Last year, Mac said he wasn't going to plant so many tomatoes. This was after our tomatoes were like zuchini in that we couldn't give them away. I canned and froze tomatoes and wrapped green ones in newspaper and stored them in the pantry. We were eating tomatoes at Thanksgiving. He grows some really great ones in these things he call "growtainers". They hold two plants each. He has four of them. The tomatoes get to be softball and bigger size. They make great sink sandwiches. He has the makings for four more of these growtainers out there. Okay, so that's eight tomato plants already bearing. But wait! He has nearly an acre planted in melons, beans, Armendian melons (a great cucumber), eggplant and peppers...we have strawberries (still putting on fruit) and YES we have TOMATOES. There are Celebrity, Mortgage Lifter (three different varieties) and lord knows what else. He even has some grafting stock to try grafting. Like we don't have enough already.
I saw this little marvel of a gadget on The Price is Right. It was called a Tomato Press. Okay, so lots of you already knew about this thing, but I didn't. So this weekend, I used it for the second time. I put on a big pan of boiling water and started blanching the baskets and baskets of tomatoes that were sitting on every available space in the kitchen and dining room. I just plopped the tomatoes, skin and all, into the hopper and started turning the handle. Out poured lovely tomato sauce. I put the skin and seed back through and got more juice...I worked for nearly an hour and ended up with ten quarts of lovely tomato for use in sauces of all kinds. And it made a pretty good juice, too.
I have just spent the last two hours watering the garden. I have watered the fruit trees and all the tomatoes, the strawberries and the eggplant. I watered the peppers (bell and HOT) and the flowers even got some attention for a change. Done with the front, I turned the hose over to Mac and came inside for a cup of coffee! Mac is down in the big garden watering now. I went down to take him a cold drink and he was shaking his head. "What's up?" I asked him. He looked around at the forty+ tomato plants (including the three he had planted on Saturday) and said "I'm not going to plant so many tomatoes next year." I nodded wisely, but a mental eye roll was what was going on in my head. Yep, I've heard that before!
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21 comments:
If I lived nearer I have some tomatoes off you - I love 'em!
lol! Oh my, that is a lot of tomatoes!!
I am jealous! I have not had one ripe tomato yet this year! There are tons of green tomatoes out there. We had fried green tomates last night, but I am hungry for a vine ripened tomato. We have had such crazy weather here. Now that it is oppressively hot I am sure they will finally ripen, though.
You made good use of them and you'll be glad of them later on when its colder.
Had to giiggle at the thought of Mac cutting back next year...... or will he!
Maggie X
Nuts in May
If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers, how many peppers did Peter Piper pick (or something like that). Sorry. :)
Ya'll are such great gardeners! I had cucumbers this year; they were growing through my fence from the neighbor. LOL
Oh, Sandi, we have not had a fresh tomato since last September and this post is killing me. I mean it. What is Mac's method for those tomatoes again? I have tried looking for it in the past two weeks, but can't find the post. I know that you grew the tomatoes down and at the top you planted herbs. Don't tell me if it's something you should be getting a trademark on. ;>
Geez, you guys will be ROLLING in vegetables this year! Especially tomatoes! Wow!
I've never heard of that tomato-peeling gadget either. What's it called? Where did you get it?
We only planted 3 tomato plants in our deck garden this year, but it would be nice to take all the extras and make sauce with them. I can learn from you!
One year I planted a 10cent package of cherry tomato seeds and got over 75 plants! I give plants away, but still had over 45 plants in my garden. We ate lots of cherry tomatoes, Then I give lots of little tomatoes away. I said never again would I have so many vegetable plants and work a full time job!
At least you can freeze the tomato sauce...
i only planted 24 this year and 6 peppers..some zucchini but tons of herbs....THE RABBITS are stealing my san remo tomatoes, and the little yellow ones..they also love my basil...if i want to can this year im definately going to have to pick up bushels at the farm. Hope you are well..ive been MIA for awhile, but im back
LOL! I actually did plant less this year but I'm sure we will still have a glut.
Jayne
Wow! That sounds like you could supply a grocer or farmers market. I'll keep a prayer going for a smaller planting next year. Or maybe a planting of smaller types of tomatoes.
Love,
Lee
Double wow! I can't imagine taking care of such a large veggie garden. In fact, I can't imagine taking care of any size veggie garden!
P.S. Ha! Your word verification for me is "pasive" that says it all!
Your garden -and gardening/canning skills never cease to amaze me! My little garden is growing albeit it a bit slowly for some items but the squash looks to be the only thing that's going to be ultra-productive. No zucchini though as I didn't choose to plant that variety. I have yellow crook neck and acorn squash growing and the plants are really looking great! I see some squash actually forming now so it won't be long before that will be our main meal item I guess. The lettuce did well as did my first shot at planting spinach. My tomato plants and peppers are still very small, very iffy and my green beans -I wonder if I'll get anything from them as the deer have been having feast after feast on the leaves! That's a first for me with the deer eating the bean plants!
God's work girl
I make a juice for my health - tomatoes- any kinds of peppers I can find, broccoli, onions, garlic, celery and radishes maybe delciious !!and I feel so strong making carrot juice tomorrow..
Hahaha Sandi, I planted 3 little tomato plants a few years ago, the tiny ones, well one grew to over six feet tall, dropped odd tomatos all over my garden behind the trellis it climbed up, the following year, i had literally hundreds of the little blighters growing all over the place, inbetween some of my expensive plants too, i pulled them out and gave most away, but never again will i plant 3 in my flower patch again lol, my heart goes out to you, i have the same problem over here in UK with my flowers, i keep buying them and have already run out of space. As for spending hours in the kitchen, i do the same with all the green beans hubby plants, ive got two freezers with carrier bags full of them all cut up ready to cook, they last us well into the new year and then he plants more, i do know how you feel lol, sorry to laugh but my garden is small compared to your acre, it still takes hours to water lol, i love it thankyou for sending it to me, its made my day, hugs....Jean.
If I lived near you I would be at your door for produce.
How about a roadside stand???
Husband and I are going to a Moroccan Reunion in Rapid City SD. Hoping health holds up. Taking extra oxygen because of altitude. We had never heard of this organization until another retired Navy church friend brought an advertisement in a little newspaper we never heard of called Military News. It was printed on such lousy newsprint I'd probably used it for bird cage material.
Anyway we called as we lived there 2.5 years in the 70s and found it was for military and civilians who lived in Morocco for any period of time. And it is not the usual drink and eat yourself to unconsciousness. There are 4 days of tours and only one organized banquet.
So we signed up. it will be the first real vacation in 42 years of marriage. All others have been spent to Texas and NC/SC to visit relatives or funerals of same.
I had always called Morocco our 2.5 year honeymoon, as we didn't have that either. We married and went to work in our 30s. No time for honeymoon.
We finally got some ripe tomatoes this week off our vines. We don't have as many as you.. not even close. I actually canned about four quarts last year ha ha, but doubt if we'll have even that many this year. You need more neighbors since Mac is trying to feed the world...:)
Growing your own is so rewarding. This is the first year of our vegetable patch, and it is only a patch, and husband is like a child fussing round it. He is so proud of what he has grown.
Tomatoes are my department and I know my limitations.
Jeez, I just noticed this and it reminded me of My Dad. He was a great fan of the musical "Guys & Dolls", and there was a song in there with the line "I love you a bushel and a peck, a bushel and a peck and a hug around the neck", and he would sing that to me when I was very, very young. Thanks for bringing that to mind!
Nothing is too much for tomatoes..you can canned them, make them into tomato paste, freeze them.
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