The Easy Two Ingredient Method for "Canning" Fresh Tomatoes

Video and Full Instructions

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In the spirit of “Life at the Table”, I’m excited to introduce you to fellow holistic nutritionist and author of Back To Basics of Nutrition, Danni Macfarland. Danni and I “met” on Substack originally only to find out we live in the same city. After a couple of IRL meetings including a farmers market and brunch date with our husbands (they hit it off, too!) we knew we wanted to work together.

My inspiration for having Danni join my post today came from an offhand comment her husband made at the Farmers’ Market. Passing over some delicious looking, locally made and very popular pickles, he said something to the effect of “after having Danni’s pickles no others compare.”

This caught my attention. I’ve never been a “canner”; I mean the closest I get to canning or preserving of any kind is freezing extra produce in jars or making quick pickles. But I certainly was curious about her technique.

My grandmother on the other hand, had an enormous garden and preserved EVERYTHING, so I could totally relate to the story Danni shares below about her family’s canning traditions. I asked Danni to join me on this post to share some of her canning wisdom (and recipes) with us and how it’s connected her to her to the women of her family.

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Welcome, Danni, tell me about yourself? 

First of all I want to thank you, Christi, for the opportunity to tell one of my food stories.

As of today, I am currently living in Fort Worth Texas with my husband, we came down just over a year ago for his job with only our suitcase of clothes and golf clubs.  We left our 2 adult children (daughter, 22 and son, 24) back in Calgary with a house and a dog to take care of.  And so far the house is still standing and the dog is still alive. Fingers crossed...

Haha! Yes…hope all goes well there. How did you get into nutrition? 

Early 2000, I was pregnant with my first child when my Dad was diagnosed with colon cancer.  He followed all the rules - chemo, radiation, surgery and ultimately he went into remission.  Doctors gave him a pat on the back and sent him home.  5 years later the cancer came back and we knew this time it was going to be a tough road.  That was when I started reading how our food, lifestyle and environment all played a role in his diagnosis. The more I read, the more I wanted to know and that led me to going back to school and getting my Diploma in Natural Nutrition from the Canadian School of Natural Nutrition.  This was not just for me and my family but I wanted to educate others.  

What is the Most Surprising Thing You’ve Found Since Becoming a Nutritionist?

How much information is out there that we need to weed through - good and bad. It is frustrating to me that people never look to how we fuel our bodies as the culprit to disease, illness and overall health and will always go for the quick fix of a pill and just mask the root of the cause.  Never fully realizing that the quick fix usually creates more problems.

What Made You Start Back To Basics of Nutrition ?

I started my Substack newsletter just over a year ago for 2 reasons. It’s going well and I want to offer your Real Food Sanity readers a special discount of 15% off any subscription to my newsletter. (Click the link to Subscribe to Danni’s newsletter and get the discount.)

1. I love to educate so I started it first to help my readers better understand all the information out there regarding nutrition.

2. Secondly, my hope is my Back to Basics newsletter provides some knowledge my readers might not seek out on their own and then they can make more informed choices about their health and their bodies.

Danni, for my “Life at the Table” posts, besides just sharing good food recs and tips, I love telling stories of how food connects people. Would you share your favorite food story and how it connected you to someone or a group of people?

“Do you preserve or can your own food?  This may have been something that your mother or grandmother did but we seem to have lost this tradition over the years and have relied on store bought items. 

Growing up in the 70's, our cold storage room in the basement was always stocked by October with local fruits and vegetables made into pickles, jams, relishes, canned fruits like cherries, pears, peaches and tomatoes.  I grew up in an area of pretty fertile land and a good climate where everyone had gardens and orchards.  But we also had to preserve those foods so that we could stretch them through the winter months.  Those days, we were not getting our fruits and vegetables from Mexico or South America in the winter.  Or if we did they were just too expensive to purchase.

Anyhow, some of my earliest memories in the kitchen were of my Mom and my Nan, spending hours in the kitchen preserving these foods.  And thankfully I picked up this skill, not out of convenience but out of taste mostly.  I just could not eat store bought dill pickles or use canned tomatoes in my food.  I had been spoiled.  They just didn't taste good to me. But also I have learned over the years, these store bought foods are full of additives, sugar and color. Things I know are actually not good for our bodies.

There are a couple of favourite recipes I make every year. 

First, is my dill pickle recipe as these pickles are favourites of the family: Fermenting Dill Pickles: Easy Homemade Recipe and Step-by-Step Guide (substack.com)

Second, my “canned” tomatoes. There are only two ingredients, basic equipment, and the steps are super easy. Although the peeling and chopping of the tomatoes is a little time consuming, it’s worth it in the end. I’ve included a video to walk you through all the steps.

Danni’s Simply Canned Tomatoes

Equipment:

• Water Bath Canner - Amazon.com: BriSunshine 21.5 QT Stainless Steel Canning Pot with Lid, Rack & Canning Tools Set, Canning Supplies Kit Water Bath Canner for Beginner: Home & Kitchen

• Jars with wide mouth openings - lids and screw tops Amazon.com: Ball Wide Mouth 32-Ounces Quart Mason Jars with Lids and Bands, Set of 2 : Home & Kitchen

Ingredients:

• Tomatoes (field tomatoes or roma tomatoes work best)

• Pickling Salt or Sea Salt

• Canning tongs or rubber oven mitts

Prep:

1. Fill your canner with water, cover, heat on high and bring to a boil

2. Place your lids and screw tops (bands) in a saucepan, cover with water and also bring to a boil

3. Boil water in your kettle.

4. Place your tomatoes in a bowl and once the kettle has boiled, pour water over the tomatoes.

5. Once the water has cooled, peel the tomatoes

Directions:

1. Peel the tomatoes and coarsely chop into quarters or smaller and place into the jars.

2. As you are filling the jars, place your hand in and squish the tomatoes to make some juice.

3. Fill each jar leaving about 1 inch space at the top.

4. Add 1 tbsp pickling salt or sea salt to the jar

5. With a clean cloth, wipe around the jar opening to remove any debris that could cause the lid to not seal correctly. 

6. Place the heated lid and band in the jar and screw on until just finger tight.

7. Place into the canner

8. Once you have all jars in the canner, make sure the water is covered over the top of the jars.

9. Cover and allow to boil again.  Process for 45 minutes.

10. When done, remove and place on towels until they are cooled and then store in a cool place.  These can be used immediately.

Notes from Danni:

• These will last up to 2 years if they are kept at a constant temperature.

• As I did not have a cold storage room, I used a second fridge in our basement.

• Ask your farmer for “seconds” or if you can buy in bulk especially on vegetables you’re going to chop up. Both are usually cheaper than the pristine produce they display. And though you may have to cut around a few ugly spots on seconds, they still taste amazing.

• This is an easy way to enjoy your local farm produce all year round.

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