9 Quarts More (of San Marzano Tomatoes)

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Can until you drop or run out of lemon juice!…. Yesterday, it was a lemon juice issue, but that means I’ve canned enough tomatoes to run through an entire 15 fl oz bottle! The first batch equated to 7 quarts of San Marzano tomatoes late last week and then processed 9 more this week. Due to the lemon juice shortage there is also an extra quart and a half of skinless tomatoes in the fridge that I will use later this week for chili.

I’ve been canning for close to 20 years, but this is the first year I’m actually growing enough tomatoes to can out of my own garden. Canning one jar at a time just isn’t my thing. I used to buy my canning tomatoes from local farmers who sell them by the box. If this is what suits you and enables you to have summer tomatoes throughout the off-season, just start asking the tomato growers at your local farmers market if they sell canning tomatoes. They are typically offered at a lower price point, may contain the less perfect part of the harvest and some may be bruised within a box. Don’t worry about it. The price is right and you always should plan to buy a bit more than you think you will need. Ugly tomatoes taste just as good as perfect ones especially when they come out of a jar. 

I wanted to up my game in terms of what kind of tomatoes we would grow for canning. San Marzano tomatoes were a no brainer. Several Italian cooks and chefs swear they are the best for sauces and cooking in general. I’ve always used my canning tomatoes for chilies, soups, etc. but not for tomato sauce. Instead, I’ve historically bought the most expensive cans labeled as being San Marzano tomatoes at the store. Those days are officially over (at least for this year!)

 

After searching around in local box stores, we found and bought San Marzano seeds to start at home. I’ve never had an issue starting tomatoes from seed, but they were always my own dried seeds from the prior year, not store bought seeds. All this to say, this year we had to reboot with tomato starts from a local nursery. I plan to have a blog related to seeds, but am likely to avoid buying seeds at box stores in the future.

We have a local nursery where we like to buy our starts. In March, I went in to inquire as to whether they would have San Marzano and was so excited when they confirmed they would. This place grows all kinds of varieties throughout the planting season and they get a lot of traffic.  Depending on your timing you will be able to buy different things at different times as they sell out of one thing and put out another. So, I asked if the folks manning the store would contact the greenhouse manager to ask when the starts would actually be put out for sale. A month and a half later, we brought home 8 starts of San Marzano tomatoes. We also picked up a couple of cherry tomatoes and a couple of larger tomato varieties for slicing, salads and snacking. 

The San Marzano variety is easy to grow, but they were subject to blossom end rot when they first started to produce fruit. Blossom end rot looks gross, but it’s basically, the tomato telling you that it’s not getting enough calcium. Being chemical free, we used Dolomite Limestone which is also used by organic gardeners. (Though we aren’t using any chemicals, our farm is not certified organic.) It eradicated the problem pretty quickly. I’m finding that they are high producing, so the blossom end rot issue didn’t make us feel like we had a shortage of output by any means. 

These tomatoes are super easy to can. Drop them in simmering water until the skin splits and using a slotted spoon or similar, transfer them to an ice bath. As soon as the tomatoes are cool enough to handle, cut the top off. They roll out of the skin amazingly easily and you can slide them directly into the jar. 2 Tbs of lemon juice per quart and 1 per pint. Salt is optional and up to 1 tsp per quart and half a teaspoon per pint. Process in a water bath for 45 minutes. Easy peasy!