Canning and Preserving: Diced Tomatoes

**This post has been entered in Pennywise Platter at The Nourishing Gourmet!**

I love to cook with diced tomatoes, but you can’t buy them in glass jars anywhere.  It is possible to buy organic canned, but cans are all lined with BPA, an endocrine disruptor.  Ideally acidic foods shouldn’t be in metal cans lined with BPA because it leaches into the food.  Since there are no diced tomatoes commercially available in glass, what are we supposed to do?

Can our own, of course!

This year I’ve done about 30 pints of diced tomatoes so I’ll have plenty to cook with.  We really like tomato products though — we’ve done over 5 bushels and would do a few more if we could!

Anyway, you certainly don’t have to do that many.  Canning diced tomatoes in pints is roughly the same as the 15-oz. cans you buy in the store and is a good meal-sized portion for me.  Of course, if you prefer, you can do smaller or larger containers, too.

You will need:

• Tomatoes
• Lemons
• Knife
• Cutting board
• Water
• Jars, lids, rings
• Canning pot or large stock pot

Here we go!

If desired, peel your tomatoes.  I didn’t bother because it’s faster.  Then, dice them up:

(Yes, Ben is doing this!  He did all the diced tomatoes, apples, peppers, and some peaches and pears)

Put your diced tomatoes in jars:

Squeeze your lemon juice:

Send your silly daughter to the trash (or compost) with the lemon rinds:

Take more pictures of her while she makes silly faces:

Add lemon juice to your jars, about 1/2 tsp.each (for pints).  Then, it’s time to add water to fill them  Use filtered water.

Now your jars are full:

Cap the jars and process them in a water bath for 20 minutes (25 for quarts).  Now they are done!

Easy, right?

Do you use diced tomatoes in recipes?  Have you ever canned them before?