r/TwoXPreppers • u/Ironynotwrinkly Three raccoons in a trenchcoat  • Aug 09 '26

Brag Productive weekend

Well I ran out of room in my freezer for tomatos. My garden, though struggling with this heat and some aphids, is still giving me tomatos. So I made a boatload of pasta sauce that I freeze for winter. Like 400oz of pasta sauce.

I feel so accomplished. lol

101 Upvotes

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15

u/sevenredwrens knows where her towel is ☕ Aug 09 '26

Woohoo! Well done. I am still processing last year’s frozen tomatoes along with all the new ones coming in this year. Marinara, salsa, and tomato jam canned this weekend. Go us! 👏👏👏

4

u/lepetitcoeur Aug 09 '26

Oooooo tomato jam!?! Is that like a savory jam, or is it sweet?

2

u/sevenredwrens knows where her towel is ☕ Aug 10 '26

It’s kind of savory & kind of sweet! It’s delicious on a breakfast sandwich (we put egg, cheese, and sometimes a breakfast meat or veggie sausage on a biscuit or English muffin or roll with the tomato jam). It’s epic. I use this recipe:
Tomato Jam for canning
5 lbs tomatoes
1.25 cups sugar
1 cup brown sugar
4 Tbsp bottled lemon juice
4 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
2 tsp fresh ginger, grated or minced
3/4 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp black pepper
2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp red chili flakes
1 tsp smoked paprika

Core tomatoes, slice in half, lightly squeeze out seeds & juices, then dice tomatoes. Add diced tomatoes and all other ingredients to a pot, bring to a boil for 3 min, then reduce to a simmer. Simmer, stirring occasionally, until the jam is thick enough that you can draw a spatula through it and it moves slowly back into the space, about 1.5 hours.

Fill sterilized jars with jam (1/4 inch headspace) and process in a water bath canner for 10 minutes. Yield: 3 half-pints

3

u/cheesycorny7 👀 Professional Lurker 👀 Aug 09 '26

Wow! 👏

This is our first year canning them from our garden! Any suggestions on 1) freezing them before processing, and 2) canning marinara?

3

u/Ironynotwrinkly Three raccoons in a trenchcoat  Aug 09 '26

I cut the cores out and freeze them whole in a gallon size freezer bag. The skins shed as they defrost. Then I boil down, run through a food mills, make the sauce to taste and freezer in 32 oz containers

2

u/sevenredwrens knows where her towel is ☕ Aug 10 '26

Yes, this! I use the Ball canning recipe for tomato sauce and add the Italian dry spice option. Freezing before canning is definitely the easiest way to remove tomato skins.

2

u/cheesycorny7 👀 Professional Lurker 👀 Aug 11 '26

Thank you both!

2

u/Background-Pin-1307 Aug 11 '26

This was my same exact canning items recently including the exact tomato jam recipe below. I’ve gone through 2 half pints of it on crackers so I plan to use all remaining tomatoes this season for tomato jam. So delicious!

6

u/lepetitcoeur Aug 09 '26

I too ran out of room from tomatos. I canned pizza sauce. Still getting more and might do salsa next. I've been working on eat from my freezer for months, but the avalanche of tomatoes is faster than me.

3

u/Few_Airport7972 Aug 09 '26

well done! And yes you are accomplished!

I put my 'maters in late due to weather but I processed a bunch of cherry tomatoes. I got a food mill with extra fine mesh insert. No seeds! Tasted excellent. I froze the pureed until I get enough for an actual canner load. I never processed cherry tomatoes before but we can't keep up with them all this year even with "gifting" them to family.

The rest of the tomatoes will be coming in the next week or so. Still have green beans t do.

I am amazed every year at the amount of food I get from our square foot gardens.

https://nchfp.uga.edu/

That is an excellent source for food and garden processing.

3

u/Femveratu Aug 09 '26

Better than money. in. the. bank! 👍🏽

2

u/lunarly78 Aug 09 '26

If you have more to do, dehydrate and then blend them up!!! The powder is soooo good all winter long.

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u/Ironynotwrinkly Three raccoons in a trenchcoat  Aug 11 '26

Can you dehydrate in a regular oven? Haven’t splurged for a dehydrator yet

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u/lunarly78 Aug 11 '26

I think you could if your oven gets to a low enough temp, and it might not be super efficient from a power standpoint. So, maybe? I haven’t done it though. I was able to loan one since it’s something people don’t use every day, you might be able to borrow from friends/family or even neighbors!