Today lane decided to make tomato juice. She hadn’t made juice in many years so it took some research. She found it difficult to find answers to her many questions.

Such as how do I do this? How many tomatoes do I need? She looked in a lot of cookbooks but couldn’t find what she was looking for. She finally found all she needed to know in a book titled; ball blue book of preserving.

Here’s what she found; about twenty pounds of tomatoes that are firm and ripe. Wash quarter or half and remove the core. Add the cut tomatoes to a large sauce pan and bring to a boil. Then reduce to a simmer for about twenty minutes or until the tomatoes are soft. Put the result thru a food mill to remove the seeds and skins. Bring the juice back to a boil and add a TBL of lemon juice for each quart. Reduce heat to simmer and do so for about twenty minutes again. Then ladle into hot jars and seal.

Here’s a variation; you can use fresh herbs to season the juice such as dill, parsley or basil. Add to juice in the last five minutes of cooking and then remove the herbs before canning. A useful way to do that is to put the herbs in a piece of cheesecloth tied into a bag.

Fresh herbs may be canned with the juice but the flavor will become stronger over time. You can season the juice with sugar, spices or hot sauce.