Tomatoes bubble in a large pot on the stove.
They will be done in another 20 minutes and I will can them.
Funny we say "can" when we actually use glass jars. I will be "glassing" my tomatoes soon. Or I will be "jarring" my tomatoes? Which given the complexity of the English language could mean, I am peering at my tomatoes with my telescope, or disturbing my tomatoes with loud rock music, respectively.
And if one was going to be even more of a literalist, "to can" something might also mean to throw it away... (in the garbage can).
So in the interest of clarity: I will "preserve" my tomatoes soon.
Or as the country folk used to say: "I hope to put up a few quarts of tomatoes today."
Which is kind of silly, because usually after they had been "put up" they were "put down" in the cellar.
It's a wonder we can communicate at all in English.
Though I have heard that the Icelandic tongue is considered one of the most complicated of languages. After a short internet search, it seems that honor is shared with Hungarian, Lithuanian and Basque. I wonder what phrase all these people use for canning tomatoes?
In any case, (or language), I have work to do, and it involves red stuff in a pot that needs to be put in glass jars and heated up enough to cause a vacuum to form along the rubber seal on the lip of the jar, thereby enabling it to be stored at room temperature for a few years without spoiling, so's we can add it to vegetable soup in the dead of winter and warm up our innards.
Skol!
Ya Vol!
Cain!
Yep!
Ja!
Oui!
WHATEVER!