Canning is for suckers…

Last night I washed about two ice cream pails worth of tomatoes.

Then I scored the bottoms of each and put them in boiling water for a few seconds.

Then I put them in an ice bath for a min or so.

Then I peeled them, quartered them, and squished out most of the liquid.

Then Fred showed up.

Then the two of us diced the aforementioned tomatoes as well as green bell peppers, mild tam jalapeno-like peppers and an onion.  We dug through to find fresh cilantro in the garden, cut some corn off the cob and cooked all of this stuff in a pot on the stove for 5 minutes along with some cider vinigar and the juice Fred worked out of some limes.

Then Dad showed up.  He then messed with my recipe for about 30 minutes in between helping us get some quarts boiled and the water bath set up.

Then we boiled jars and simmered lids, filled jars and put on lids, and put covered jars into a water bath to cook for 30 minutes..

During the canning time we tasted some salsa left over and tried to clean up the ENORMOUS mess in the kitchen.  (messier than the poppers… seriously)

From these 7 hours 3 fairly bright adults procured a mere 3.5 quarts of Salsa.

4 jars on my counter looking at me and laughing that I would be such a sucker to think that I could make canning into a fun project rather than a boatload of work.

Sadly, I can hear the tomatoes at the farm laughing and mocking me as they ripen.  They will need to be dealt with.  There are hundreds of them.

I am a sucker.

As I stood braced against the counter staring at the meager return of my hard work it occurred to me…

“Oh god.  I’ve canned.  They’ll expect me to pop out babies next.  I have become….  Domestic.”

Says me.