Finally, I had enough tomatoes ready at once to justify pulling out the canner. I can't help but be reminded of this great tomato-canning quote I came across a few months ago:

"The only preserving I'm serious about is canning tomatoes. I can tomatoes like a grandmother staking her hopes on fermenting vegetables and pots of boiling fruit. I can enough to eat tomatoes grown nearby all through the icy northeastern winter, and give a jar to anyone who shows up looking peaked. I do it as though my doing it will stop the summer from ending, and in a way it does."

from Tamar Adler's An Everlasting Meal