by John Hagan » Mon Sep 08, 2008 7:24 pm
Hey Deb, Thanks for hooking me up with the acid (its been awhile since I have used that phrase). The canning went pretty well for us on Sunday. Fifty pounds of heirloom itialian paste tomatoes turned out seven quarts. I ended up borrowing a friends Victorio Strainer #200. This unit clamps to the side of the counter and has a big hopper on the top to dump the tomatoes into. I found it took little effort to crank this thing and was surprised how quick it went. The only problem I had was the clamp that held it to the counter would loosen. At one point, while I was trying to retighten the clamp,Anne came in to how it was going. I was trying to get this thing tight and in the process jerked it off the counter and covered Anne(and a good portion of the kitchen) with tomatoes. Needless to say this was the last time I saw Anne in the kitchen that day until the final lidding took place. I had gone to great lenghts to make the kitchen a nearly surgical level of cleanliness,due to the horror canning stories I have read, so the look on both of our faces after that must have been priceless. In the end I dont think canning saves any money but I know I will be happy this winter making some fine sauce that still tastes of summer goodness. I still have about a hundred pounds in the frezzer so we should get another 14 quarts over the next couple weekends. Thanks to everybody for your help.
The tall one wants white toast, dry, with nothin' on it.
And the short one wants four whole fried chickens, and a Coke.