Preserving the Harvest: Tomatoes

I did it. I finally canned tomatoes. I have thus completed Homemaking 101.

This past weekend, I used 25 smaller tomatoes to make Roasted Tomato Sauce (Simply in Season recipe) and canned it. Then I just plain canned a bunch of whatever was left whole. I am excited about the sauce, and somewhat wary of the whole tomatoes. I didn't skin them, because I think that's a waste, though it might have been convenient for later---and then the person assigned to babysit the canner forgot and left them boiling in the water bath an hour longer than called for. There is a lot of liquid and empty space, I don't know why. Any way about it, they can't be worse than grocery store canned tomatoes. Well, except if we get botulism.

Sauce on the left, whole tomatoes on the right. 

It's so satisfying to have a just-canned jar sitting on the counter. Especially in this very busy time of the school year, canning is like pressing the Pause button on all the garden produce we can't attend to right now. It's a relief.
I used to be overwhelmed by the lengthy process of sanitizing the jars, filling, boiling, but now I feel like it's a manageable illustration of the idea that slow and steady wins the race.