Trying to can some tomatoes today!

Well, I canned the rest of the cucumbers that we brought back.  Only got 4 quarts (3 quart jars and 2 pint jars) of kosher dills canned.  Out of cucs!

I have some tomatoes that really needed to be used, so I decided to can them as a test run.  They process 35 min in hot water bath! (for PINTS even!)

I canned 2 pints of crushed tomatoes and had some leftover in the fridge.  However, when I removed them from the hot water bath I noticed that they were leaking tomatoes!  Well, one eventually sealed, but the other didn't :(  I am confused since I had PLENTY of head space in those jars!  Was a half inch - I am pretty damn sure!

I am trying to can that one now - I also am trying a half pint with the tomatoes I had in fridge.  I know its a waste heating up the canner just for 1 pint - but its the principle of the thing now!  It's tomatoes for gosh sake!

BTW:  I followed NCHFP's recipe for crushed tomatoes.  Note that they have you add vinegar (or lemon juice or citric acid) to ensure that the tomatoes are acidic enough (some tomatoes are low acid - so better safe than sorry!).  I also added 1/4" teaspoon of salt per pint which they list as optional.  The vinegar and salt both go directly in the jars, not in the boiling tomatoes.

There might be enough tomatoes for another 3 pints to can this week.

Still have green beans and corn to deal with.  I wanted to pressure can the green beans for the experience, but Katherine wants us to do the pressure canning together since neither of us has done it before.  Therefore, we will just freeze the beans - probably this evening.   I have to do some "work" work!

Oh, while I was out walking Smokey, I noticed that a couple of the sunflowers were bent down.  One was missing a top!  I suspect squirrels!   I am gonna put some posts in and tie them up like I did with the ones in PA.

Update 9:00pm:

Katherine and I froze 4 more quarts of green beans tonight!