Canning Tomatoes

[Nenuphar]

Three years ago, I took up water canning some of the produce from our garden. Every summer, I learn something new. This year, I tried canning tomato sauce - we go through a lot of it!

For those of you who are gardeners and/or who do canning, what are your favourite varieties of tomatoes for 1) sauce and 2) canning whole?

Also, what are your favourite oxheart varieties, and why?

I know I can just do an online search about the different varieties, but I really prefer to hear from people who have grown, eaten, and canned the tomatoes themselves.

Thanks! :sun:

[Strat]

I usually grow tomatoes but I haven't canned them yet. My first canning attempt was last summer (habaneros & cucumbers) and it didn't go so well. Will definitely try again because I want fresh sauce. Dunno what variety I'll use for sauce but probably roma. Last season I didn't grow tomatoes but I will this one. The variety depends but I usually have a couple varieties and definitely a cherry.

At the moment I have 8 broccolis, 8 romaines, 4 collards (they grow like crazy here) and a mix of herbs.

[Sadieblue]

I enjoy gardening, I usually can up enough green beans to last from season to season.
I also can a lot of tomatoes, cucumber pickles, and peppers. Several kinds of jams and jellies.

[Nenuphar]

I enjoy gardening, I usually can up enough green beans to last from season to season.
I also can a lot of tomatoes, cucumber pickles, and peppers. Several kinds of jams and jellies.

Nice! :) What kinds of tomatoes do you like to grow most for canning?

[Nenuphar]

For a sauce tomato, I love San Marzano. They are big, meaty and a prolific producer. I bet it would take ten Roma tomatoes to produce the same amount of sauce as one San Marzano.

When I make sauce, however, every kind of ripe tomato I have goes into the pot. :bigsmile:

As a kid growing up my family had a market garden. Whatever didn’t sell would get canned. I remember canning lots of Celebrity tomatoes whole.

Thanks, Joe! I am the same - the tomatoes go into the pot whether they are "sauce" tomatoes or not at our house. This past summer, I even tossed in the "Malachite Box" green-when-ripe tomatoes. (Boy, is that a productive variety.) I have San Marzano on my short-list to grow this coming year, so am glad to see someone highly recommending it. ;)

[happyuk]

As a way of preserving tomatoes during the Winter period does anybody have in experience in canning in the form of making tomato sauce?

In the past various Italian friends have told me the traditional way is to literally cook the tomatoes for HOURS, or even longer!

Apparently there is some wisdom to doing this the Italian Mama way. If tomatoes are cooked at a given temperature for long enough, various beneficial things occur, such as the release of health-giving lycopenes, which have powerful antioxidant properties.

Here is a hugely enjoyable video on howa to makka da tomata sauce:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=waBDP2zG6Gc

[Cara]

We had some lovely local UAE grown tomatoes earlier this year and I made canned Italian passata.... more or less following the directions of this Italian nonna.

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They were fabulous. Next year, I will have to get more tomatoes :bigsmile:

[Nenuphar]

Thank you for the great video. That tomato press is no joke! My life would be a lot easier - sauce making would be so much faster - with a heavy-duty press like that. I can on a comparatively small scale, and am up to 10L done so far. It was a rough growing season, so I came away with fewer tomatoes than usual. I hope to get another 10-15L finished this month. It's so nice to have through the winter months.

Next year I need to focus more on growing paste tomatoes. One I'm going to try is Bellestar. It's a Canadian variety, not well known, determinate and early. I might also try Auria, Hungarian Italian, or Opalka. There are so many interesting heirloom varieties out there!

[Cara]

Thank you for the great video. That tomato press is no joke! My life would be a lot easier - sauce making would be so much faster - with a heavy-duty press like that. I can on a comparatively small scale (http://iwillgroweggplants.blogspot.com/), and am up to 10L done so far. It was a rough growing season, so I came away with fewer tomatoes than usual. I hope to get another 10-15L finished this month. It's so nice to have through the winter months.

Next year I need to focus more on growing paste tomatoes. One I'm going to try is Bellestar. It's a Canadian variety, not well known, determinate and early. I might also try Auria, Hungarian Italian, or Opalka. There are so many interesting heirloom varieties out there!

Hi Nenuphar, if you’re interested in finding one of these machines, the Italian name is macchina per passata di pomodoro. You might be able to find one on eBay or, if you’re up for it, I’m pretty sure you could find an Italian shop online that might ship it.

[Nenuphar]

I recently learned about a relatively new forum for gardeners who love growing tomatoes. It's called, "Tomato Junction (https://www.tomatojunction.com/)". It is fairly small right now, in terms of membership, but I quite like it that way. Members seem friendly there and are helpful with information. There are also sections for seed swaps, recipes, and other gardening endeavors. :sun:

[EFO]

We don't have a specific recipe,but the basics are as follow:
-harvest tomatoes,wash well three-four times and then,depending by size,we cut them in half,four,five six slices;
-juiced them through juicer separating peels and seeds;
-boil the juice as much as we need (only for juice or paste);
-putting them in bottles or jars;
-sterilizing,separate bottles with bottles and jars with jars,three hours after the water start boiling;
-at the end of sterilizing time,we put them in crates or boxes or whatever recipients you have at hand,including buckets stacking the bottles or jars one over other,insulated with blankets on bottom,sides and top and we let them there until next day.
For special foods we add salt and/or black pepper and/or oregano and/or basil and/or thyme and/or mint or combination of them.

For canned tomatoes we are using the following varieties:Unibac,RomaVF,Money Maker,AC55,Rio Grande and Cherry for different flavors:
-harvest tomatoes,wash well three-four times;
-made a small cross incision on bottom of every tomato for further easy peeling,excepting Cherry;
-put them in hot boiling water for a few second up to one minute depending the variety;
-take them out and let them cool down until you can keep them in hand for peeling;
-arrange them in jars and fill it with already made tomato sauce/juice and tighten the lid;
-sterilized them as above;
-at the end of sterilizing time,do as above.
That's all.
As above you can add any seasoning you like! :)

An other recipe is cabbage and tomatoes with a pinch of sugar,salt,vinegar and the rest is water.:) In the picture below (4 big jars and one small is all that left,the rest has been eaten already :) ) in big jars with metal lid are Money Maker,with cellophane lid are Unibac and the small jar is with Cherry.
42567

EDIT
I forgot to say that at the bottom of the jars are celery stems and leaves :)