In my neck of the woods here in Northern Nevada, it's almost time for tomatoes to go into the garden. Actually, in a good year I would have started seeds in February, transplanted in April and put the Wall o' Waters around them, and then be picking by the Fourth of July. However, this is not a typical year. My husband will be losing his job at the end of June. (He's in the mining industry, and the little company he currently works for was acquired by a larger company based in Canada. It's just the way it is in mining. That's why mining companies have nice severance packages.) Anyway, it doesn't look like he'll be finding a job locally, so that means a move is in our future. And because I have to focus much more on packing and painting, I haven't had the time to start tomato seeds. I'll just be buying plants this year.
But the fact that I probably won't get to harvest any of the tomatoes I plant this year makes me a bit sad. Because that means my chances of putting up home-canned tomato sauce are slim to none. I really love preserving my own tomato sauce, even though the store-bought counterpart is really cheap.
For one, it is really easy to do and I get to feel a great sense of accomplishment, more than I do with most other home-canned items. I'm not quite sure why that is. It just makes me feel so good. Maybe it's because I'm doing it to help my family be healthier. I have to wonder, why exactly is it that almost all commercially canned tomato sauces have "natural flavor" added. Why does store-bought tomato sauce need "natural flavor" added? What is wrong with the flavor that tomatoes naturally have? And finally, like pineapple, tomatoes are very acidic and have a tendency to spoil in their cans much more quickly than other fruits and vegetables. But because home-canned tomato sauce is preserved in glass, the problem of spoiling quickly in cans is entirely avoided.
All canning guides contain directions for canning tomato sauce, but their method of producing the sauce isn't as easy as mine, so my directions for making the sauce are below. It came about as I remembered something I learned in college biology: freezing ruptures cell walls, allowing fluid, usually water, to escape. I reasoned that if I was able to drain off the water, then the sauce wouldn't have to be cooked down. It would make far less mess and take much less time. My hypothesis proved correct, and I've been canning tomato sauce this way ever since.
Canning tomato sauce at home is really easy. In addition to your regular canning supplies, you will need a large wire strainer/colander, a juicer that removes the seeds for you (I use a Champion) or an applesauce mill or food mill plus a strainer to hold back the seeds and skins.
The process for turning your tomatoes into sauce is as follows:
1. After harvesting, wash your tomatoes. If they are large, core and quarter or slice them as well. Smaller tomatoes need only be cut in half.
2. Pack tomatoes into plastic containers or freezer bags and place in freezer. Freezing the tomatoes will cause the cells walls of the tomatoes to rupture.
Repeat these first two steps as often as you wish until you have the size of batch you would like for canning.
3. Thaw tomatoes thoroughly, perhaps even overnight. Thawing allows the water in the tomatoes to be released.
4. Drain tomatoes through a colander and discard the liquid.
5. Run the thawed tomatoes through your juicer or food mill, and if using a food mill then pass the resulting sauce through a strainer with mesh that is just fine enough to hold back the tomato seeds.
Bring sauce to a boil and then pour into canning jars. Add salt and citric acid per directions from your canning guide and process for the correct amount of time for your altitude and jar size.
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