Easy Homemade Tomato Juice

This summer flew by so quickly! We have been so busy this summer that we have barely had time to take a breath.  We had a child graduate this year, then getting everyone ready for the county fair, birthday parties, the state fair and back to school! Oh yeah, and gymnastics all summer!  With one starting college, one starting junior high and a 5th grader life is BUSY!

The last couple weeks I have been busy canning tomato juice.  I thought I would share my recipe for it the way grandma did it.

I start by washing all the tomatoes (I always plant beefsteak because they are huge and I get lots of juice out of each one), then I cut off the tops.  Next I boil them in a large metal washtub until they are soft.

Next I smash them until all the juice is gone in my grandmother's metal juice collander.  This is fast and works great for getting all the juice out.  And the kids think it's fun!

I dump the bowl of juice in a pan to boil.  I usually add a little pepper and sometimes garlic and oregano.  I wash the jars in hot soapy water and sit them on a towel (the next step can get messy).  I put 1 tsp salt in each jar.  I use a plastic measuring cup to fill each jar with tomato juice until there is 1/4" space left at the top.  Immediately I put the flats and rings on the jars.  The jars get hot fast so I usually have to have an oven mitt on to tighten the rings.

I put all the jars of juice in a hot water packing enormous pan filled with hot water.  It works best to fill it part way, put the jars in and finish filling until jars are just covered.  This goes on the stove on med-high and boils for at least 10 minutes.  Then I take the jars out and set them on a towel to cool.  You can hear each jar lid pop as they seal.  When they are cool I check each one by pushing on the top.  If they don't push down they are sealed.  Any unsealed ones go back in the hot water packer or in the fridge to fix soon.

This is the way my grandma canned tomato juice when I was a kid and I always loved helping her!  Now my children enjoy doing it and hopefully they will pass it on to their children.  Life gets so busy these days that I love it when I can take a little time to pass on a tradition from older generations.

Have a great day and take time to enjoy the little things!

Fall Vet Visit to Preg Check Cows and Vaccinate

So, the vet came yesterday afternoon and first vaccinated and wormed the calves.  They were fairly easy to get into the chute since they had no idea what it was!  It always looks very medeival but doesn't hurt them.  Three calves down, two momma cows to go.

After the slightly unpleasant task of loading the first into the chute, which wasn't as hard as usual for any of them, the vet whips out this device, a probe hooked to glasses with a cord.  I asked what it was and he said "the ultrasound".  I had thought he was just going to palpate for the sac in the uterus.  Wrong!  I was so excited that he would actually see something.  After a couple of minutes he told us she was pregnant!!!  I made a "woo hoo" out loud and he chuckled at me.  He took off the video glasses and let me put them on.  Wow!  I could see it.  The next momma went exactly the same although he couldn't see the baby only the embryonic vessicle, which he said means she is pregnant!

So, for our first time trying artificial insemination we had 2 out of 3 take the first time.  That's not so bad.  This is also our first time using a hereford bull named Traditions from www.SelectSires.com -usually it's a angus bull from a local farmer. The 3rd heifer we probably won't have preg-checked.  If she is then she will calve about July 9, 2013 and if she isn't we will re-breed her at a later date.  I still haven't decided if we will AI next year or rent a bull.  There are pros and cons to each. 

A big thanks to such a wonderful vet that not only understands my excitement, but answers all my questions and offers tons of info and explanation to aid my learning.

Our little ones are about an inch long right now and hopefully they stay put!  We haven't ever had trouble maintaining a pregnancy, but he said it does happen.  At least we are out of the woods for super hot temps now.