She Experienced DeJaVu August 31, 2010

I found myself in the kitchen, with Mom, peeling, dicing and canning tomatoes, wait this is so familiar.  Oh, right, this is what I was doing last week, too.  Mom and I called our CSA Farmer, Abe, from Nippo Brook Farm, and he had a bunch of tomatoes that were not pretty enough for market, and were in desperate need of immediate canning to keep from losing them.  So we headed over there and gathered them up, and home we came. 

Mom and I have decided that we'd rather "over can" tomatoes...wait, is that even possible, not sure it is, but anyway...we decided we'd rather "over can" tomatoes, this year, and be sure to have enough, since the season is plentiful.

After the near tomato famine of 2009, we don't want to risk that again.  We canned another 39 Quarts of diced tomatoes, and 12 half pints of paste, made from skins we ran through the Vitamix.

I was excited to can 3 Quarts of diced tomatoes from my own garden!  I also have another batch of Tomato Butter in the crock pot, of tomatoes from my garden.  I used my Rose DeBerne and Juliette varieties.

I got to try the Tattler Lids today.  Mom and Dad bought a couple boxes of each size, and we gave them a test run today.  They are pretty easy to use, and seemed to seal well.  I still don't love that they are plastic, but, since they are reusable and BPA free, that does take away two huge concerns for the use of plastic, and it's not like the Ball Jar lids don't contain Plastic, aren't ending up in landfills, and they also contain BPA.  Oh, the big downside...they don't make that lovely, satisfying ping sound that the metal lids do.  Oh, how I love the sound of that ping.

12 hours of canning, in a very hot kitchen on a very hot day.  I'm very ready for bed tonight...though I did sneak in a little knitting, first, of course.

 

Comments

[Marnie]

So if they don't 'ping', (by the way I love that sound too!) how do you tell if the jars have a proper seal? Can these lids be used with a pressure canner or only a water bath canner? Sorry for all the questions, I just find first hand accounts really compliment whatever info the company gives. Congratulations on all that canner in the heat! I'm off to start my pickled basil garlic green beans before it gets really miserable (hot and humid) here.

[Amy Ouellette]

Hi Marnie,

They do suck down, so you can see, clearly, the vacuum occurred, but they don't make that fun ping noise. I'm not sure about pressure canning with them, as I haven't done it, but Lemans.com says they can be used for pressure canning.

[Marnie]

Thank you, Amy! I cannot find them locally so I'll have to order them and it's good to have your input.