I have spent the last week in sunny CA and it is very nice…when we first arrived Nick and I took a drive…to the mountain…so we drove until we could not go any farther…it must be nice to pick an orange or a lemon off your own tree! But I suppose it is no different than growing apples in Wi. I seen CA’s version of a perennially garden and it was just as beautiful as our gardens but VERY different I will post more on the Road 2 CA quilt show later…I am still here for another week of teaching…in Temecula and Yuba City….
Gather up all your necessary equipment as follows: Pressure canner, canning salt, funnel, big ladle, paring knives lids, rims and jars and jar grabber for taking out hot jars from the canner. We made two kinds of tomatoes: Stewed ( with green peppers, onions and celery) and then just whole tomatoes alone in the jars. So if you want to make stewed tomatoes, you will need some green peppers, onions and celery. 
Cut or chop your green peppers, onion and celery then add a little water and simmer them for a bit to soften them a little .
While that is simmering, dump your tomatoes into the sink and rinse them to get any dirt or bugs or junk off of them. 
Then place them into a roasting pan with boiling water to scald them for a few minutes. The skins with break. Do not leave them in too long or they will become too hot and mushy to handle. 
Transfer them into a sink of cold water. You will then remove the center stem and all of the skins, Cut then in quarters and place in a bucket. Do this until you have all of your tomatoes cleaned, scalded and peeled and cut.
Add fixings for stewed tomatoes if desired to pot of cut tomatoes, stir…
Looking real good right now!
add about an 1″ or two of water to the canner.
add a teaspoon of salt to each jar
using a large funnel (get it at fleet farm) scoop your tomatoes in the jar- i used small mouth jars for the stewed tomatoes and wide for the whole. You would use your hands to pack the whole tomatoes.
fill jars almost to the top and leave a half inch of space at the top not counting the lid rim.
carefully wipe of the top of each jar- so the lids will seal properly
Place lid and ring on jar
place 7 jars in canner, place cover on and place the “jimmy” that is what I call the pressure gauge, on 10lbs of pressure
I place the burner on HIGH until the “Jimmy” starts to jiggle. I then turn it down a little. The “Jimmy” does not have to jiggle constantly. Once the canner start to jiggle you need to let it pressurize to 20min. After 20 min. turn off heat and let the canner release its pressure. When it is all out it will allow you to open it. I have to admit Mom taught me how to cheat and hold a long meat fork on the pressure gauge until all of the steam is let out. This helps if you have lots of canning to do and don’t have time to wait, but I am sure this is not recommended anywhere and you cannot hold me accountable if something happens to you when you are doing yours.
When all of the pressure is released from the canner open the lid and lift out your jars with the canning tongs. 
Here are our 84 jars! It took us from 10am to 7pm when the last 7 were processed. We have 31 stewed tomatoes and 53 whole tomatoes. I think we will be set for awhile. We did this last Wednesday. My uncle brought us over 2 bushels and this is how many we ended up with. Now I will remember how to do this and maybe you will now try it yourself!
Hey what do you think of this mum! It is about 4 feet across…It is huge. I just had to show it to you all. I have been getting ready for Fall Market in Houston. Here is a quilt i am hand quilting. I am using the stripes in the fabric as quilting lines. So this goes pretty fast.
sorry about the flash…i is pretty harsh. This is my dancing with the stars entertainment…I have been having a rough time with some personal issues so I am kind of in a funk. This hardly ever happens to me so It is kind of a weird feeling. But we are not solely in control are we? Sorry I have been away for a while… I have lots to blog about so as things are looking better and I will post more often. Below is another quilt using my new fabric line…Mary Klein is quilting this for me, I know i should be quilting it myself but there is lots to do. More to come later and good by…time to piece, I have 24 blocks out of 42 done….I can do 4 in an hour…I do not think I will get done tonight! I will show you that one next time…
