Step 1

Prepare  7-8 pint jars or 4 quarts, lids, and rings. Sterilize the jars and keep them in the hot water till its time for processing. Make sure to fill your water bath canner and get the water to a simmer.

Step 2

Combine tomatoes, celery, onion, and green pepper in a large pot and simmer 10 minutes. ( Do not add more celery,onion, and green pepper than called for in this recipe it will make the pH less acidic and not safe for the water bath canning process).

Step 3

On a dishtowel place your hot jars and using your funnel, ladle to fill to 1/2" headspace.

Step 4

When packing stewed tomatoes into hot jars , add 1 tsp salt and 2 T lemon juice to each quart jar, 1/2 salt and 1 T lemon juice for each pint jar.

Step 5

Pack tomatoes into jars, leaving 1/2 in headspace.   Remove air bubbles and refill to the proper headspace with the mixture if necessary.

Step 6

Taking a clean papertowel wet it with warm water and wipe the rims of the jars removing any food particles that would interfere with a good seal.

Step 7

Using your magic wand extract the lids from the hot water and place them on the now cleaned rims. Add your rings to the tops of each of the jars and turn to seal just "finger tight".

Step 8

Make sure your rack is on the bottom of the canner and place the jars in the water bath making sure that the water covers each of the jars by 1 to 2 inches. Add hot water to the canner if it doesn't measure up.

Step 9

Cover the pot and turn up the heat under the canner and wait for the water to start boiling. Once the water has come to a boil start your timer for 50 minutes for quarts and 40 minutes for pints.

Step 10

(0-1000ft) When complete turn off the heat and remove the cover and let the jars sit for another few minutes.

Step 11

Remove the jars and place them back on the dishtowel in a place that they will sit overnight to cool. Do not touch or move them till the next morning.

Step 12

Some time in the next hour your jars will be making a "pinging" or "popping" noise. That is the glass cooling and the reaction of the lids being sucked into the jar for proper sealing. Some recipes may take overnight to seal. Check your lids and reprocess any jars that did not seal.

Step 13

Make sure to label your jars after they have cooled with the name of the recipe and the date canned. If you want to use the shrink labels in the picture you can order them Here!