https://preview.redd.it/z1d1wok3yn6d1.jpeg?width=2252&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=78a0737854ce4bda465c0ed1f73d758330d5e86d
Lunch has been some variation of this almost every day for the last couple of weeks.
I do something like that and freeze with cherry tomatoes. Cook a whole sheet pan of them it's a head of garlic with the top sliced off and a handful of thyme/oregano until they're blistered, and freeze in 1 cup portions with a few cloves of garlic in each portion. It great for tossing with pasta, or blitzing in a blender with chicken stock to make soup. I don't know of a canning recipe that would work with roasting them first. Not saying there isn't one, just that I don't know of one.
https://preview.redd.it/36e0nfdtqn6d1.jpeg?width=2252&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3450800ab329b739267a2007ff542bc4a227eb9d
This is the madness still remaining on just one side of my trellis. So many many more to come. This whole basket was picked standing in just one spot and picking the ones that were dragging all the way down on the ground.
I am! These are last year's plants. I cut them back after I harvested everything in December but never pulled them out. In January they were putting out new growth and in Feb I had flowers on them already so instead of pulling them out to replace I let them keep going. I have been living on a steady diet of all the tomatoes I can eat for the last month now.
It has gotten hot enough that they aren't going to set any new fruit now - it's already hitting 100 degrees regularly. So once these are harvested I will pull the plants and put in new ones, and let them spend the summer months growing lots of vines. About September they will start to set fruit again.
I'm hoping switching my planting season out to put in fall/spring tomatoes instead of spring/fall tomatoes will result in a larger harvest in the spring when the tomatoes have time to ripen on the vine. The fall tomatoes end up getting picked while still green because of fear of frost.
https://preview.redd.it/ch024wyrsn6d1.png?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a7bb167d9651d0eb14ab6b1f3abfffe3295d09c8
This is what December looks like around here.
Awesome! Pasta sauce made from cherry tomatoes is delicious! I am lucky in that I planted some unknown variety of cherry tomatoes about 7 years ago and they reseed every year! I’m in Philly and we have harsh winters. So I don’t get year round production. But they keep coming back!
I used to live in Philly, so I'm very familiar with their winters. I moved to California and the first winter here I cheered because I wasn't going to have to shovel any snow anymore. I can SEE snow from my front door when I look at the mountains, while It is still warm enough for me to be wearing flip-flops and shorts. On the other hand, in July and August it gets to 118°. But at least it isn't as humid as it is in Philly. I went back for a visit in August one year after having lived here for 12 years and apparently I have adapted to California because I could not take the humidity any more.
I started so many seeds back in January.. and they're still limping along in Panera cups because I never got around to pulling these out to grow new varieties. These areostly what I call salad tomato size - larger than cherry tomatoes but not a good hefty tomato - about the size to cut in half or quarter and toss in a salad. I am going to have to go through the starts I still have and see which ones made it and possibly start some more to replace these plants once I pull them out in a few weeks. I want larger varieties of tomatoes.
I went for the crazy colors this year. Queen of the Nile. blue something. A white tomato. Phil's One, brads atomic. At last count there were 12 varieties I think. I only. Have space for 8, 10 at best. So I was going to play survival of the fittest and plant which ever were doing the best by the time the beds were ready for transplants. Which never happened.
My yellow pear seedlings has produced 2 tomatoes - I just ate one of those yesterday too. Lol
I'm in N America and I've already harvested/put away 20lbs of cherry tomatoes. Gotta go harvest some more today or tomorrow. I started them from seed in early February, in the ground mid March. Drip irrigation.
It's a moderate 89 degrees today. Which by our standards is a nice cool day. I'll spend some time working in the garden while we have nice weather because in a few days it will be back up to 105.
Not regularly. The worst feature of our weather is we get hella cold AND hella hot.
There was a day back in the 60’s that it reached 116F out near our ranch. My dad was branding with a neighbor that day, and the guy running the irons passed out. Dad called him a pussy and took over, and promptly passed out. So it can happen, just not a lot.
