A Week for Firsts

I have seen Momma and Granny can tomatoes multiple times in my life. So I thought, why not. I LOVE to eat them, therefore I will give it a try. Isn't it a rite of passage for a wife anyway? Well, now I have to.

I also want to mention that these tomatoes are coming from our very own garden. My mother helped me decide how many of each veggie I should buy. I guess I forgot that though she only had two children and a husband to cook for, she would always cook enough for forty. This attribute is also reflected in her massive gardens. My husband and I now have 16 tomato plants, 16 pepper plants, 50 strawberries, 13 raspberries, 2 squash, and 2 blueberries. Needless to say, we have more tomatoes then we know what to do with.

Back to the canning. We had a few of the young people from our church over to our house to play games while I canned. Everything went surprisingly well. It was much messier than I remembered but very easy. I cant help but just look at those jars and feel so accomplished and grown up. I've done it!  I am now a Susie Homemaker.

I even did a photo shoot with them for my first photography lesson.

(I apologize for the PJ's. It was burning up in the house)

Well today it all came crashing down. I heard the first one POP. They are unsealing! Now I am rehearsing in my head everything that I might have done wrong. Is it the altitude? Did I screw the lids on too tight? Was the water not high enough in the water bath? Were my tomatoes bad? I have done lots of research and I think it has to do with our hard water. It left a thin powder on the wax lids when I was heating them. After everything I've read and since I just put them up last night. I reprocessed them today. We will just have to wait and see what happens.