It's Tomato (canning) Time!!!!

It is that time of the year again where we get really busy running to the farmer's markets (not just the downtown one on Saturday morning) to gather the best our farmers have to offer... It is of course prime time for canning and we spend a lot of time doing just that.... Which is probably why we hardly have any time to sit at our desk and blog all day like some other places...  

At Sea Salt, we  pick and gather first, then we cook , then we feed our customers, then we eat and drink...

...then and only then we talk about it!!!!

In our garden... San Marzano tomatoes on the vine....

 

We don't just talk about local.....We ARE local....

  

A big tub of San Marzano from our garden!

San Marzano tomatoes' typical elongated shape

,

Parsley, also from the garden....

And then more tomatoes from East Farms 

 

Washing the tomatoes

Peeling the tomatoes....

Making the tomato sauce...

Stirring every once in a while...

Sauce is ready to be bottled....

Sterilizing the jars in boiling hot water...

Making sure that the lids are blemish free...

Filling the jars while they are still hot...

Jars are finally ready to be processed in hot water...

Jars are processed in boiling hot water for a while....

....Before being carefully removed and left to cool down

One day worth of canning....

Lots of cans indeed

One day of canning in the back of our car.... 

80 something quarts on their way to the cellar....

Waiting in our home cellar along with dried oregano from the garden, New Mexico 

chile ristras and a few other pantry treasures...