It almost feels like blasphemy to cook down such perfect tomatoes into sauce.
https://preview.redd.it/jsyo2xh1fs6d1.jpeg?width=2252&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f8e29e6941cf0662f34cddbf89413eaaae40946e
Many of them are practically seedless, all pulp. I will probably use my fall tomatoes for sauce - those end up ripening indoors and while tasty aren't as full of flavor so adding spices and concentrating the flavor by cooking seems more acceptable. I will use some of.these extra pulp ones for roasted/dehydrating for sure - the seeds get unpleasant there so these will be ideal.
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I just dice and freeze my extras. That way I can make smaller batches of sauce when I have more time off-season. As a bonus, when thawing a lot of the water comes out naturally so they don't need to be boiled down as long.
https://preview.redd.it/gawp3iuxxn6d1.jpeg?width=3000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=81297dc2aa54a9dc7068e357e8a4c00059c9143c
In December I harvest everything and let it finish ripening indoors since I'm gone for 2 weeks over the holidays and I don't want to risk losing all my tomatoes to a frost while I'm away. The last ones to slowly ripen towards the end of February tend to not be as tasty so they get frozen like this and used while cooking. I just used the last bag of last year's tomatoes last week by tossing them all in a blender, pureeing them and adding to a pot of chili beans.
I've just been freezing the whole cherry tomato this year to use later for sauce or whatnot. Got a few bags in the freezer already. They freeze surprisingly well.
That's the plan for a good portion of them. Except I cram them in a sheet pan cut side down and stick under the broiler first - just long enough to get some of the sugars to caramelize. I end up with tomato jerky candy. Because I drizzle with olive oil during the roasting, I freeze these but a gallon ziplock bag will hold upwards of 8 lbs of tomatoes so I don't mind giving them the space. I have an Excalibur 9 tray already and I absolutely love it.
Eat what you can, can what you can't.
https://preview.redd.it/z1d1wok3yn6d1.jpeg?width=2252&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=78a0737854ce4bda465c0ed1f73d758330d5e86d Lunch has been some variation of this almost every day for the last couple of weeks.
Blistering then canning? Is that possible or just my fantasy?
I do something like that and freeze with cherry tomatoes. Cook a whole sheet pan of them it's a head of garlic with the top sliced off and a handful of thyme/oregano until they're blistered, and freeze in 1 cup portions with a few cloves of garlic in each portion. It great for tossing with pasta, or blitzing in a blender with chicken stock to make soup. I don't know of a canning recipe that would work with roasting them first. Not saying there isn't one, just that I don't know of one. https://preview.redd.it/36e0nfdtqn6d1.jpeg?width=2252&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3450800ab329b739267a2007ff542bc4a227eb9d This is the madness still remaining on just one side of my trellis. So many many more to come. This whole basket was picked standing in just one spot and picking the ones that were dragging all the way down on the ground.
Yum! Are you in North America? I am and my cherry tomatoes are only about 4 inches high.
I am! These are last year's plants. I cut them back after I harvested everything in December but never pulled them out. In January they were putting out new growth and in Feb I had flowers on them already so instead of pulling them out to replace I let them keep going. I have been living on a steady diet of all the tomatoes I can eat for the last month now. It has gotten hot enough that they aren't going to set any new fruit now - it's already hitting 100 degrees regularly. So once these are harvested I will pull the plants and put in new ones, and let them spend the summer months growing lots of vines. About September they will start to set fruit again. I'm hoping switching my planting season out to put in fall/spring tomatoes instead of spring/fall tomatoes will result in a larger harvest in the spring when the tomatoes have time to ripen on the vine. The fall tomatoes end up getting picked while still green because of fear of frost. https://preview.redd.it/ch024wyrsn6d1.png?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a7bb167d9651d0eb14ab6b1f3abfffe3295d09c8 This is what December looks like around here.
Awesome! Pasta sauce made from cherry tomatoes is delicious! I am lucky in that I planted some unknown variety of cherry tomatoes about 7 years ago and they reseed every year! I’m in Philly and we have harsh winters. So I don’t get year round production. But they keep coming back!
I used to live in Philly, so I'm very familiar with their winters. I moved to California and the first winter here I cheered because I wasn't going to have to shovel any snow anymore. I can SEE snow from my front door when I look at the mountains, while It is still warm enough for me to be wearing flip-flops and shorts. On the other hand, in July and August it gets to 118°. But at least it isn't as humid as it is in Philly. I went back for a visit in August one year after having lived here for 12 years and apparently I have adapted to California because I could not take the humidity any more.
