Canning marathon!

Phew! 7:30 and I'm still boiling up my first batch of home made tomato sauce! Mind you I started about 2:30, so this has taken just a tad bit longer than I first imagined. I forgot that you need to boil down the thin watery tomatoes into a thicker sauce which takes ages. :P But now we are on the homeward stretch and we have 6 x 750ml jars of tomato sauce to show for it.
I still need a few canning supplies: a funnel, jar grabbers and lid grabbers, things that look small and unimportant until you try and do it without them, and then you see just how important they really are. It's not from a lack of looking mind you, two kitchen specialists and a kmart later no luck! Even tried to go online from a well known Aussie canning internet specialist and they were sold out! Gah.
But here is a visual diary of the canning process... let me know what you think!

Home grown tomatoes being chopped prior to boiling

One very full stock pot on the left.

Stirring tomatoes at a nice rolling boil

Chef hard at work

Putting the tomatoes through a food mill to remove skins and seeds

Milled tomatoes starting to slowly thicken

Canned jars of sauce, back in the boiling water bath

Voila! The finished product. We'll update once we've opened one!