Undoubtedly, the notion of canning seems antiquated to many. Why waste a summer evening or precious weekend day slicing and simmering pots on the stove when you can buy everything under the sun at the grocery store in abundence?
Because the truth is, most grocery store produce sucks. While it's very hard to go without any fresh food (and I don't try, but I do limit it) in the winter months, for things like pasta sauce, the truth is that the taste quality of those mealy, pinkish orbs in the grocery store don't actually have any flavor. So, these last few years we've tried to preserve some of the wonderful produce that we can buy at farm markets or grow on our own.
See how lovely?
Last year Margie and I discovered that the most excellent way to can these tomatos is to smoke em first. This lead to me buying yet another smoker (last years sucked because it took four hours to adequately smoke a tomato and this is NOT OKAY). So John and I went to the Home Depot and brought home some sort of contraption that I, being crazy, decided to build in the yard all by myself on one of summer's hottest days.
So, Matlock and I spent a lot of time in our yard trying to figure out how to smoke up some tomatos. Apparently there is a PENALTY OF DEATH for using pre-soaked briquettes or lighter fluid of any kind, so I got to work on starting fires on 103 degree days. My dog thinks I'm an idiot.
You start with something like this
Slice them and put them onto racks, and smoke before canning.
Our cucumber plant has been prolific this year. Friends and family have been the recipients of our bounty of beautiful cucumbers, crunchy and fresh off the vines. Margie and I have taken to pickling them due to the quantity.
Pretty!
The garden's bounty has been good to us thus far this year.
Cherry tomatos in abundence!
Zucchinis have become muffins
Of course I now have another 20 lbs of tomatos to process. Anyone want to come help me slice?