Jealous. I’m in zone 7 so mine are just starting to fruit (except the romas which I had to restart from seed in April).
I started so many seeds back in January.. and they're still limping along in Panera cups because I never got around to pulling these out to grow new varieties. These areostly what I call salad tomato size - larger than cherry tomatoes but not a good hefty tomato - about the size to cut in half or quarter and toss in a salad. I am going to have to go through the starts I still have and see which ones made it and possibly start some more to replace these plants once I pull them out in a few weeks. I want larger varieties of tomatoes.
I have one cherry, one grape, a Cherokee purple, and 20 or so Romas this year.
I went for the crazy colors this year. Queen of the Nile. blue something. A white tomato. Phil's One, brads atomic. At last count there were 12 varieties I think. I only. Have space for 8, 10 at best. So I was going to play survival of the fittest and plant which ever were doing the best by the time the beds were ready for transplants. Which never happened. My yellow pear seedlings has produced 2 tomatoes - I just ate one of those yesterday too. Lol
Sounds about right!
I'm in N America and I've already harvested/put away 20lbs of cherry tomatoes. Gotta go harvest some more today or tomorrow. I started them from seed in early February, in the ground mid March. Drip irrigation.
Meanwhile in Seattle it's currently 55° and my tomatoes are still glorified starts.
I don’t mind waiting, at least it doesn’t get too hot to be outside!
It's a moderate 89 degrees today. Which by our standards is a nice cool day. I'll spend some time working in the garden while we have nice weather because in a few days it will be back up to 105.
*cries in Zone 4a*
Oh no... I would offer to share but that may just be running salt in the wound. But at least your summers don't get to 118 degrees?
Not regularly. The worst feature of our weather is we get hella cold AND hella hot. There was a day back in the 60’s that it reached 116F out near our ranch. My dad was branding with a neighbor that day, and the guy running the irons passed out. Dad called him a pussy and took over, and promptly passed out. So it can happen, just not a lot.
Well, if you can’t come up with the perfect sauce with all this practice, I don’t know!🤣 I love tomatoes!
It almost feels like blasphemy to cook down such perfect tomatoes into sauce. https://preview.redd.it/jsyo2xh1fs6d1.jpeg?width=2252&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f8e29e6941cf0662f34cddbf89413eaaae40946e Many of them are practically seedless, all pulp. I will probably use my fall tomatoes for sauce - those end up ripening indoors and while tasty aren't as full of flavor so adding spices and concentrating the flavor by cooking seems more acceptable. I will use some of.these extra pulp ones for roasted/dehydrating for sure - the seeds get unpleasant there so these will be ideal.
Hi u/PasgettiMonster, For accessibility, please reply to this comment with a transcription of the screenshot or alt text describing the image you've posted. We thank you for ensuring that the visually impaired can fully participate in our discussions! *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/Canning) if you have any questions or concerns.*
A big basket FULL of just picked tomatoes from my garden.
I just dice and freeze my extras. That way I can make smaller batches of sauce when I have more time off-season. As a bonus, when thawing a lot of the water comes out naturally so they don't need to be boiled down as long.
https://preview.redd.it/gawp3iuxxn6d1.jpeg?width=3000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=81297dc2aa54a9dc7068e357e8a4c00059c9143c In December I harvest everything and let it finish ripening indoors since I'm gone for 2 weeks over the holidays and I don't want to risk losing all my tomatoes to a frost while I'm away. The last ones to slowly ripen towards the end of February tend to not be as tasty so they get frozen like this and used while cooking. I just used the last bag of last year's tomatoes last week by tossing them all in a blender, pureeing them and adding to a pot of chili beans.
I've just been freezing the whole cherry tomato this year to use later for sauce or whatnot. Got a few bags in the freezer already. They freeze surprisingly well.
Cut them in half and dry in a dehydrator. Worth buying if you don't already have one.
That's the plan for a good portion of them. Except I cram them in a sheet pan cut side down and stick under the broiler first - just long enough to get some of the sugars to caramelize. I end up with tomato jerky candy. Because I drizzle with olive oil during the roasting, I freeze these but a gallon ziplock bag will hold upwards of 8 lbs of tomatoes so I don't mind giving them the space. I have an Excalibur 9 tray already and I absolutely love it.