After eating our fill of fresh tomato slices for lunch, as a salad for dinner, and with eggs and vegies for breakfast... there was still quite a pile of these luscious fruits left over. Time to do up a double batch of Mom's Tomato Preserves! (You can tell it's a great recipe by how stained the page is above; that doesn't happen with one that is used only once!)
First, I have to let the chopped tomatoes sit overnight covered with sugar. I used Maui raw sugar which ended up giving a nice golden glow to the finished product.
The next morning, the juices get cooked down, the pulp added back in along with sliced lemons (from another friend) and cinnamon sticks.
Doing this little canning project brought back deeply-ingrained memories of long steam-filled days in the hot Idaho summertime, putting up the bounty of garden, orchard, and forest. It made me re-appreciate the homesteading skills I acquired over the decades, and feel happy that I can still utilize these skills.
Homemade jam - there's not much better than that! Thanks, Mom, for sharing your recipe with me all those many years ago!
