My offspring start mentioning it around July of each year now. We have the same conversation each time. How many bottles should we do? When will it be time? Do we need to buy more quart jars or do we have enough from last year? As the weeks get closer the excitement builds. Go figure. Really? Should a long day of canning tomatoes really be fun and anticipated? I don't know...I just know that's how it is in my family.
We have learned a few things over the last couple of "palooza's". The first year we didn't bottle enough tomatoes to satisfy us all and to last for a whole year. Last year we processed too many. Okay, too many? Last year we did 96 bottles. Yep...you read that right! It was exhausting and took almost 8 hours. 8 hours times 7 people! It was great to accomplish that and we all hauled off about 2 dozen quarts each! But...this year we all had 6 quarts leftover from last year. Still perfectly good and delicious and usable...but in the interest of not killing us all off, we decided to cut back this year. Oh, and last year, we were also tending 2 babies that had just celebrated their first birthdays! It was really kind of brutal! HA...
Sourcing the tomatoes is part of the event. Getting them at the peak of ripeness but not too ripe is a challenge. Finding the right price and the best deal is part of the game. There are a lot of places this time of year to find those tomatoes! Of course I first checked with my favorite local farmer. He was selling some real beauties for $20.00 a half bushel. Ouch...that's too much. Although that is about the going rate and less money than we'd find them for at the big farmers market in the big city. I called another local farm and found that we could get them for $13.00 a full bushel! Holy cow...that is an amazing deal! Only catch...you pick them yourself.
I'm willing to admit that some odd things get me excited. Not only are the bushels only $13.00 but I have the pleasure of getting to go pick them myself! That means I get to play in the dirt and feel the sunshine on my head and bond with the tomatoes I will eventually be eating on some freakishly good pizza or in a big bowl of chili. Life really IS good!
My friend and tomato guru figured out that we should shoot for 3 bushels. I had no idea how long it would take to pick a bushel of tomatoes. So, I packed a bottle of cold water, put on my Keen sandals and headed down to the farm.
There are literally acres and acres of tomatoes. I was surprised how many people were there harvesting them. This farm also has several different pepper varieties available to pick. I stopped at the little booth under a sun shade to pick up a bushel sized box. A friendly teen aged girl welcomed me and told me I could go pick anywhere I wanted. I asked her if she knew how many pounds a full bushel box of tomatoes weighed. She thought it would be around 30 pounds. Okay, no problem. I can schlep 30 pound bags of dog food and chicken scratch without batting an eye. However, I was concerned that the parking area was quite far from where I would be picking and I wasn't sure I wanted to carry a 30 pound box a half mile! I decided that I would start picking near the little sun shaded entry and exit booth. I figured they wouldn't mind if I hauled my first bushel under the little tent and went for my car.
I made my way into the tomato patch, found a small flat bare spot and plunked down the bushel box. I soon realized that lots of lovely tomatoes were hiding under the leaves and foliage. I really enjoyed hunting for them and finding little pockets of red, ripe tomatoes. I would go several feet, load up the front of my tee shirt with tomatoes and go back and gently load them in the box. It was a pretty great system!
It didn't really take that long and soon I had a full box of these juicy beauties! I was kind of proud! I carefully bent down to position my hands in a way I could safely lift the box and get a good purchase on it. Ummm...30 pounds??? I don't think so! That box was HEAVY! I wasn't sure I could lift it! I was determined and so relieved I only had to carry it a short distance across a small dirt road. I got my arms underneath it, balanced my weight trying not to trip over the tomato vines and headed to the check out booth. I actually struggled a bit loading it into the back of my car. I did it though! When I arrived back home I recruited Hubs to unload it. I filled him in on the whole estimated 30 pound thing...He hauled it into the house muttering that he thought it weighed at least 50! We decided it would be beneficial to weigh it for our own satisfaction. 52 pounds!!!...now you know! When you go pick your own tomatoes you will thank me for that bit of info!
Oh...and maybe I should mention it gets your hands really, really dirty! (I kind of like that part, not exactly sure why)...
I repeated the same process one more time on Friday afternoon...picking another bushel, loading it in my car, delivering it home for Hubs to haul into the basement.
I decided I'd pick the third and last bushel on Saturday...
This is my last box! Woot Woot...Funny, on my last trip to the farm there was a more seasoned farm lady working the entry/exit tent. I kind of ran my "system" past her and told her I couldn't carry a full bushel to my car. She nodded wisely and said, "no problem, you know a full bushel weighs 52 pounds"! HA...
Tomorrow I will fill you in on our BIG day of canning these lovelies! I'd like to tonight but I'm seriously exhausted! ;)
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