Last week I processed 60 pounds of tomatoes. By myself. Some were canned, some were dehydrated, and some were made into my favorite "soup starter" and then canned. This experience is something that took two full days to complete. With help it might have been done more quickly, but even so, it still would have been an investment of time.
It was also an investment of money. I ran out of jars and had to run out and get more. Years of giving my canning efforts as gifts resulted in too many unreturned jars. I wonder if those jars ended up in the trash. I really must do a better job of asking for them back. And even though the tomatoes were inexpensive ($.50 per pound), $30 for tomatoes is probably more than I would spend on all the canned tomatoes I would buy at the store in a year.
So why did I make this investment?
Although my mother canned many things and made jellys, preserves, pickles and applesauce, she never canned tomatoes. And I didn't learn to can from her. I was introduced to the joy of canning more than 20 years ago by a younger friend, Holly. It was a social experience that produced edible results. Over the years I canned with friends and enjoyed laughs, ate mistakes and sipped wine as we worked through the annual ritual. Now that I have moved away from those friends, I still can, even alone. I remember. I still enjoy the process and I still produce a result that makes me smile when I see the jars lined on the shelf of my pantry in the dead of winter.
