Tomatoes: Gettin' saucy!

I picked a peck of pickled p....wait, I picked a ton of tomatoes, well, not a ton, but about 20 pounds.   Not bad for the first picking.  I have about 4 times as many green ones still out on the vine.  With this batch, I wanted to try something easy:  sauce.

First I washed them all.

Then cut into quarters.

Don't worry, I separated them into 2 pans, even though I knew they would cook down a lot.

 After cooking on low for about an hour, I ran them through my food mill to remove the skins and seeds.  I saved the skins and seeds for my next project.  The sauce was really thin and filled one pot.

I let it cook all day long.  The smell was tantalizing, it made me hungry for soup or stew, perfect on this first chilly day this fall.  I cooked it down to about half.

I used the Ball Canning guide, adding 1 Tablespoon bottled lemon juice per pint, then placing them in a boiling water bath canner for 40 minutes (I had to add extra time due to our elevation).

I only got 6 pints out of this batch, I could have cooked it down farther, but I was tired of stirring it periodically all day to prevent it from burning, and frankly, I didn't want to stay up late watching the canner.  I love the color!