View Full Version : Too Many Tomatoes???
Ok, maybe not too many, but...enough! In the last three days I've harvested 11 reusable shopping bags FULL of ripe tomatoes. In the last three nights we've canned them, canned marinara sauce, canned our own version of spicy V-8 and we have a huge stock pot full of basic tomato sauce that is cooked, but still needs to be canned. We've also given away tons. Tomatoes are the new zucchini at our house. As we were cleaning the kitchen at about 11:15 last night DW informed me that if I brought another tomato into the house today I could sleep in the garden tonight. The plants show no sign of letting up so I'll just slip them quietly into the freezer until this weekend. Happy wife's a happy life.
Anyone else have tomatoes that are making up for a slow start?
We've been eating tomatoes morning, noon and night! Some are ours, others are from our CSA--our CSA grower tells us that the conditions were prime this year for tomatoes, and they have been beautiful!!! Big and juicy--every night we have a big slice with basil--heaven! But then again, I'm a Jersey tomato snob--there's nothing like Jersey tomatoes and corn. I'm always sad to see the fall come when I have to eat something other than corn and tomatoes for dinner!
iris lilies
8-20-13, 9:40am
...Anyone else have tomatoes that are making up for a slow start?
not really. We have a fair number and DH canned 5 quarts last weekend, but we aren't rolling in them. 11 bags is a not, Gregg! yay for you!
No such thing as too many tomatoes!!
No such thing as too many tomatoes!!
I used to think that. !Splat!
So far I'm keeping up, but mine were slow to start.
I really like this tomato casserole I make, plus I like a green tomato casserole I make too.
I still have frozen tomatoes from last year.
Sounds like you need to dial it back a bit next year, eh?
Last weekend I had two very large green tomatoes fall onto the ground. Green as can be. Now I wonder if I can ripen them or if I should just do something with them green. They're big as softballs.
I've learned to cut back. But I'm always afraid some of them will die..........and they never do. haha
I used to have close to 30 tomato plants. Now I'm down to 19. I've also gone to growing pretty much the same ones every year.......Rutgers, Romas, a couple different cherries, 3-4 San Marzano and maybe one other heirloom. Rutgers are heirloom, but are much hardier than the other heirlooms I've tried.
In the summer, we love cutting up tomatoes and cucumbers and sweet onions, then mixing them with olive oil and vinegar and herbs. Yum!
I picked alot of mine before they were really, really ripe so far this year, because of the dang mice eating them. Seems like they're never as good if I ripen them in the house.......but it was better than nothing. The mice have seemed to slow down their eating, so I'm leaving more to ripen on the vines.
Years ago.......when I had energy........I used a Victorio Strainer, which would spit out the skins on one side and then the tomato juice would flow out the other. It was a really handy gadget for getting tomato juice easily.
Gregg.......how do you season your V-8 juice?
shadowmoss
8-20-13, 2:11pm
I have one of those Victorio Srainers I'm going to get rid of. If any of you want it, make me an offer and when I'm back in MO next month I'll send it to you. I just don't see me having a garden anytime soon.
I am so jealous. Last time I saw a tomato in the garden was probably early June and then it got so hot we lost them all. I'm moving to other climes...
I have a friend with excess garden produce. She brings it to my mother in law's senior apartment and it all is gone in about 15 minutes. She doesn't promise but just brings it over on a Tuesday when she has something. Otherwise she would throw it on the compost pile.
Sounds like you need to dial it back a bit next year, eh?
We have a total of 21 plants, which should be about right for us. The problem this year was a cool, damp spring so the early varieties were late, but a nice summer means the later varieties were a little early. End result, everything at once. The best laid plans...
I know what you mean Gregg. I over-planted my pole beans, thinking I'd lose some, but they all sprouted and then I didn't thin them, and they competed with themselves and didn't do so well..............Not to mention a mouse who lives right under them and is cutting off the stems at the bottom.
We had one summer when it got warm really early and then we had a late Fall. The tomatoes actually put out 2 crops. I had them coming out my ears........ But it makes me feel really rich, to want a fresh vegetable and I just go out and pick one!
Have you all ever roasted tomato slices? They are soooo yummy. Cover a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Then slice the tomatoes about 1/2" thick, brush them with olive oil, salt and pepper, a little sugar, and any herbs you like. I like crushed rosemary and thyme. Roast them in a 250 F. oven for 2 hours. You can turn the oven off and leave them in over night. I've always just used them immediately........in pasta dishes, on pizza, on pieces of french bread. Oooooooo........so good!
I had 7 tomato plants this year and for awhile I 'almost' had too many tomatoes. I freeze chopped tomatoes in 2 cup containers and roast sliced tomatoes like of like CathyA does. Then I puree the roasted tomatoes and freeze in one cup containers. I use to can tomatoes but like the taste of frozen better. They taste fresher to me.
