Tomato Tuesday for the PNW

FamilyGardening wrote: wooooozer Boffer those look so pretty!
how are you going to eat it?...

It's been two years since we've had a good garden tomato so we left it on a cutting board, along with a knife and fork, and all day long we would walk by and cut off a bite. Kinda like having a candy dish sitting out. It was so meaty and sweet that no seasonings were needed. Today I had my first tomato/mayo sammie of the season. Simply perfect, or is it perfectly simple?!

FamilyGardening wrote:...p.s......hubby came in and i showed him your pic....he said to tell you its on tomato tuesday yet in the PNW....

Tell him that 'closies' count in SFG!

It's an odd year for tomatoes. It's cooler than last year, but the plants in the heated soil are producing a few fruits each despite early blight. We've had a warm spell going for about three weeks, and those sickly looking plants just exploded in healthy growth. I can look at the plants and see when the warm spell started. It's too late in the season for the new blossoms, but the scent of the new foliage is heavenly.

fingers crossed that our warm spell will be back and these green guys can turn red!they all have gotten hair cuts!
our two brothers from seed and one of our store replacments out in our three sisters garden


the three brothers from seed


two brothers from seed that never was transplanted


second replacement in our SFG...its loaded with fruit....here is a front view


here is a back view


here is one of our volunteers.....we have no idea where it came from...but look at the little fruits ...we are amazed that this grew on its own from a seed that may have come from a bird....or compost....still to have it grow in our weather is amazing....not sure how its going to taste....hope to find out


last....our very tired rainbow from our school plant sale who has given so much for such a tiny guy....he has a couple more fruit coming along and he gave us a wonderful sauce tonight for our dinner!!


here is what he gave for dinner tonight.....didnt think about taking a pic until i had them in the blender....there is a pic on another thread about what we harvested after we got home from camping this last weekend....


hugs
rose

I've got a pathetic grand total of 5 green heirloom tomatoes. Oh well...maybe they'll ripen before the weather turns. My strawberry plants apparently were tricked by the weather since I'm getting another batch of strawberries.

I am very happy with the tomatoes this year. I have had solid daily production on all of the small varieties since at least August 26th. The Roma's are turning and I may be able to can some this year. I have about 6 of the larger fruits starting to blush.

There are approx six weeks left before we should see a frost in my area (far East County) and I am hoping that they will be producing into early November (dreaming is a good thing!).



Tomato salad, yum!

oh yummy



i miss the yellow tomatoes this year....we didnt plant any.... yours look so good!

hugs

rose

I know its not tuesday!
just wanted to share some pic's i took today....(we maybe eating them soon!) the Tom's are so pretty...we are getting lots of blushing and one of our volunteers might be a yellow tom


volunteer guy....whatcha think? yellow?



the three brothers from seed....i think they have done really well....planted three tom's together....

cluster from the three brothers from seed



ground cherry tomato....my five year old luv's them!...he thinks they are cool!



two brothers from seed that never got re-potted



do you think i should cut off the tops of my tom's?..... so that the energy can go to ripening the fruit?..... since we are now into sept...

hugs
rose

Your plants are looking good. I agree, I think yellow also.

happy to report yellow it was.....it was sooo yummy!....do you all think that i should save some seeds and see if i can get the volunteer to come back next year?....its growing really well....its thin....yet growing up and around the poll just fine...with lots of little cherry size yellow tom's



here are some tom's we harvested a couple of days ago....these were from the three brothers and two brothers from seed along with one from our replacment tom.....we made home made pizza sauce for dinner with them.....





all the tom plants are doing well.....lots of blushing and we are getting a few ripe here and there each day....that may or may not make it back to the kitchen!



believe it or not.....our tiny school rainbow is still putting out toms and has lots of new flowers.....now only if the weather would warm back up....its been cool all week long.....im not complaining though...im so thankful to have had some ripe tomatoes this year!



hugs

rose

It's September! (the best month in my area for tomatoes). The large reds are Oregon Springs. I am still waiting on the Roma's, only about 20 of them have fully ripened.

I have only canned 6 pints of tomatoes so far but I was able to dehydrate some which turned into a half pint of tomato powder.



Five weeks to first frost and clouds and rain the past few days (more forecasted). I am hoping for the best! (clear skies and 70's).

oh wow happycamper....those tom's look beautiful!!



we are thinking about getting a dehydrator......how long can things last once dehydrated?.....like potatoes and such?....do you do anything to them afterwards or just put them into jars to store them?

we just picked up a foodsaver for 6 bucks and are learning about how to use it



hug

rose....boo, hiss....the rain is here

FamilyGardening wrote:
we are thinking about getting a dehydrator......how long can things last once dehydrated?.....like potatoes and such?....do you do anything to them afterwards or just put them into jars to store them?

Familygardening, I have kept dehydrated fruits and veggies up to two years without a problem. I usually rotate the food in my pantry depending on my harvesting season. Dehydrated spinach, onions, raspberries, tomatoes, zucchini and fragile (breakable) items I store in jars and then vacuum seal them with the foodsaver attachment. Banana chips, plums, celery and other items that are thicker and not that easy to break I may use vacuum bags but mainly use the bags for the freezer and camping foods. Fruit leathers only last about 3 months or so.

