Summer In A Jar-Canning Classes

This sounds like a weird mystery novel, but  the only mystery here is what you are likely to find in commercially canned tomato products…truly scary!  Tomatoes have been referred to as the “workhorse of the kitchen”.  They have been fundamental to the diets of so many yet the commercially available product is a far cry in purity, nutrition and flavor from that salubrious, aromatic, red orb that was the inspiration for so many of our favorite dishes.

Why should you can your own tomatoes?

1. Flavor, Flavor, Flavor.  The taste of ripe, real tomatoes and nothing but tomatoes in your marinara, soups and casseroles will transform your efforts from ho hum to inspired.  But, if you have had a diet consisting of largely industrially processed food, it will take a bit to “lift the veil” from you little buddies.  See next item.
2. We add no salt to our tomatoes so you can control your sodium intake.  The average American consumes 46% in excess of the recommended daily allowance.  Keep in mind, that’s the average which takes into account the foodies and low sodium folks.   You can resist salting your food at the table, but that’s only responsible for about 6% of the average American’s intake.  Processed and prepared foods account for a whopping 77% of that figure.   Salt is used commercially to give the perception of flavor that is missing in the fundamental ingredients.  We habituate to levels of salt and require more and more for our now desensitized taste buds to be satisfied.  If you cut back on your salt levels for a mere two weeks, your tongue– your amazing tongue, will reacquire a heightened sensitivity to flavors and your enjoyment of food will increase.  Your heart will thank you as well.
3. Excess Sugars in commercial tomato products  is a similar issue as the excess sodium.  We have become habituated to more and more sugar in our food.  Not coincidentally the industry has tremendous amounts of government subsidized high fructose corn syrup for which it needs to find a happy home.  It creates a “mouth feel” that we have been told is pleasing.    We crave sweet, and we’re told it’s a vegetable.  What’s not to like about that?  The sugars are listed on the ingredient panel under many names on the same product, adding up to “one heckava lotta” sugar.  Give your tongue a break and find out what the real fruit tastes like.  That spaghetti dinner fares a lot better with the calorie counter looking at tomatoes instead of sugary syrup.
4. Bisphenol A gives us reason all on its own to avoid all products in a commercial can.  This includes lids on jars.  “BPA is an endocrine disruptor, which can mimic the body’s own hormones and may lead to negative health effects.   Early development appears to be the period of greatest sensitivity to its effects. Regulatory bodies have determined safety levels for humans, but those safety levels are currently being questioned or under review as a result of new scientific studies.”  Our more prudent neighbors to the north have outlawed the use of BPA for food contact.  The science is clear, the politics are murky.  The high acid content in tomatoes exacerbates the leaching of BPA into your food.  The levels of toxins  in the non organic produce that survive the processing of canned tomato products is disconcertingly high and their side effects not insignificant.  GMO tomatoes have shown very negative to unexplained effects, yet they remain part of our diet.
5. Home canned tomatoes make great fast food.  It’s convenient to have them on the shelf.  Cut down on your trips to the grocery store.  Whip up a pretty tolerable marinara in 15 minutes.  It makes the pasta night a dinner to look forward to instead of  “I can’t think of anything else so let’s have spaghetti.”  Use a quart as a great soup base.  This has absolutely no relationship to the little red and white cans we grew up with.
6. It brings security and peace of mind to have real, sustaining food  “put up” on your pantry shelves.

It takes some work to sterilize the jars, gauge the ripeness of the fruit, slip the skins, and get all those beauties packed and on the shelves, but the benefits so far exceed the costs.  Work that happens around real food is energizing and when done communally, is a lot of fun.  Make it an annual tradition that will sustain you and give you pleasure all year long.  Sign up for a class at Summer In A Jar and meet some great folks along the way.

We’ve adopted this Japanese word for times when change gets to be a little overwhelming.  It is an encouragement to improve one thing…make it just a little-bit–better.  Kaizen refers to a system of continual improvement.  Fundamental to improving our lives is the easy acknowledgment that we don’t get it right.  It is so easy to become overwhelmed with all the things we “should” do to eat more healthfully and support a sustainable food system in our region.  As happens in most sociopolitical movements, a self righteous attitude arises from some dark corner suggesting that one person or group has found the way, our energies are wasted in proselytizing so the power that could have come from a shared journey is lost.  There is so much to learn; we are reweaving a broken “rope of knowledge”.  It seems that every time we turn around we’re doing something “wrong”.  Kaizen says, “Don’t be overwhelmed by the big picture.  Just identify one thing important to you and work to make it just a little– bit– better.”  A little more flavor, a little less processed, a little more nutrition, a few less empty calories, a little  more celebration at meals with family and friends and a bit less fast food on the run.  Come and join us.  We have lots to learn and would benefit from your experience.

This has been quite an odd year for growing food in this region.  The Spring crops were so early we almost missed them.  We were then ready for summer to fall fast on springs’ heels, but have instead endured nearly the coldest June on record causing the governor to request agricultural disaster assistance for 29 Washington counties.  But, alas, summer is here.  Seeds that patiently waited are raising their arms and singing songs of joy.  Those that weren’t quite so stalwart, but, instead, rotted in the dirt, are being replanted in hopes of a more predictable summer.  The farmers, regrettably,  are going to find their recovery takes a little longer.  This has been a rare opportunity for CSA (community supported agriculture) members to actually be supportive of their farmers when Mother Nature decides to march to the beat of a different drummer!  It’s that kind of support of individual subscribers to receive less food when the fields have less to give that helps level the risk for farmers.  That risk has been traditionally covered by crop insurance, federal relief, crop subsidies, etc. that all add to the cost of our food every day whether we pay for it at the grocery store or through our taxes.  CSAs offer the opportunity to pay the actual cost of our food and do it in the context of local relationships affording us the ability to affirm the work and farming practices that are kind to our land, allowing that land to offer up the best it has to give.  When we relinquish that opportunity for local control of our food,  we place those  personal choices in the purview of large, distant, governmental bureaucracies whose priorities are not our own.  So, we raise a toast to those stalwart CSA supporters who graciously, uncomplainingly, stood by their farmers during this long season of anticipation.