August 8, 2026 - Who Cans Cherry Tomatoes?

 The answer to that question is probably "No one in their right mind!"

These are the tomatoes we call "Cooper tomatoes" because he loves them. He knows exactly where they are in the garden and he will run straight to them. I've read that the green parts (stems, leaves) are not good for dogs so I don't like him picking his own but he is one determined little dog - all the time but especially when tomatoes are involved.

Last year I planted one plant. This year they sprouted up everywhere in the yard. Everything I've planted is inside the fence but these tomatoes came up outside the fence, in parts of the yard where I've never planted tomatoes and my guess is that there are at least 100 of these plants growing. I haven't even watered most of them because I just don't need that many and the ones that aren't getting water are producing at the same rate as the ones that have been watered. The seeds I originally planted are called Sweet 100 and they are so sweet.

Tuesday I decided to run some through the food mill and see what I ended up with. I used about the same amount of tomatoes that are shown above and I ended up with 2 pints of the best tomato juice!

I used my small canner because I was water bathing them and the canner needed at least three jars so I added a jar of water just to take up space.

There was a little juice left over and I handed it to Vince to try. Oh . . he loved it and decided we need to get out there and pick a bunch of those tomatoes and make more juice.

Here's where it pays off to have him help with the process. I have a hand crank food mill and it was hard for my hands to crank it so I asked Vince to help.

Today he decided we needed an electric food mill. I did not say no to that idea.

This should arrive Monday so probably Monday or Tuesday we will put on our boots and long sleeve shirts (tomato plants make me break out) and go into the tomato jungle and harvest a bunch of those tomatoes and make more tomato juice.

If I had told Vince I wanted an electric tomato strainer, he would have looked at me like I was crazy but since he had to crank some of those tomatoes through the old food mill, he was very happy to find something that was easier, which means I will probably do the entire process without his help, which is fine with me. I don't mind if he helps but the kitchen isn't where he likes to be so . . I don't mind.