gardeners. what are you doing with your tomatoes?
 

it was a race. us or that damn ground squirrel. we had to pick them or lose them.

we got a decent haul. and tried our first run at canning them! kinda cool how it works. i think my wife over salted them, but we well see. we have more.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1283473215.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1283473243.jpg

Making friends ;)
Last year we were deluged. Wash, boil in fresh salted water until skins loose, remove skins while warm, bag and freeze.
Still have some left. I'm thinking reduce to spagetti sos consistency(need starchy pasta water to thicken), or breaking out some chili recipes.

Impressive haul! Nice job.

I get that many every day or two. My patients eat pretty well, will probably freeze some, maybe give my buddy's wife a bunch of them with some peppers and have her make a bunch of canned salsa.

My wife puts some of ours in freezer bags.

They make for good sauce later.


KT

My two plants only managed 4. :( The 5th was picked to death by a bird. The skin was also a bit thick.

Still waiting for them to ripen, that's what. I have about 15 plants with only a few scattered tomatoes that have ripened.

the end is near...

Last year we froze half and canned half of what we didn't eat right off of the vine. The frozen half we used for pasta sauce a few months ago. Still haven't used the canned half. Last year we had 15 plants, this year 5. (Wife had been unsuccessful at growing a single tomato until last year, so she went overboard.)

Ground squirrels! I occassionally spot a tomato up in a tree. The tree squirrels like them too.

Same here in PDX. Five plants, and only the cherry has any red tomatoes yet. What a crappy weather year.

Pick, dunk in hot water & skin, cut in half, dig out the seeds with a grapefruit spoon, simmer for 3 hours, put in blender.
After that I have a thin sauce that I freeze about half of. The rest I make into ketchup (a dozen 1/2 pints this year), generic sauce (8 pints this year), or spaghetti sauce (8 pints this year) - all require cooking for another 4-5 hours, so tomato processing day is a 12 hour commitment.
There is a disease that tomato plants get around here, so they get sick and start dying about September in a good year, earlier in a bad year. This year has been hot and dry, so they are still producing like crazy.

My wife has made several batches of salsa. Also has made lots of pasta sauce and froze it for later.

I just had a tomato sandwich for lunch.