Tomato Tues in New England

I had massive plant growth this week, so much so that I must put in taller posts for my 2 Florida weave trellis systems. there is nothing turning pink yest, but I do have aubergine making headway.
From left ~~~>right, aubergine, sweet 100 Florida weave, poblano peppers (which seem a bit slow).


Gilberties reaching for the sky in left bed. I'm going to have to get the ladder out this week.

NHGardener wrote:To freeze your tomatoes, can't you just throw them whole into the freezer? I had read that somewhere and I've done it with excess store bought tomatoes, and then when I'm cooking sauce or whatever, I've just grabbed one or two from the freezer and plopped them right into the sauce to thaw and cook and they've been fine. Is there a reason you roast yours first?

Roasting the tomatoes seems to intensify their flavor and increases the sweetness. Search the forum for Frozen Roasted Tomatoes



ETA: Here is one link to the thread

FROZEN ROASTED TOMATOES

Okay, I'll try to upload some tomato photos here. These were taken almost a week ago, forgive me, they're from 7-20. They don't look too different today tho, except that the 2 reds one are pretty much eaten.

These are my Big Beef tomatoes. I bought this plant from the ag store, I believe these were started in Mass. and shipped up. The transplant was much bigger than my home-grown seedlings and so, they are red first. I believe they probably used fertilizer on this too. The plant isn't as tall as my home growns, but does seem to have more tomatoes on it.


And now here are my little greenies. I had to replant my seedlings so I lost which types these are - looks like I have a roma plant, a couple cherry tomato plants, among others. The tomatoes are still small, a couple cherry tomatoes are starting to turn red now. One of my problems is that I planted squash in the front row and they are just taking over the whole box - I won't do that again. I have pretty much a zucchini tree in front of a few of these plants. I'm not sure if squash and tomatoes are companion plants or not, but it appears like the squash are getting all the good root space maybe.

Oh, and my weeds around the boxes are out of control, that's another change for next year. I have the garden fenced w/nylon fencing to keep the chickens out, so I can't mow in there. We put chips down in most of the garden before running out, but weeds have grown thru. I have cardboard here and there, etc., but have pretty much given up weeding the outside of the boxes. So disregard that for now.

Oh, and the white is some perlite that had Miracle Gro in it - I just spread that around the tomatoes a little to try to give them extra nutrients that the squash may have been sucking up.

Tuesday 8/9/11 New Hampshire
In an effort to keep ahead of the blight I have heavily pruned the tomatoes

Gilberties




Cherry tomatoes Florida weave also pruned out.



In this bed left to right, aubergine, blond girl cherry tomatoes, 2 rows poblano peppers, sweet 100 tomatoes, cucumbers.

Lookin' good.

I found early blight on a few of my toms. Most are the potted tomatoes, which I find strange. They are growing in purchased potting soil which is supposed to be very good.

Also in my raised beds I found the Lithuanian toms have some early blight. I'm trying to keep the leaves clipped off and tossed in the trash. I disinfect my scissors each time I bring them in from cutting away leaves.

In Maine we aren't in the full glory of our tomato harvest yet so I'm hoping to fend it off long enough to harvest lots of toms this year.

I've been waiting for this Lithuanian to ripen enough to pick. I got the seeds from Wintergrown.org this year.



This weighs 1 1/2 lbs and all of them have these deep dimples on them. I can't wait for it to ripen a bit more so I can taste it, though I'm not a fan of odd-shaped toms or those heirlooms with cracking on them.



This is my first Gilbertie tomato which I bagged to save seeds. Another I'm anxious to try and especially in sauce.



I roasted my first pan of tomatoes this week after giving many away to family and friends and eating them like candy. Two quart bags reside now in the freezer. I hope to get many more this season.

They are easy to roast and put into freezer bags for sauce and tomato dishes later.

Quiltbea, your production looks great! I am also loving my Heirlooms.





Do you mind posting directions for roasting the tomatos?

This comes from Melissa d'Arabian of the Food Network show Ten Dollar Dinners.

Roasted Tomatoes

Preheat oven to 275*F

Cut any variety or an assortment of tomatoes in half. Place in large bowl.

Add olive oil, salt, pepper and thyme. Toss gently to coat.

Place toms cut-side down on baking sheet. I cover my baking sheet with alum foil for easier cleanup later.

After one hour, turn toms cut-side up and roast for another hour.

Remove from oven and allow to cool 20-30 minutes. Place in freezer bags.

You can also use them freshly roasted as a side-dish for dinner.

I've used cherry, slicers, sauce types and they all work.

To use, just add them, still frozen, to whatever dish you are making. They will defrost while cooking. I've used mine in tomato sauces, chili and on pizza. On pizza its best to defrost them first.

Everyone who's tried them tells me the dish to which they have been added tastes even better than without. I concur.

Thanks for the Roasted Tomato Recipe/Directions. I am going to give this a try.