Canning Tomatoes & Grooming Houseplants with My Mom!
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00:00 I did pick a few slicers as well.
00:01 We're gonna be mostly focusing on romas today.
00:04 It's been quite a long time since I've canned anything
00:06 because the last time I did it,
00:07 I canned everything I could get my hands on
00:09 and I think I burned myself out.
00:10 You got the canner?
00:11 Perfect.
00:14 Well, that works, so did mine.
00:17 I was just explaining that the last time that I canned,
00:22 do you remember that?
00:22 I canned everything I could and I burned myself out.
00:26 So this time I thought, you know,
00:28 I'm gonna freeze some things.
00:29 I'm gonna can a few things,
00:30 but only the things I find myself buying
00:32 at the store the most.
00:34 So today we're gonna be doing just petite diced tomatoes.
00:37 Aren't those pretty?
00:38 - Those are beautiful.
00:39 - Did you know? - They're starting to color.
00:40 - They are.
00:41 Do you know I put those in my containers last fall
00:45 and they wintered over.
00:46 They were in there with some pansies and kale.
00:49 - Those shallow little pansies.
00:50 - Uh-huh, and they're in the shade most of the day.
00:53 Kind of goes to show what plants will do
00:54 if you just try it, you know,
00:56 and get lucky, I guess.
00:59 Also, when I was picking tomatoes last night,
01:01 I ran across three black widow spiders
01:05 and then I kind of just, yeah, there's more out there.
01:09 I just need to feel a little bit braver
01:10 before I go out and pick more.
01:12 So here are the tomatoes.
01:14 We've got a whole bunch of them sitting here.
01:15 I think we wanna focus mainly on the aromas,
01:17 don't you think?
01:18 - I think so.
01:19 - So that includes this crate and this basket right here.
01:22 The rest of them are just heirloom slicer tomatoes.
01:24 There's some like cocktail tomatoes over here.
01:26 You could take a bunch of these home with you.
01:28 - Oh, yum.
01:30 I only have one tomato plant.
01:32 - We've got a little bit more than that.
01:35 So it's perfect.
01:36 That's a pineapple.
01:38 Isn't that pretty?
01:39 - It's huge.
01:40 - And they're tasty.
01:41 - Yeah.
01:42 People oftentimes don't wanna grow them
01:44 because they don't look like this.
01:46 They don't look picture, you know.
01:47 - Well, that's not a good example.
01:49 Here, this one.
01:50 There you go.
01:51 - They look like this in the store,
01:53 but this is packed full of flavor.
01:55 - Yeah, so much.
01:56 - Yeah.
01:57 - Better most of the time.
01:57 - Yeah, really good.
01:58 - So I think what we're gonna do
02:00 is the hot pack method of canning tomatoes
02:03 and using their own juices instead of water
02:06 to fill up the rest of the jar.
02:08 I've been doing a bunch of reading
02:09 because it's been so many years since I've canned.
02:11 And I think that'll be the best way to do it.
02:14 So what we're gonna do is peel,
02:16 peel all the tomatoes.
02:16 So I've got a pot of water boiling on the stove already.
02:19 So we'll do a like 30 to 90 second plunge in boiling water
02:23 until the skin starts to crack.
02:24 Then you take them out and you pop them in cold water,
02:26 which I'll fill one side of the sink up with cold water.
02:28 And then you can slip the skin right off the tomato.
02:31 Look at you.
02:32 Can you turn around for me?
02:34 Oh, so sweet.
02:36 You have wings.
02:37 I love it.
02:40 You butterfly.
02:41 Anyway, we'll slip the skins off
02:42 and then we will seed them.
02:44 Because if you leave the seeds in,
02:46 it can kind of give a bitter taste to the tomatoes.
02:48 So we'll remove the seeds
02:49 and then we will cut the tomatoes up
02:51 into like half to one inch size chunks.
02:53 And then we will put them back in a pot of boiling water
02:56 for just five minutes so that it can heat up a little bit.
02:59 And the benefit of doing a hot pack
03:01 versus a raw pack for tomatoes
03:04 is that if you do a raw pack
03:06 and then fill it up with boiling water,
03:08 oftentimes the tomatoes shrink up
03:10 and you end up with so much less in that jar.
