Friday, August 12, 2011

Canning today (again)

Yesterday I cut up tomatoes, peppers and onions for salsa. I made it up today.

Recent lessons learned:

1. Just because something looks like a canning jar doesn't mean it really is! So if I buy them at garage sales again, I will look for "Mason" or "Ball" on the jar!

Why was this lesson learned?  Well, I noticed bits of vegetables floating in the water where I was processing the 2 pints of salsa I made. (More on only getting 2 pts. next.) At first I thought I just spilled some on the side and didn't notice.
 
Then I spot more and more...so I lifted up the jars. One jar was fine. But the other?

The WHOLE FLIPPING BOTTOM BROKE OFF! We're talking jars hot from the dishwasher, with hot salsa (it's a cooked recipe), so it isn't like there was a quick temperature change. Needless to say, that whole pint had to be trashed. Fortunately, the other jar is completely intact, so it  wasn't a total lost cause.

2. Five or six big tomatoes make very little salsa. Which would be okay if I hadn't lost half my batch. However, (and this is really the lesson), I need to find tomatoes that don't cost 3.99 a pound. And that's from a farm stand! I guess it is time for Mike and I to take a ride out on Long Island to visit farm stands more east of us. As for my own garden, I got a big 4 tomatoes so far. Wow. At least they tasted good.


Right now I have grape jelly processing (thanks for the pectin, Maryann!) and so far, so good. It's an easy recipe with just grape juice, sugar and pectin. I've never made it before. I hope it comes out good.

 When I was a kid, my mother made the best grape jelly from grapes that grew in the corner of our backyard. I have never tasted anything like that again in all my life!






3 comments:

  1. I'm sorry about your jar problem. That is the most annoying thing when that happens!

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  2. Glad you are enjoying the pectin and stuff. Hey! How about the Bonomo's Turkish Taffy??? Did you eat any?
    As for the tomatoes, go to a "U-Pick-It" farm; then you can buy bushels for the price of a couple pounds at the farm stand! We didn't get a great crop of tomatoes this year, either, so tht is what we did and it was dirt cheap.

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  3. Wonderful! Logan was signed in, not me! Well, the above was from me not him! lol!!

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