Canning tomatoes in March - Wait, what?

Last month, during a field trip to Millican Produce, our tour guide and local farmers' market vendor Tanya Miller mentioned tossing large quantities of her beautiful green house tomatoes to the chickens because of blemishes barring them from sale at the local grocery stores and farmers' market. Of course, my first thought was canning. But with so much time spent in the green house and field, Tanya had little time to spare for canning, nor did a nearby friend to whom she would normally give the tomatoes. 

I immediately offered my canning services saying that should she again have a bag of imperfect tomatoes, I'd be happy to can them and either pay her for them or give a percentage of the canned tomatoes in return.

Then last week as we were closing up our mid-week farmers' market, Tanya came to my booth with a grocery bag just bursting with tomatoes! I asked if she rather I pay for them or give her a percentage of the jars back. "Neither," she said. "They're all yours!" So, can anyone guess what I've been up to?

Thankfully the next day was a rainy one I was able to spend the day in the kitchen - peeling, coring, cutting, cooking, and canning stewed tomatoes. Fourteen pint jars worth, to be exact! Mmmm, mmm! Aren't they gorgeous?

I had read that you don't have to use a pressure canner when you're canning tomatoes because of the high acidity, but that it creates a better end product. Well, we'll just wait and see because I canned half of them in the water bath and the other in the pressure canner. You can be sure I'll have a post one of these days comparing the two methods. 

In the meantime, some of those peels were saved and added to a stir fry at lunch (there's gotta be some healthy lycopene in there right?) and the remainder rest on my pantry shelf just waiting for a little rice, a pot of soup, or just about anything else my little heart desires. 

Thanks Tanya!