Over the winter I will make chili, tomato soup and a lot of vegetable tomato dishes. Next year I'll have 7 or 8 tomato plants again. I think I'll drop back to only 1 cherry tomato....I got tired of picking them this summer.
I don't know what it is, but for several years now, all my cherry tomatoes are very straggly. No matter what the variety is. I used to have really bushy cherry tomatoes, but not any more. DH and I are going to really try to improve the soil this Fall. I wonder if its just where I buy the plants, and the variety they sell?
Birdie, are your cherry toms really bushy?
I use the Rutgers mostly for fresh eating, and the Romas for freezing. Man, those Romas are so easy to deal with. I plop them in boiling water for a minute, then in ice water, and their skins just slip off. So much easier that the regular tomatoes. And they are real meaty, and not all juice.
I used to bring everything to a boil, then let it all cool off, then freeze it, until I heard on a preservation forum that you don't need to heat them back up. That made things really easy!
I only have 4 plants and as usual am just slightly disappointed. I've had a steady supply for 3 weeks or so, but no surplus to share or preserve. I had most everything out early in walls-o-water when we had a 20 degree night and snow, which I think has slowed the production of fruit. A couple are heirloom black krims which are my favorite, but they never seem to really produce. I have a really nice large sized dehydrator that I inherited, but have not gotten enough tomatoes to dry.
My cherry tomato plants are bushy. I add compost every year or at a minimum every 2 years. Because compost releases only a little nitrogen, I also fertilize every season before planting, so my garden grows really well. I also have raised beds in full sun. Tomatoes like 6 - 10 hours of sunlight every day.
I finally got a good composting system going this year, so I am making a good amount of compost now. In the past, I bought bagged compost. The fertilizer is really the key to a good garden. Vegetables are huge nitrogen suckers, so I add a composted pelleted chicken manure to my beds. The bag tells how many pounds per 100 square feet of planting space so I know I am getting the correct amount. When I used to guess, my plants were more scrawny.
Gregg.......how do you season your V-8 juice?
We lifted the basic recipe right off the Spicy V-8 bottle. Tomatoes run through a food mill to get a nice, slightly pulpy juice. Celery, a small beet, carrots, watercress, spinach, some variety lettuce, a little onion, a touch of garlic, a little green pepper and a couple habaneros all run through the juicer. Mix it all together in the blender with salt and pepper, some parsley, squeeze in a good shot of lemon juice, blend and enjoy. Also makes for a killer bloody Mary base if you're interested.
That sounds delicious Gregg! Do you can it?
Blackdog Lin
8-21-13, 9:45pm
Oh man Greg, I read this thread and was going to comment on tomato yields, then I saw your your V-8 recipe. And thinking, who cares about V-8, man, doesn't that sound like some awesome bloody mary mixture?!!! MUST try.
And I just might, because like you we have tomatoes out the wazoo. Weird year. June and early July, no tomatoes, they're late this year. Plants looked good, just no ripening like they should. Then THE MONSOON. We got 20"+ in 3 weeks, which is absolutely unheard of in our part of the country - we are used to droughty conditions and having to water during July and August. The tomatoes ripened and split and molded. And then they just started doing well. The rains quit 2 weeks ago and the tomatoes just went crazy. And we now have 30 pints of picante sauce, and 13 qts. of tomatoes canned, and the kitchen island is right now temporarily cleared (mostly - only 20 or so tomatoes laying about waiting for me to give them away or freeze them or SOMETHING!); but I need to pick again Friday morning and I guess we'll need to get to canning again.
I will not complain about a good tomato year.....but this one has been one for the books! Vegetable gardening: you just never know.
This has been a good year for tomatoes here. I found a boffo ketchup recipe:
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2013/07/11/200865030/Taste-Of-Grandmas-Kitchen-We-Hack-An-Old-Ketchup-Recipe
Tussiemussies
8-22-13, 12:08am
I didn't get to have a garden this year but my last garden I had a variety of tomato plants including lots of Roma for making spaghetti sauce and Rutgers (CathyA) and beefsteak for sandwiches. I used the Victorio for separating the juice, skins etc. but always found that after a little bit of work it would clog up. I would have to unclog it quite frequently and it was exhausting after awhile to get it to work correctly. What do the rest of you use for preparing your tomatoes for canning? Chris
Anything special with those tomatoes and corn?
That sounds delicious Gregg! Do you can it?
Yes we do Cathy (if I don't just drink it all first). Pressure canning because of all the non-acidic flavorings, almost always in quarts. It separates in the jars so looks a little funky, but one good shake and its ready to go.
Oh man Greg, I read this thread and was going to comment on tomato yields, then I saw your your V-8 recipe. And thinking, who cares about V-8, man, doesn't that sound like some awesome bloody mary mixture?!!! MUST try.
Well Lin, I always have lots of hot peppers bc we love them, but this year I have a couple of huge horseradish plants. Just sayin...
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