Last tomatoes of the season, reason: Freezin'

While I have been aware of the dangers of BPA in water bottles and baby bottles for some time now, it wasn't until I completed a recent project for school that I became aware that one of the most potent sources of BPA (an endocrine disruptor which has been linked to hormone imbalances, diabetes, heart disease, and, most frighteningly, breast and prostate cancer among those who have been exposed prenatally) is in canned foods. And I'm not talking about hearsay from the blogosphere--I'm talking about studies like "Developmental exposure to estradiol and bisphenol A increases susceptibility to prostate carcinogenesis" (from the Journal Cancer Research), "Induction of mammary gland ductal hyperplasias and carcinoma in situ following fetal bisphenol A exposure" (from Reproductive Toxicology), and "Association of urinary bisphenol A concentration with medical disorders and laboratory abnormalities in adults" (from the Journal of the American Medical Association).

We've been soaking and cooking our own beans for awhile now, and so just about the only thing left we buy in tin cans is tomatoes. They're handy for having on hand for a batch of chili, ham mush med, tomato soup, salsa, pizza sauce--the list goes on and on. However, there's evidently only one food supplier so far--Eden Foods, no less--who has chosen to use BPA-free cans (because evidently they cost a few cents more per can, which Eden Foods claims costs them an extra $300,000 a year just for canning beans), and even they still use BPA-lined cans for their tomatoes.

So clearly some sort of action was in order, since the FDA has declined to regulate or ban the substance and the Plastics Council (let alone manufacturers) certainly aren't going to do it voluntarily. Like the solution to many of our problems, this one came in the form of good old Little-House-on-the-Prairie-style self-sufficiency.

So we came up with the great idea to can our own--something we've wanted to do for some time, but, well, have been a little busy. But last weekend we headed up to a farmer's market we like near Gettysburg and bought a bushel (about 45 lbs) of tomatoes for $24. Not bad!

Of course, we bought these on Saturday and by last night (Monday), it was becoming clear that the clock was ticking. It really only then occurred to us that we don't have the equipment for canning and we don't know how to do it. As Charlotte would say (about why a pig can't spin a web): "You lack a set of spinnerets, and you lack know-how." Luckily, we found an easy alternative: freezing. It doesn't require the scrupulous attention to detail or the equipment and lengthy processing that canning does, and the yield--healthfully grown and stored, convenient tomatoes--are essentially the same, with the additional step of thawing. We stored ours in glass jars (pint and quart, which we'd gotten from this little escapade), diced, since the idea of freezing and thawing in plastic bags didn't seem to be much of an improvement over getting them in plastic-lined tin cans.

Freshly picked and waiting

Matt slipping the skins off tomatoes
after blanching them and then immersing in an ice-water bath

the finished product: about 15 quarts of tomatoes, packed in a variety of jar sizes

Now it's easy for me to say, because I was just minding Eden while Matt boiled, blanched, dunked, peeled, juiced, diced, and canned 45 lbs of tomatoes (AND cleaned up the kitchen and loaded the jars into the chest freezer--let's hear it for him!), but it went so well that we're actually considering doing some more.