03:13 Like the quality is just a little bit better
03:15 doing it this way.
03:16 So we'll heat them up for five minutes, pack the jars full,
03:19 and then we'll process them in a water bath
03:22 for about 35 minutes for our pints,
03:24 45 minutes for our quarts.
03:26 I think that's pretty much it.
03:27 We will be adding citric acid.
03:29 You could do a citric acid or lemons,
03:31 lemon juice if you want.
03:32 I've got both, so we might try both.
03:34 And then we will probably add a little bit of salt
03:37 in ours as well.
03:38 You don't have to do that.
03:39 But anyway, we just thought it would be fun
03:40 to bring you guys along for this process.
03:43 I actually called my mom.
03:44 She was on her way here and I just said,
03:45 "I think we could use two canners."
03:47 Because each time we do this,
03:49 each round of jars is gonna take
03:50 35 to 45 minutes to process.
03:52 That will be our bottleneck, I think, today.
03:55 Also, I hope this little one burner works
03:58 because one of my stove top burners is not working.
04:01 It's not reliable.
04:02 Actually, one of them is not working altogether
04:04 and one of them is not reliable.
04:06 So I only have two reliable burners
04:08 on my stove top right now.
04:10 - That's enough.
04:11 - Yeah, I guess.
04:11 (both laughing)
04:12 A couple other things that are handy
04:13 to have a wide mouth funnel like this.
04:16 So you can put it in your jar and then put the tomatoes in
04:18 and you don't make a big old mess all over your jar.
04:21 Slotted spoon, of course.
04:22 You know, I've got my water here.
04:23 We'll be putting the tomatoes in
04:24 and we can easily get them out.
04:26 And then a jar lifter like so.
04:30 So you can raise and lower your jars out of the canners.
04:32 I just sanitized a bunch of these.
04:34 They're all ready to go.
04:35 Okay, I think what I'm gonna do is load this up
04:38 to lower some in.
04:40 Okay, so let's see.
04:43 We're gonna do it the 30 to 90 second plunge here, Mom.
04:47 - Okay.
04:48 - I thought it might be easier just to lower them down in.
04:52 - Yeah, it's just splashing ourselves.
04:53 - Splashing, yeah.
04:54 - Oh yeah, way nicer than plunking them down in.
04:57 - Yeah, I filled that quite full.
04:58 I could probably get rid of some of that water.
05:00 - That's okay, that's okay.
05:01 It'll use up.
05:02 - Okay, we'll do just these few real quick
05:04 so you can see close up how this goes.
05:06 It's not like quite boiling either.
05:08 It was.
05:08 Whoop.
05:10 (both laughing)
05:12 Does that mean it's not fresh?
05:14 - It's like an egg if it floats or not.
05:17 - Okay, it's been 30 seconds.
05:18 They're not quite there yet.
05:20 Oh, I gotta get a bowl of cold water.
05:22 (shrieks)
05:24 (laughs)
05:28 - That's all I have to put tomatoes.
05:32 - The skin looks a little puckery on this one.
05:34 Should we try it?
05:35 One with the other ones
05:39 and then that skin should slip right off.
05:41 - Okay.
05:42 - Yeah, look at that.
05:46 Slips right off.
05:47 - That's how easy is that.
05:48 And then no knife required just about except for cutting.
05:50 - So then we're gonna do,
05:52 whoops, we're gonna do, sorry.
05:54 Try not to put my hand in front of you,
05:56 from the view there.
05:58 We're gonna do that.
05:59 And then we're going to remove all the seeds,
06:01 which we'll probably be doing this over the sink.
06:03 And then any of the core or any bruised spots,
06:06 we'll be getting rid of those too.
06:07 We'll find our rhythm too.
06:10 I won't look as fumbly as this for the whole time.
06:14 And then we'll just cut them up.
06:15 Oops.
06:16 Into half to one inch size pieces.
06:22 Like so.
06:25 Oh, oh.
06:27 That's the bottom of the tomato right there.
06:30 There we go.
06:31 - Oh, that's perfect.
06:31 - Yeah.
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07:37 Progress report here.
