When I say I am having the best tomato crop ever I am not kidding! I have canned them, given them away by the bags full and still can`t keep up. In spite of the heat and no rain to speak of. I still have loaded vines and some plants are just starting to ripen. These are in various stages of ripening and I will have to cull a few that have bad spots. This is about 2 1/2 days of picking. ( photo / image / picture from mart's Garden ) ( photo / image / picture from mart's Garden )
Hi Mart - good to see you here again. That's some amount of tomatoes you have there. If your plants keep giving you so many it won't be long before your friends and family will be suffering from tomato overload!!
I have tomatoes like that, too. I was only gone two days and today we picked two big baskets of tomatoes. I'll have to take a picture. I told dr this morning there must be about 20 to pick but I think we picked closer to 50 or 60. He made me come rest before I got to count them. dooley
LOL Thank heavens I have many people that have not had as good a crop as I have had. I have made regular canned tomatoes, chili sauce, stewed tomatoes, ketchup, picante sauce,,,any one have other recipes? I have enough this year I can experiment.
I haven't made this in years cause I thought I had lost the recipe. I can't add the onions but it was good without them. I was dipping chunks of bread into it while it was cooling, almost didn't leave enough for anyone else. Tomato Sauce for whatever you need it to be for. 1/2 cup Olive Oil 2 med onions chopped 2 cloves garlic minced 1 teaspoon chopped fresh Basil (I would add more) 2 teaspoons Sea Salt 4 1/2 cups chopped, peeled tomatoes 4 sprigs Parsley 1 tablespoon sugar Heat oil in large pot, add Basil, salt, onion and garlic and saute 5 minutes or until tender. Add tomatoes, parsley and sugar Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer 2 hours or until thick.
Wow! congratulations on the bumper crop. at least you will not be going hungry any time soon. speaking of the hungry, if you have too many to give away, see if you have a local food bank who can use them (and pick them up).
We have many elderly in our community and some families that haven`t done as well with their crops. We share what each has and no one does without. Our food bank would not pick up this far from town unless you had a truckload. And I think they have more than they can handle now. A semi-truck lost its load a few days ago and it was loaded with produce. They are storing it at the schools and in their coolers.
Oh my! A semi load is a lot of produce, no matter what it is. Glad to hear that you have many who, will and can, use it. Up here it seems more and more people have no clue what to do with produce unless is comes out from the restaurant kitchen already on the plate. :-? Rarely do I have anybody who wants canning quantities of produce. Just enough for the next meal is all.
Thanks everyone,, its about time for a good crop. Nothing much else to bragg about this year with the drought. Corn was pretty good and potatoes are great. Squash and zuchinni didn`t do well at all, no one elses did either. Peas and beans are so-so. But pintos made a lot and even if they dry on the vine, they are good. I really prefer dry pintos. Blue lakes did well but watermelons and cantaloupes need rain,,,bad.
I figure anyone gone for a time is either picking, preserving, planting, Or, maybe all three. What a beautiful crop of tomatoes! For some reason, mine have been a little late producing this year. But, the Punta Banda cherry tomatoes are starting to come in. Fortunately they are a large cherry tomato. We've been slicing them for our sandwiches because we are desperate. Hubby and I think we look really cute wearing bibs. Messy little tomatoes they are! Congratulations. My plants are loaded with green tomatoes but I won't have near as many tomatoes as you do.
