The Tomato Fury

From The Rikon Expedition

From The Rikon Expedition

From The Rikon Expedition

From The Rikon Expedition

From The Rikon Expedition

From The Rikon Expedition

From The Rikon Expedition

For those of you who have been following my facebook updates, you know that we received a 5 gallon bucket full of red Roma tomatoes from a student's mom who has a small farm. As she brought them into my house, I stared at her aghast, wondering what I would do with 200+ tomatoes! She said (very nonchalantly), "Oh just can them or make a sauce out of them", and then she left. So I was left alone with this monstrosity and immediately sought help from my FB friends who gave great suggestions, such as salsa, spaghetti sauce, bruschetta, putting em in a blow up pool and squishing them, making ketchup (!?), and more. It was a bit overwhelming, to be honest, especially since I have never every done any canning.

But I began to research it anyway and was even more intimidated by all these science-y rules about canning that have to do with acidity, temperature, making sure the cans seal right, and it seemed to be really really complicated. Instead of relying on my own understanding of a scroll bar on the internet, I decided to consult our campus's resident real life Google lady (she knows everything), Mrs. Benson and see what she suggested. She pointed me to her next door neighbors, who were retired and happened to have canned some pears that very morning.

Mr. and Mrs. M. were more than happy to push me in the right direction of canning and even hooked me up with MORE vegetables from their gorgeous and overflowing garden. They gave me a canning bath and the cans to do it. Mrs. M. even gave me a copy of a vintage looking canning instruction sheet then walked me through the entire process. Then she confessed that she didn't actually like to can, because it's so time consuming and stressful.

It had been a good 3 days since I'd received the tomatoes and I was a little worried about their wellbeing and decided to commit to this process before I had a big pile of rotting tomatoes.

I decided to make one batch of spaghetti sauce, then one batch of salsa (inspired by Aaron's parents this summer). I don't think anyone really warned me of how much of a pain it is to prepare and de-skin tomatoes! I wrestled with those stupid things for 4 HOURS before I got the skin off. I felt like a crazy person and had to get out of the house, and gave up around midnight.

The next morning, I began to boil and mash up some of the tomatoes for the sauce. After adding all the other ingredients and cooking for a while, I tasted the sauce and it tasted like nothing but tomatoes. Panicked, I called my college roommate Ansley (who is a renowned for her cooking), and she suggested adding sugar to take the bite out. In my worry, I also started dumping other herbs that I happened to have in my cupboard and the sauce ended up tasting a little bit Indian due to the cumin. Oopsies. I canned it anyway and think I'll just make sure to add fresh vegetables when I open it again since it's so saucy.

The salsa actually worked out a lot better, although I think I added a little too much sugar and it tastes slightly sweet. I finished in the early afternoon of that day, with a grand total of 9 hours spend cooking and canning, and 14 jars of stuff to show for it. After that, I hoped and prayed that I'd never have to do it again. I kind of think I did it, just to say i could do it. Women of the 50's just didn't get the credit they deserved!

(i don't really think I'm gonna make it as a housewife, if canning makes me feel like throwing a pot full of tomatoes across the kitchen)

In the end, I used some reserved tomatoes to make that bruschetta and pico de gallo and ended up feeding 2 meals to dorm kids, and they liked it. I do much better with fresh food than cooked food that requires patience and hard work.