I’ve skinned and froze tomatoes, so perhaps that could be part of the trick. All freezing does is burst the cell walls and allow very slow degradation, so skinning and freezing huge bushels in easily-manageable chunks will allow you to work just one batch at a time and get them canned.

If you believe freezers are going to go away, I believe that community women’s circles will come back.

Thanks Jenn! I also tried my first batch of marmalade this weekend (though it was a cranberry marmalade, so a bit of a ease into the real thing). I can’t wait to pop open a jar and see how it turns out. I think failure is part of the process, I’ve certainly had some myself!

I’m on the fence about breaking it up. On one hand, it would make it way less stressful to avoid those long days. On the other, its so much for affordable for me to buy a box of tomatoes in bulk than a few pints at a time from local vendors. I may, however, not try to add on other projects on tomato days… the pickles and fig jam could easily have waited a week!

Oh, I too loooooove me some grapefruit. I only buy it once or twice a year in its peak season, but oh how I savor it. I visited a friend in Phoenix and bought some locally grown and nearly died of happiness.

How lovely! Good peaches are few and far between in my area… that peach lavendar jam sounds fantastic!

I also find that the palate change comes on much more quickly than you might expect. I can taste the preservatives and artificial flavors in canned tomato sauces now–and that makes me even more determined to make my own.