Photo from Adventures with Dan

This weekend was another 55 lbs of tomatoes into jars. I was expecting to can 40lbs, but I got an extra “surprise” 15 lbs in my CSA box this week. I canned and dried tomatoes all weekend. Cost was $50, plus the extra 15 lbs built-into our weekly CSA cost. I ended up with 21 quarts of tomatoes. I’ll love it come February, when my Superbowl Chili is made with home-canned tomatoes… Until then, I’m getting a bit sick of ’em.

Next weekend is salsa – a less-involved process, since I don’t have to skin or seed the tomatoes.

Do you know about La Tomatina? In the center of Buñol, a town in Spain, the town erects a gigantic pole, ties a ham to the top, and covers the pole with lard. This is the Phallic Imagery part of the festival. People congregate and form a human tower in order for one person to get to the top of the slippery pole and cut down the ham. Once the ham is down, the Yonic (opposite of Phallic) Imagery portion of the celebration begins. Huge truckloads of tomatoes are emptied into the streets and people throw tomatoes at each other. Tomatina means tomato-throw. Chaos and hooliganism follows.

At about this time in the canning season, I feel like I’m in the streets of Buñol, and being pelted with tomatoes from all sides.