Tuesday, April 30, 2013

More tomatoes!

Georgette, Clair and I are re-energized after lunch and are ready to finish canning the bountiful harvest of tomatoes from the garden.

The cooking pot holds nearly 20 gallons of tomatoes. Georgette adds handfuls of spices. Clair and I heave the very full and very heavy pots onto the propane gas burners. These are set up in the workshop adjacent to the garage.



There are at least two upright freezers and one chest freezer to keep Moumoulous and all its visitors well fed throughout the year.



Georgette uses a stick blender periodically to keep the sauce well mixed and the consistency smooth. Notice  the wooden table to the right in the photo, canning jars have been washed and dried, placed on paper waiting to be filled.


The jars are soon filled, rims wiped cleaned and lids closed tight. We work carefully but quickly to ensure the contents are not contaminated.


I can attest to the heavenly aroma that filled the room, the beauty of which almost came close to the deep rich color of the sauce in the sparkling glass jars.


Almost finished.


The last batch is ready to be placed into the water bath where they will simmer under boiling water until the optimal internal temperature is reached. This pot holds 24 jars, 6 jars stacked 4 deep, the metal you see in the photo below is part of the rack that holds the jars in place.


There were 8 or 9 extra jars will go into the house to be processed in a smaller pot. Not shown in the photo was the large garden rocks Georgette placed on top of these jars so they would not float around in the water as it bubbled and boiled.



At 7 pm (1900 h), we call it a day... a very good day. Between the three of us we canned more than 60 jars of tomato sauce. I was delighted to take home a few jars to enjoy, but even more was the pleasure of being asked to join in this annual event.

Linda


And if you have, thanks for reading...


1 comment:

  1. What a great day with much being accomplished ... well done. I'm sure it tastes delicious.

    ReplyDelete