07:38 Almost done with the basket.
07:40 Samantha singing happy birthday.
07:42 Oh my.
07:45 Nice.
07:47 Starting in on the crate as well.
07:49 And this is where we're at.
07:51 So pretty much seeded.
07:52 I mean, you can see a few here and there,
07:54 but all chopped up and ready to roll.
07:57 We've got these in the cold water bath
07:59 and mom's working on that bowl right there.
08:01 But I think we're gonna start packing jars, right?
08:03 So we can get them going.
08:04 - Yep.
08:05 - So we'll basically be taking our sterilized jars,
08:08 using the large funnel and then just spooning this mixture in
08:11 and packing it in as tight as we can,
08:13 while leaving a half inch of head space.
08:15 So about right to here.
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10:57 Well, we are almost done, you guys.
11:14 We've got 20 jars of diced tomatoes
11:16 sitting right here on the counter,
11:17 and there are 14 more jars processing right now.
11:20 And 19 of these have popped, they've sealed.
11:23 The last one is this one right here.
11:25 I'm just waiting to hear that pop sound.
11:27 Hopefully it does, and if it doesn't,
11:29 then we'll use it probably in the next couple of days.
11:32 Look at how beautiful these are.
11:34 And we just did the Roma's.
11:35 We did not attempt the other two baskets
11:38 full of slicer type,
11:39 although my mom did eat one of these,
11:41 or two, I think, in the middle of the day.
11:43 And Benjamin cut all of these up and salted them
11:46 and has them ready for us for dinner,
11:48 which is very sweet of him.
11:50 Good job, dude.
11:51 Such a beautiful thing.
11:52 These are pretty cool already.
11:53 Now, we did kind of skip the heat pack step.
11:56 We didn't reheat them after we did the whole plunge
12:00 in the boiling water to slip the skins,
12:02 because we let them process like that quite a lot longer,
12:04 and we didn't want the tomatoes to be mush.
12:07 So we just left them in the boiling water
12:09 a little bit longer, took them out,
12:10 let them cool off just a little bit,
12:12 and then slip the skins, cleaned them,
12:13 and packed them full in here.
12:15 And I think they're gonna be great.
12:17 I didn't notice much shrinkage of the tomatoes.
12:19 I think just heating them a little bit longer
12:21 that first time was perfect.
12:22 I did notice like on one, maybe this one right here,
12:26 like tail end of the bowl,
12:28 the spoonfuls I was putting in here
12:30 were just a lot more liquidy,
12:32 because they were toward the bottom of the bowl
12:34 where all the liquid had caught.
12:35 So we've got a little bit more liquid
12:37 in just a couple of the jars.
12:39 But most of them are top to bottom
12:40 filled with the actual tomatoes.
12:43 So now, my mom wandered off somewhere outside
12:45 a little while ago while I was kind of cleaning up.
12:47 So I'm gonna make us a piece of banana bread and go find her.
12:50 I think she was gonna go out to the studio.
12:51 I made some banana bread with the milled wheat
12:53 and it turned out beautifully.
12:54 And we've almost eaten the whole thing.
12:57 Yep, I'm getting down to the end there.
12:59 It looks good though, doesn't it?
13:07 It turned out so great.
13:09 Don't those look good?
13:17 I feel like we worked for this snack today too.
13:20 Oh, hello.
13:22 Are you doing some work out here?
13:23 I am.
13:24 You wanting a new job?
13:26 Talk to your dad about that.
13:29 Sure, he'd be thrilled.
13:30 There you go.
13:30 Oh, I'm hungry.
13:31 Thank you.
13:32 Thank you.
13:33 So you've been watering and grooming it looks like.
13:35 I have, I found a little.
13:37 Oh, mealy bug action.
13:40 I'm gonna have to handle that.
13:41 Yeah, 'cause this is a really neat little goldfish plant.
13:46 But it is very infested.
13:48 Yeah, I have to dip that whole thing.
13:50 I think so.
13:51 Yeah, yeah, so this is pulled aside.
13:53 Okay, so that's with our wheat.
13:55 My gosh, it smells so good.
13:58 Yeah, I'm gonna move away from the mealy bug plant.
