• First, rinse the tomatoes off in a vinegar bath. I clean out the sink, then fill it half way up with water, and add in 1/2 cup of white vinegar. Gently swish tomatoes around in water and rinse off. I keep these tomatoes in this cleaning solution until right before skinning them.
• To remove tomato skins, start a large pot of water on the stovetop on high. While pot is heating, fill up a bowl with cold water and ice. Place two other bowls next to ice bath. One will be for the skins, the other will be where you placed the skinned and quartered tomatoes.
• Once water is boiling, remove and rinse tomato from vinegar water, cut a small X in the bottom, and drop into boiling water. Do this to about five at a time.
• Watch tomatoes and once they crack or the skin begins to roll around the X, remove and place in ice bath. When all five tomatoes are in the ice bath pick one up at a time, remove skins completely, discard skins into one of the other bowls, and cut into quarters and place skinned tomatoes into the remaining clean bowl.
• Continue until all tomatoes are skinned.
• Make sure your jars are clean. I run my quart jars through the sterilize mode on my dishwasher. I then set them in the water bath canner on the stove filled with water on low.
• You can use pint or quart jars for canning tomatoes. If you have a family of more than two though, I suggest using quart jars. I put one whole jar in each soup or stew I make.

To pack jars:

• Add 2 Tablespoons lemon juice to bottom of jar. (1 Tablespoon if using a pint jar.) Pack tomatoes into hot jars, leaving 1/2 inch headspace. Add 1 teaspoon canning salt to top of tomatoes, 1/2 if using pint jars. Remove air bubbles by taking a clean long end of a spoon and poking it down through the tomatoes several times. Clean jar lid, making sure no tomatoes or juice are on the seal area. Place lids on jars and screw closed.
• Process quart jars for 45 minutes, pints for 40 minutes, in a boiling water canner.
• Once time is over, remove lid, let water settle and boiling stop. Remove cans and set on a dishcloth close together, placing another dish cloth over cans. Do not touch for 12 hours.
• Once 12 hours are over, remove cloth and check the seals. Press down in middle of lid and if it pops back up, jar did not seal. Place jar in fridge and use within a week. For all jars that sealed, write date on top of lids, and place in storage pantry. Use within 18 months