More marathon cooking - or rather, canning

Photo from St0rmz's flickr stream

Last year, when I was working on the farm, the late summer was marked by a frenzy of jam-making. We'd come home from the farmers' market loaded down with plums, peaches, pluots and strawberries which then got turned into jars and jars and jars of delicious jam - none of which was made by me. I'm actually from New York City, so the idea of canning your own food kind of freaked me out. I'd never done it before, and frankly, I'm kind of a putz so I figured that if I canned it, it would have to turn into botulism.


12 lbs. of tomatoes yielded 3 1/2 quarts of sauce and 8 oz of dried tomatoes - not quite enough to get you through the winter, but not bad for a first attempt

But I've been gorging on tomatoes from the farmers' market all summer and about a week ago, it dawned on me that this bounty of tomatoes would not last forever. One day, the tomatoes will be gone, replaced by stand after stand of winter squash (not that I have anything against winter squash!). My favorite dry-farmed tomatoes from Yerena Farm aren't going to last forever. And they really are great tomatoes. Heirloom and specialty tomatoes are everywhere these days, but heirloom doesn't automatically mean delicious. If you're going to shell out upwards of $3.50/lb for tomatoes, you want delicious. Yerena's Early Girls and Romas are rife with an intense, sweet flavor that will bring tears to your eyes. I am not kidding, people! They are amazing!


This is just under 12 lbs. of tomatoes, blanched and peeled. Romas are great for this b/c the skin splits almost exactly down the middle and you can just tweeze the skins between your fingertips and shake them to peel.

This is why I decided to try my hand at some home preserving. I was always content to buy Italian canned tomatoes in the off season, but mainlining those delicious tomatoes from the market has made me think it would be worthwhile to give it a shot. I picked up about 12 pounds of tomatoes and decided to make oven-dried tomatoes and can the rest.

Oven-drying is extremely easy. I took 10 romas, cut them lengthwise into quarters, brushed them with a little olive oil and a sprinkling of salt and put them on a baking sheet.





After three hours in the oven at 300 degrees (had to turn them a couple of times), I had about 8 oz of dried tomatoes. It's pretty amazing how concentrated the flavor gets with this treatment. Here they are:



Canning is a bit more complicated, so rather than recount my bufoonery in the kitchen, I'll leave it to the USDA to explain. Alternately, eGullet has a great post on this, but you might have to be a member to view it.