This might be my canning for the year. The summer did not produce many tomatoes for me in my little roof-top garden. Today I took the tomatoes ripening wrapped in newspaper and culled out those (many) with blemishes. I cut out the bad spots and filled a quart jar. Years ago I regularly filled my mother’s old water bath canner a number of times over with jars of tomatoes - seven quarts a batch. Many came from my garden. A few years I would buy 30 lbs or more at a roadside stand.

I love cooking with my home canned tomatoes. Even my bland, boring recipes seem to come alive: soups, spaghetti sauces, chili (Minnesota style), and other concoctions obtain by throwing thing into a cooker. Sometimes I will fry up vegetables and toss in some canned tomatoes. (Now, these last several years, I’ll even put in a little bit of ‘warmer’ spices. I guess my taste buds are going to hell.)

I’ve moved from large acreage and big space into an apartment. I find I can process one, two even three quarts at a time in a stock pot. Still, I’d like to enter winter with more than one quart.

But, what a dandy excuse! I put off cleaning the apartment today because I had to can!