Barbara Kingsolver is an expert on eating local, really local. Anyone who joined us during the first Re-nest Book Club (reading Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle) knows what we're talking about. She's also an expert on canning tomatoes, a topic we became interested in this summer after witnessing our mother's bumper tomato crop.
In a San Francisco Chronicle interview, Kingsolver talks about the benefits and the joys of canning homegrown tomatoes. Nutrients, value, tradition, fun ... Kingsolver makes a convincing argument.
Our favorite quote from the interview:
Barbara Kingsolver on commercially canned tomatoes: "Tomatoes bred for industrial production are lower in lycopenes and every other nutrient except fiber, which has been increased by more than 1,000 percent - so they can be dropkicked during shipping, I suppose"
Now, if only the Chronicle had included Kingsolver's favorite canning recipe, then we'd have been truly thrilled.
Do you can your own tomatoes?
image via SFGate.com; Katy Raddatz
© 2009 Apartment Therapy
I don't know how she cans tomatoes, but the Kingsolver family's favorite tomato sauce recipe is online here:
http://www.animalvegetablemiracle.com/Tomato%20Sauce.pdf
view AmyE's profile
I canned tomato sauce last week and although I mostly followed the recipe in my Ball Canning book (because it allows for fresh herbs) I did put in some cinnamon according to Kingsolvers' recipe. The excess that I served with dinner was delicious.
view Green Me's profile
I overcame my fear of canning precisely when my husband's Italian grandmother told me she cans tomatoes by getting them hot, putting them in a jar, and wrapping the jar in a blanket overnight. I would never do it this way, but it made me feel less likely to kill myself with botulism, especially given that she's been doing it this way for 60 years and is still alive and kicking.
view Kristina's profile