Canning Tomatoes Part 1: U-Pick

Why would I want to can my own tomatoes? First, moving yourself off the industrial food complex is a rather expensive endeavor. Processed foods made from commodity corn are excessively cheap (thank you government subsidies), a luxury whole foods do not enjoy. So one of my methods for keeping costs down is to process as much of our food myself as possible. I've only found one brand of canned tomatoes (Cento) at my local supermarket with only tomatoes listed under ingredients. Seriously, you wouldn't think there could be that much else in "canned tomatoes", but take a look sometime. Anyways, this brand is at least $3 for a 28oz can.

But they do taste really good, which brings me to my second reason - taste. You know the difference between store bought tomatoes and homegrown tomatoes? I'm hoping the difference between store bought canned tomatoes and home canned tomatoes approaches that somewhat.

In order to tackle the first goal (cost), I needed cheap tomatoes. Local, organic tomatoes are tough to find for under $2/lb, so enter my local farm, which spurred this whole endeavor. We subscribe to a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture), which supplies us with more veggies, and a bit of fruit, than we can usually consume from March to November. It's all locally and organically grown, for a little under $20 a week. Considering how much I spend at the farmer's market when I allow myself a trip, it's a great bargain.

This time of year they're a little overwhelmed with the tomato harvest, so they invite people out to the farm to pick their own at a reduced price ($0.50/lb). I recruited my mom, with the promise of a cupboard of tomatoes and an underestimate of the work involved, and we drove the half hour or so out to the middle of nowhere to pick tomatoes. By the way, I calculated the cost of gas and it was still far less expensive than the cheapest locally grown tomatoes I could find anywhere.

This was the first time I'd been out to the farm, and it was really fascinating just to be there. I can safely say it's probably the first time in my 26 years I've ever encountered the place my food starts out. I had a vague idea of the quantity of produce they... well, produce, but I was taken aback by the amount of land that translates to. The family were really nice, but down-to-earth no-nonsense type people. I got the feeling if I asked a question to the farmer about his crop, I might be there until next Tuesday still taking in the answer.

Picking your own produce is a rather quaint idea, but it doesn't feel particularly quaint while you're doing it. Don't get me wrong, I could use the free exercise, but when they say farm workers do backbreaking work, they're not kidding. Lots of up and down, lots of lugging crates of produce around, lots of sun, and no shade. We went on one of those hot Californian September days that take you by surprise, and we were way too far inland for the marine layer to cool us off.

After a couple hours, we had about 45 lbs of tomatoes (1/3 heirloom, 2/3 San Marzano), and we picked up some peppers and basil they had for sale also. We headed home, exhausted and dirty, for the real work to begin...