I grow my own tomatoes at home. They really are very easy to grow and a great choice for those just starting out with a veggie patch. They are great eaten fresh, but they are also a key ingredient when making meals from scratch. Just think of all those cans and/or jars of diced tomato, whole tomatoes and pasta sauce you have picked up at the grocery store over the years.

Well what if you could not only grow your own, but preserve them as well, eliminating the need to purchase those cans and jars, saving money and the environment at the same time. Preserving your own tomatoes is easy and I always have plenty of jars of organically grown tomato on hand that I can reach for whenever I am cooking.

So here we go.

First wash the tomatoes and remove any stanks. Roughly chop and place them into a large not.

Place them on the stove on high heat and cook. Tomatoes are mostly water, so a lot of liquid will come from the tomatoes as they begin to cook them through.

Bring the mixture to the boil and give them a good stir. Cook for about 10 minutes. There is no need to cook them for a long time. You just want to cook them enough to get all those juices flowing.

In the meantime, prepare your jars. I use recycled jars that I get of friends and neighbours. I picked up this bunch just the other day when I went to visit my neighbour Marion for a cup of tea and a catch up. She knows I am always on the lookout for jars so she saves them for me. Ask your neighbours, I am sure that would love to help you out. Don’t know your neighbours. Well here is you chance to fix that. Remember, we are all in this together.

Using these fre jars for my home grown tomatoes will fill my pantry and keep these jars out of landfill. For tomato, I use the 500ml jars.

Wash your jars in hot soapy water then rinse in hot water. While the jars are still hot, fill them with the hot tomatoes, using a jar funnel and a ladle. Leave a headspace of 25mm.

For every 500 ml jar of cooked tomato, add 1/4 teaspoon citric acid. This will ensure that the pH is below 4.6 and make it safe to use the boiling water bath to preserve the tomato for later use in cooking.

Tomato needs to be processed in the boiling water bath or in a pressure preserver. Which method used depends on the pH of the food. Tomatoes are actually questionably close to the 4.6 cut off between high acid and low acid, so if you are going to use the boiling water bath method like I do, then you will need to increase the acid. THIS IS IMPORTANT FOR FOOD SAFETY.

Once the jars have been filled, wipe off the rim and using new lids, close the jars and tighten the lids.

Process the filled jars in the boiling water bath for 35 minutes. Check out my blog post on the boiling water bath if you need a refresher on this method.

Once the 35 minutes is up, remove the jars from the boiling water bath using a jar lifter and set the jars on a tea towel on your kitchen counter to cool.

Once they have cooled down the safety pop top will pop down so you can be sure you have a complete seal. Label the jars and put them into your pantry.

So now you have jars and jars of tomato just waiting for you top create an amazing pasta sauce, add to a stew or…… well you get the idea. Time to get creative in the kitchen, save some money and gain some independence, all at the same time.

Valerie