One thing you can do to avoid processing one or two jars is to make another recipe that uses the same processing time (usually would be another type of pickle). You can combine a few jars of each batch to get a full load, or at least closer. Also, remember, you don't have to use a huge water bath canner. Use any pot that is tall enough to cover the jars with 1-2 inches of water. Just be sure you've got a rack or towel in the bottom to avoid direct contact between jars and pan. You can process smaller amounts this way, but still uses the fuel. Freezing is a great way to go for cooking uses though as Dave said. I do many bell peppers and roasted mild chilies that way. Deanna

Thanks for the heads up on Vorlon tomato, google shows it to be greatly gaining in popularity; Lord willing I will grow it next year. How would you compare it to Cherokee Purple? I presume where you're at in CO the climate is very low humidity, excellent conditions for drying food, right? It's typically very high humidity here during tomato season, takes longer to dry tomatoes especially when the dehydrator is outside. I'll try your tip about selecting 'just turning ripe' tomatoes for drying, my observations support that also. Don't know how much you can tell from the OP photo of the Brandy Boys in the tray, but all those chunks of tomato have the skin on the backside. I was trying to replicate the success I had with drying the cherry tomatoes on their skins, and for the most part it was successful, just some turned dark/black, but I honestly couldn't even taste the black, it just didn't look good.

Mia, I have canned with a BWB pot on my glass cook top ever since we bought that stove, which was either 3 or 4 years ago. I haven't had any problem. Plenty of people do can on their glass cooktop. You can read a million back threads at the Harvest Forum where this topic has been discussed. I'd like to suggest you check your Owner's Manual for your cooktop. Mine clearly states that canning on the stove can void the warranty. I read that and thought long and hard about canning on the stove, but decided to do it anyway. I am not sure I'd do it with a heavier pressure canner, but I know lots of people who do. If your glass cooktop is still under warranty, and your owner's manual says that using a canner on it will void the warranty, there are other options. I imagine they are discussed in the document I'm going to link. Most BWB canners have bottoms with indentations so that they are not perfectly flat. This could be a problem if it interferes with the pan heating evenly and maintaining even heat for the duration of the timed canning period. I didn't find it to be a problem with my stove, but I have recently upgraded from my old BWB graniteware canner to the Ball Elite 21-quart stainless steel BWB canner and one reason why was because it has a flat bottom. I just always listened to the water boiling when jars were in the BWB canner because one potential with glass top stoves is that they self-regular their temperatue so the heat cycles on and off at times. That would be a problem if the canner water cooled down and stopped boiling, but I never had that happen when I was BWB canning. No, you cannot store the salsa for several days in the fridge because while it is stored, bacteria could be forming in it. Then, you'd have to boil it again, which is essentially cooking it twice, and that can make canned foods taste overcooked. If you want, you can make your salsa and freeze it, and you do not have to can it in the jars before your freeze it. Sometimes I freeze stuff in freezer jars (made by Ball, sold on the canning aisle, and are plastic), or in freezer boxes (also often sold on canning aisle, though usually sold out right now) made by Arrow (I have some with red lids and some with blue lids) or in freezer bags. The plastic freezer boxes made by Arrow have been sold out at our local Wal-Mart for a couple of months, but I found them on the canning aisle at our local Tractor Supply Store on Monday. The Ball Freezer jars, made of plastic, are on the canning aisle most of the time, but sometimes sell out on weekends, though they usually are back on the store shelves within a couple of days. Right now I have all 3 of those kinds of containers in my freezer with various kinds of produce in them. You can freeze in jars, then when you take the glass jar out, let the contents thaw, and keep it in the refrigerator, which is the same thing you'd do with salsa you'd canned instead of freezing. Or, you can do all your prep work with chopping the tomatoes and other fresh ingredients, etc., and freeze them in freezer boxes or freezer bags and then just take them out, thaw them, and mix them together with the other canned ingredients and spices when you're ready to make the salsa. OR, put your tomatoes in freezer bags and freeze them until you're ready to make salsa. Then, thaw them and use them when you're ready to make salsa. Right now I have 36 lbs. of tomatoes in my freezer waiting to be used for canning something. I put them in there one day earlier this week when I had too many tomatoes and too little available time to deal with them. I'm going to link some info on canning with glass top stoves or glass cooktops. When I went and found it, I noticed the folks who have that website have updated it for 2012, and also that there's an ad there for a canner just like mine. I put off buying the Ball Elite canner for so long, even though I wanted one, because it is so pricey. However, I've been using it about a month and I love, love, love it. I wish I'd bought it the first year it came out. Hindsight is 20-20. Now, I need to head back to the kitchen, where I'm making pizza sauce, tomato sauce and pickles. I'll check back here later to see if you have other questions. Hope this helps, Dawn Here is a link that might be useful: Glasstop Stoves & Canning

Saving whole tomato as frozen, requires TOO MUCH storage volume. But if you convert it into sauce you will reduce its volume by more than half. There is no advantage in freezing tomato as whole or as smashed. When you lightly smash it, you get the juice out quickly. Then freeze the remainder in zip bag. But as somebody mentioned, freezing them whole is easiest and the quickest way to deal with it. Call it comfort factor.