own sauce. It been about a week and again now the sauce is producing gas. They seal well. And I cook them like i am supposed to. I don’t know what i am doing wrong.”

I am sorry you are having trouble with your canning!

With the help of former Tomato Casual Contributor Amy Jeanroy, I will go over the canning steps and the reasons why you may have bubbling and gas.

One note : boiling water is extremely important in the canning process. It sterilizes the jar and contents, killing bacteria. Use boiling water as noted below.

1. Use hot water to wash the jars. You need to Read the rest of this entry »

By Kira Hamman

Believe it or not, it’s already time to think about next year - if you’re a seed-saver, that is.

Saving tomato seeds is not difficult, but it is more complicated than saving seeds from most other garden plants and does require some planning.

Just remember that saving seeds from hybrid varieties is risky – although they will probably produce fruit-bearing plants, those plants are unlikely to be much like their parents. Heirloom varieties, on the other hand, will produce plants just like the ones from which they came.

First of all, Read the rest of this entry »

By Kira Hamman

It’s the moment you’ve been waiting for - the plants you painstakingly nurtured through needy infancy and difficult adolescence are coming to maturity and producing red, ripe tomatoes.

Pounds of them.

Pounds, and pounds, and pounds of them.

You’re eating tomatoes at every meal, canning and freezing as much as humanly possible, and still they keep coming.

What’s a tomato gardener to do?

1. Keep eating! Remember the dark days of winter, when a garden fresh tomato is but a distant memory, and have just a few more. You’ll be glad you did.

2. Feed your friends. Speaking as someone who went through a gardenless period a while back, I can tell you that they’ll be grateful.

3. Leave the best ones on Read the rest of this entry »