14:05 Oh, that's pretty bad.
14:07 She's been telling me for a long time
14:08 that she wants to come up and take care of my house plants.
14:11 I wonder why.
14:13 The poor things are so neglected.
14:14 Well, I know you don't like it.
14:17 And I do.
14:18 Yeah.
14:18 So between the two of us, we'll get it done.
14:20 And do you know what?
14:21 We're gonna each end up with 17 jars of tomatoes.
14:25 Isn't that awesome?
14:26 17 jars each.
14:29 We're gonna eat our snack for a minute
14:31 and then I'll show you all the jars on the counter
14:33 when we get back in and they come out of the processor.
14:35 I think I've only got about 10 minutes left on the first.
14:37 Yeah, on the first one.
14:38 Mom, can I interest you in this plant?
14:41 What in the world?
14:42 It's a type of Senescio.
14:44 Well, it's just like, it's like a snake.
14:47 I know.
14:48 Yeah, no.
14:48 You freaked somebody out with that.
14:51 I like more of the fluffy, ferny kind of stuff.
14:53 Yeah.
14:54 Yes, that's my cup of tea.
14:55 Things are looking so much better in here now.
14:58 My goodness.
15:00 I know how you don't like,
15:02 like you don't like some of that stuff
15:04 to get too long and drapey.
15:06 So I actually pulled every single thing apart.
15:09 Oh, you did.
15:10 And I gave it a bob.
15:13 Oh, nice.
15:14 And so there were some long things
15:16 with just one thing with no leaves at all.
15:18 Oh my.
15:19 And then like some leaves at the bottom.
15:20 And I know you don't like that.
15:21 No.
15:22 So I gave it a little haircut
15:24 and then I got it kind of separated around
15:26 so it'll be sort of all the way around.
15:29 Oh, I like it.
15:30 It looks really nice.
15:32 It's very satisfying.
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15:51 All right, guys.
15:52 So I have to head back in.
15:52 I got to pull some more jars out.
15:54 But I thought I would just run
15:55 by each one of these shelves here
15:57 so you could see what we have going on,
15:58 which everything, I'm not embarrassed to show it anymore.
16:01 Thanks, mom.
16:02 First shelf, this one hasn't changed much,
16:05 probably since the last time I showed you.
16:07 Bunch of fun agave, aloes, just assorted succulents.
16:12 This shelf is less full.
16:14 Isn't that gorgeous?
16:15 Look at that.
16:15 And this right here, like, do these grow or is this it?
16:20 Well, I've heard differing opinions on that.
16:23 So I'm really not sure.
16:25 'Cause I've heard, yes, it does.
16:26 Because they have to be started somehow.
16:28 Yeah.
16:29 But I don't know how.
16:30 Because I've had this for a while, a good while.
16:33 And it looks healthy.
16:34 It does, it's happy.
16:35 Good, yeah.
16:36 So cute.
16:37 And I love the rhapsalis that looks like this.
16:40 I think these are so cool.
16:41 Quick look at this one.
16:42 A little bit more color on this shelf.
16:44 I love this fern down here.
16:46 This is surprisingly tough, given the treatment it gets.
16:49 Yeah, that one just got a good groom.
16:51 Looks nice.
16:53 Yeah, it looks-
16:54 We've got another tray of African violets
16:55 I started not that long ago.
16:57 Probably like two weeks ago.
16:59 Succulents down here.
17:01 Oh, there's my timer.
17:02 Oh!
17:04 Run!
17:05 Okay, real quick, real quick.
17:07 Okay, these are some of the ones
17:08 that Mountain Crest Gardens sent out last.
17:10 Some of the stragglers I haven't used yet in projects.
17:13 And then we've got more ferns.
17:14 These are African violets I started last winter.
17:17 And this shelf here.
17:21 Real fun stuff.
17:24 And then we've got this one with some random plants,
17:27 most of which came from inside.
17:29 They weren't looking good, so they came out here
17:31 to be hospitalized, kind of.
17:32 And then this shelf right over here.
17:34 Got a few fun things.
17:37 The rickrack cactus.
17:39 Rickrack, is that right?
17:41 Rickrack, yeah.
17:42 Or zigzag, zigzag cactus.
