Canning

Hello,

I have finally gotten enough tomatoes to make a batch of “Mom’s tomato soup”. Her recipe states that I needed a peck of tomatoes. Some time earlier I had written on there that a peck of tomatoes equaled 16 pounds. The tomatoes in the Ely garden have been stressed by lack of rain and much too much sun. So they limped along. In the community garden the vines have looked lush and green, but I was never there at a time when there were many ripe tomatoes on them. I saved a picking from a couple days ago and then picked again yesterday. Between the two pickings I managed to have 16 pounds. Before I could weigh them I had to go on a hunt for my household scale. Such a relief when I finally found it nestled in a box stored in the large bathroom closet.

This tomato soup has a green pepper. I felt lucky that I had picked a large one in the Ely garden. A bunch of celery, three onions, and rice were store bought.

I almost followed the recipe, but could not resist some changes.

I added one chili pepper that Leroy had brought home from the community garden as well as some cilantro. Then I splashed in some balsamic vinegar because I was a little concerned about the acid content of some of the pale tomatoes. I did put in the butter that I had in the freezer from the kids Christmas visit. I left out the flour and doubled the amount of rice.

When I was filling the jars I learned the one of them had a chip out of the outside rim. Luckily I had another that was clean so I could quickly heat it.

Just a little soup was left over so we could each eat about a ¼ cup for supper. We both thought it tasted good. I am pleased and grateful to my mother who did all of this in the past. I am not sure I realized how much work she did when I was growing up. Course I do remember helping a lot and grumbling about it.

Paula