Tomato time in Arkansas

NOTE: This was written last night, but not posted, because the computer was being recalcitrant and refused to upload photos, and I didn’t have the energy to screw with it. So pretend it’s yesterday. Or, no, wait; don’t. Because, Friday.

First canner’s worth of tomato relish and juice.

Because, well, I couldn’t let a summer go by without a tomatothon.

And, damn, I’d forgotten how much work it is to put up 25 pounds of tomatoes. But we have tomato relish, tomato sauce, and tomato juice, yes, we do.

I nearly went into a panic a couple of weeks ago because I went looking for a jar of tomato relish to go with the purple hulled peas for Sunday dinner, and I couldn’t find one. Further excavation proved there were two or three jars left, and folks, two or three jars is not going to get me through a winter. Another 15 jars may, and that’s about how many I have simmering on the stove right now. I will have to dredge out more jars and wash them.  Plus about half a dozen or so half-pints of tomato sauce, plus about two quarts of tomato juice.

All that out of 25 pounds of tomatoes, for which I paid 20 bucks at the veggie stand. They were canning tomatoes, which means they’re smaller than the premiums. Which also means they take twice as long to peel. On the flip side, peels generate tomato sauce, so that’s a Good Thing.