Canned Heirloom Tomatoes

I used this recipe to can some of my abundance of tomatoes! Can't wait to use these in the middle of winter to make soups, stews, salsas & sauces! :)

Superior heirloom tomatoes

Forget pickles and jams on your first go-around. Home-canned tomatoes can’t be beat, are wildly versatile and are economical to boot. I promise you won’t regret the effort.

Ingredients
• 5 pounds heirloom tomatoes
• Lemon juice (from the jar is best)

Method

Make two, criss-cross slits in the bottom of each tomato. Loosen the skins of whole tomatoes by boiling in water for 45 seconds.

Immediately plunge the tomatoes into a bowl of cold water to stop the cooking process. Slide the skins off and cut out the cores using a sharp paring knife. Set aside in a large bowl.

Fill sterilized pint-sized jars with the skinned tomatoes, leaving a ½ inch of headspace from the top. Crush the tomatoes by pushing them down into the jars with your fingers as you go.

Add 1 tablespoon of lemon juice to each jar. If you prefer, you may also add a single basil leaf at this point, although I prefer to keep mine plain so that the tomatoes can be used in virtually anything.

Wipe and cap the jars and heat-process in a boiling water bath for 45 minutes.

Makes about 8 pint jars.