17:44 I don't know, whatever.
17:45 Gotta get those jars out.
17:46 And there they are, all 34 jars.
17:59 Now this one never did seal,
18:01 so I'm gonna use it in tonight's dinner, actually.
18:03 It's gonna work out perfectly.
18:05 Oh, it's just a thing of beauty.
18:07 Now you can add salt to the jars if you want to.
18:10 I don't know if I already mentioned this.
18:11 And we decided not to add any to ours
18:13 so that you can just salt it afterward,
18:15 depending on what you're making.
18:16 It's kinda nice to have that flexibility.
18:18 So the only thing in these jars
18:19 is that quarter teaspoon of citric acid
18:21 and then tomatoes themselves, canned in their own juices.
18:24 No water, nothing.
18:25 So it should be a really nice, intense tomato flavor.
18:28 Those are so pretty.
18:29 Did you make that?
18:31 Yeah?
18:32 - Yeah, and all of us make it.
18:33 - You and Lissa did.
18:34 It's so pretty.
18:35 - And Lissa did.
18:36 - Yeah, so I'm making a tortellini kind of beef skillet meal
18:41 that calls for, I've not made it before,
18:43 but it seemed really easy, so I picked it out
18:44 'cause I thought, cheese tortellini, the kids would love.
18:47 Ground beef, which we had in the freezer downstairs.
18:50 And it calls for a cup of water.
18:52 After you get done browning the beef,
18:53 you put the cup of water in and some beef bouillon,
18:55 and then you put the tortellini in and some seasonings.
18:59 And I thought instead of the water,
19:00 maybe we'll do the canned tomatoes and see how it goes.
19:04 I think it'll actually be more flavorful that way.
19:08 Yeah, so let's make it up real quick.
19:09 (sizzling)
19:12 (sizzling)
19:14 - I'll take a picture for you.
19:40 Take a picture for you.
19:41 - Oh, thanks, that's awesome.
19:42 And you guys, that is dinner.
19:50 So fresh tomatoes from the other basket,
19:52 salted with fresh mozzarella and basil on top,
19:55 and then the easiest skillet dinner ever.
19:58 I forgot to turn on the camera to show you
20:01 that I put some minced garlic in there
20:02 and then browned my beef, and then I added in
20:05 the can of tomatoes, a little bit of extra water,
20:07 and then seasoning, you know, salt and pepper
20:09 and all that business.
20:10 You could put crushed red pepper flakes in here.
20:12 I think that would be really good.
20:13 I'll probably put that on mine.
20:14 I didn't want to have that in there for the kids.
20:16 And then you put the frozen tortellini,
20:19 just a bag of that in there.
20:20 And then I topped it with fresh mozzarella,
20:22 Parmesan, and basil, which it didn't call for.
20:25 It called for Italian cheese blend, but I didn't have that.
20:27 So anyway, looks delicious.
20:29 So anyway, guys, that is it for today's video.
20:32 See, there's red sauce in there.
20:34 I showed him a picture of what I was gonna make,
20:35 and he's like, "There's no red sauce.
20:37 "Where's the red sauce?"
20:39 - Well, you just canned a bunch of tomatoes.
20:40 Seems like there should be some red sauce.
20:42 - And there is.
20:43 - There is.
20:44 - So there you go.
20:45 There's your red sauce.
20:46 Hope you guys enjoyed this video today.
20:48 I just thought you might like to come along
20:50 for what we ended up doing.
20:51 It's just been so, so long since I've canned,
20:54 I mean, I canned some strawberries.
20:55 I did strawberry jam, strawberry syrup this spring,
20:58 but before that, it had been years since I had done that.
21:01 I think I maybe made a little bit of applesauce
21:03 a couple of years ago and canned that.
21:05 Oh, yeah, I just need to learn from my mistakes
21:09 from years past and don't can all the things.
21:12 And that was a year,
21:13 we didn't have kids even at that point.
21:15 And I canned way more than we needed.
21:16 And anyway, yeah.
21:19 Thank you guys so much for watching.
21:20 We're gonna have dinner now.
21:21 Hope you guys are having a great day,
21:22 and we'll see you in the next one.