I can't even imagine 400 hundred pounds of tomatoes! I have 12 heirloom plants and that provides me with enough to can, make into sauce, and eat fresh. I can see people lining up to buy your tomatoes though after your story about your nephew.
Thanks 2ofus. I do farmers markets and we need a lot of tomatoes. Unfortunately some do go to waste, but I think that is just a hazard of growing anything.
Once when I was very young and very very silly, I went out and picked my own tomatoes for 10 cents a pound. I got 2 loads of 400 pounds each car load. I had them canned in 3 days. I would never never do that at my age now. I would have to stretch it out over a couple of weeks.
That's right....I took a few hours nap at a time and it was back to canning. I would siphon off all the water after it settled so I didn't have to cook it down for so long and had 3 canners going at a time. When I was done I had a 30 gallon garbage can full of remains. That sauce was good. I shared it with my wonderful mother-in-law.
Fresh pick veggies always taste so good and I am sure yours taste great. Before I was just like your nephew never like tomatoes until I tasted my own home grown tomato straight from the plant. That one tomato changed my view about how tomato taste like. I would love to help you pick, wash and sort tomatoes or any other veggies, that would be fun :-D
Yesterday I picked two rows of the tomatoes (because that was all the time I had, I had a market to get to) and I picked 5 bushels off the two rows. Well, I put two signs out at the end of the road and the driveway for canning tomatoes...now I hope they come for them. I have had people asking all of August for them and they weren't ready. Now it is a Holiday weekend and they are ready, but many people don't want to do "gardening/canning" on this weekend of the year. sigh!
Carolyn--I borrowed a page from your book & asked my teen son to try a grape tomato from the garden. (He hates tomatoes), and of course he loved it!
Oh, good for him. tell him I am proud of his efforts! That is hard to get them to just try something new. I always say "you don't have to like it, you just have to try it". It really gives them a different attitude when you don't try to force them to like it. Next plant Sun Sugar or Sungold, green grape, or orange sunshine.... all of them have been excellent in the garden. Just don't plant one of each unless you are planning to sell, give away or let them go to waste. They will make a lot of fruits. Earlier this week I picked my cherry toms...one sungold, one sunsugar, one lemon drop, one orange sunshine, one green cherry, one other orange something and one sweet olive....UMMM, that is a lot of cherry tomatoes to eat. I had a tray (that holds 6 quart pulp boxes) full of them. Since I can sell them I can justify that many cherry plants. Otherwise I have no idea how I would be able to choose just one or two varieties. I started Indigo Rose and thought I had one in the garden, but I can't find any evidence of it. I am sad. I so wanted to try it.
Carolyn---The key is having them try it directly from the garden. I am sure our son would still not like store bought tomatoes. Two wholly different fruits. This year, I grew a yellow cherry tomato, I don't know what kind. It has been delicious. We don't get any to bring into the house as we eat them directly off the vine! I envy you your large plot to grow vegies. Here, I have little sun so must grow the tomatoes in pots on the back terrace. That is the sunniest spot on our property. But...they sure are good!
I never thought of letting the tomato sauce set and then skim off the clear juice that rises to the top before cooking it down. I still have a lot of tomatoes that will soon be ripe so maybe I'll make more sauce that way. Thanks for the tip!
After my market today I am down to 2 1/2 bushels of tomatoes and I have both of them spoken for. Wahoo for this. God has sure blessed the efforts of our hands. On another "sad" note... I went to my moms to check her garden and all her tomato plants literally keeled over in a day or two and they didn't even notice it. I said "what happened? why didn't you call me?" and she said "what? they look fine". My eyes about popped out of my head as there was no foliage left on the plants. No one even noticed. SMH!
Had to pull our 10 plants. Because of flood. first time in 40 years have not had a garden. Friends bringing us things.
Wow that is lots of tomatoes Carolyn! I have about 10-12 plants and harvested plenty of tomotoes so far but couple of plants are showing signs of blight. Will it be okay if plant garlic there in the Fall?
