Canning like crazy

I'm tired.  Tuesday I spent the entire day canning.  Now mind you, this is the first year I have ever canned ANYTHING.  So of course it seemed like the only natural (crazy) thing to do would be to plan on canning everything possible.  So I bought 6 cases of quart jars and a case of jelly jars from a kindly old woman whose canning days have passed, long passed...As evidenced by the inch of dust and dead spiders inside some of these jars.  One or two cycles in the dishwasher and they are good as new!  All these "good as new" jars are in addition to the 2 cases of jars I already had.

So what am I canning?  Well, a couple of wks ago I canned, with my mother's help (THanks mom) 17 quarts of peaches.  Yesterday, I canned 14 quarts of pears AND 5 quarts of crushed tomatoes (whole tomatoes skinned and cored and then packed into a jar and pressed / crushed so that their juices fill the spaces between).  I have another 80 pounds of tomatoes in my basement waiting their turn, all home grown).  So tonight and mostly likely into tomorrow I'll be making Seasoned Tomato Sauce from the Ball Blue Book guide to preserving.  Eariler this season, as you may recall, I made jam and jelly.

So, when someone asks what have I been doing?  The answer is easy, trying to hold on to summer through fresh food preserving.


Enjoy the warm weather while it lasts.

THis is my fate for the next few days - 80 lbs of tomatoes