I prefer glass jars so that I can open them, take what I need to refill a smaller container and reseal the jar for freshness without wasting my foodsaver bags as they are costly and I am a frugal penny pincher.

Shredded potatoes I put in 1/2 gallon jars and seal. They have put holes in the vacuum bags during the sealing process (sharp edges on those shreds). I put the jars back in the case the jars came in with a small piece of masking tape on the top with the contents and month and year it was dehydrated.

If you buy a dehydrator, make sure you get one with a fan that circulates the air. They are as cheap as $40 but can go up to $200. Mine was around $40 and makes great fruit leathers. Enjoy that foodsaver!

sounds great happycamper!



i stayed up late last night watching youtube video's on food saving....i cant wait to get the foodsaver attatchment for the mason jars....we want to build our food supply and dehydrating i think is a great idea its good to know that things like potatoes and such can last that long we purchased a small feezer last night...since my five year old has special diet needs we needed to purchase it....i have learned so much from this group about canning, freezing and now dehydrating foods....we dont have a huge garden....two small ones....hoping to exspand next year.....what a blessing it has been eating something fresh each night from our gardens this summer.....i dont want one bit of it to go to waste....so i really think its important to learn differnt ways of storing



here is a harvest we did today of our tom's....some are just blushing but starting to crack from the heavy rain we had for the last few days....so we picked them to let them ripe on the counter......i really feel blessed to have gotten so many ripe tomatoes this year....after the big loss last year.....



hugs

rose

The tomatoes couldn't wait for Tuesday. These are the Oregon Spring's I harvested today and resulted in 10 pints of Italian crushed tomatoes and 8 tomatoes for eating. I forgot to take a picture of them before I started canning but here is the first batch I just out of the pressure canner. Roma's are turning and I only have a few cases of pint jars left.

oh happycamper those look wonderful great feeling isnt it?....no wonder there is a saying....*fruits of your labor*

do you add anything with the Italian tomatoes?....if so i would love the reciepe this is our first year of canning....hot water bathing so far....i think though im getting brave enough to try pressure canning.....

hugs

rose

we were able to harvest just over four pounds this week



today we gave the Tom's hair cuts and cut off their tops... it was hard to do....some of the plants were still really green and lush...we are hoping it will force them to ripen the fruits they have now and not try and grow new ones since fall is here

FamilyGardening, Your tomatoes look fantastic! I still haven't cut the tops off my plants yet but I need to.

Just made 5 quarts of spaghetti sauce and I suspect it will be the last of my canning tomatoes for this year. I will eat any that ripen from now on.

In regards to the Italian canned tomatoes I use the Crushed tomato recipe (no liquid added) from the USDA website and add 1 Tablespoon chopped basil, one chopped onion and 2 Tablespoons of chopped garlic, cook for 10 minutes (mashing with a potato masher) and process in a pressure canner for 20 minutes at 10 pounds pressure (I am under 1000 feet). I process in a canner and use the time from the spaghetti sauce recipe since I add the basil, onion and garlic. One tablespoon of lemon juice is added to each jar prior to filling the jars. Oregano can be added also but I don't add it since I use the tomatoes in various recipes. I have been making these for several years since I discovered that I like the canned Italian diced tomatoes sold at Fred Meyer's. Enjoy those tomatoes!

So glad to see nice tomato harvests occurring in the PNW.

Sorry I have been away for almost a month. I had a minor injury that prevented me from even sitting at the computer for the last 4 weeks.

Coastal tomatoes are still few and far too infrequent, especially frustrating when you can't get out into the garden at all.

This week we have had our first rain since July, and then we had only 1/10 inch for the whole month of July. October rainfall here on the Southern Oregon Coast has been 3 inches in 4 days.

well we cut off all of the remaing tomaotes and pulled up the plants with all the rain we have been getting they were starting to split....

now what do i do with all these guys?



hugs

rose

Fried green tomatoes, whooohooo!

FamilyGardening wrote:well we cut off all of the remaing tomaotes and pulled up the plants with all the rain we have been getting they were starting to split....

now what do i do with all these guys?



hugs

rose

green tomato relish

It's October in the PNW and I have six plants that still look great with tomatoes that are slowly ripening. I have the hoops on the beds and will need to pull the plants before our first frost to protect the rest of the veggies.



Even with the long cool spring and cloudy summer, 2011 was better than 2010 for tomatoes. I hate to see tomato season come to an end but the cool weather crops will keep going until next year. I start my tomatoes in late January so I will have new babies to take care of soon after these are all gone. Happy Gardening to all!

So glad to see some of us doing pretty well with our tomato harvests.

Unfortunately, health issues kept me out of the garden for the last several weeks and my tomatoes did not fare well.

Plants are too far gone to try to keep them going in the cooler weather, but I have plans to start seeds indoors this winter when I get my seed starting station set up.

Family Gardening, get your Ball Canning Book out and check out the recipes for Chow-Chow and Relishes that use the end of season harvests, including green tomatoes.

Happy Camper, hope your first frost holds off and gives you a chance to harvest a few more of those beauties.