A Gardeners Forum Forums Gardening Reference Gardening in 2006 Tomatoes

I've been watching this tomato for a while, it was green for 3 or 4 weeks, and I'm glad Johnny decided to bring it in yesterday afternoon. Last night we had a wind storm, winds at 65 mph, 2 minutes of rain, and this morning my garden is a mess. This tomato might have been tomato sauce for the bugs if he hadn't pulled it.

That tomato would NOT have lasted 3 or 4 weeks around me...green!
I would have fried that baby up!
I love fried green tomatoes!

Glad he saved it Sheri. Looks really good where it is all red. I hope it tastes as good!

I also hope you can save the gradens!

Don't think I didn't think about that every morning and every night, but I wanted to see how big it would get.

I bet. I am keeping a close eye on my first two as well hoping one will start chaging soon.

I pick mine a little green and ripen them in the house. I also use a screen laying across a couple of saw horses in the back yard for ripening.

I had two 5 gallon buckets of Tomatoes I either made sauce or juice out of this weekend. I got 8 pints of sauce and 3 quarts of juice.

I have tried a couple of different ways to make sauce and I think I have figured it out, but it is a lot of work and makes for a lot of cleanup.

Bestofour, what a pretty tomato! I'd almost hate to cut into that one!!

Amigatec, My goodness! 10 gallons of tomatoes? I would just die for that. As it is now, I am collecting, blanching, chopping and freezing my tomatoes for the day when I can make salsa with them. How wonderful to have them all at once!

Well the last 2 years I have had problems growing tomatoes, so this I planted 12 Roma, and 12 Celebrity, and I think they all have bezerk.

I have another 5 gal bucket I still have to do something with.

But these are going to be cut up and canned.

I use lots of tomatoe products in my cooking.

Oz sounds like your garden is starting to do well. I'm getting a few tomatoes a week but won't get the big crop till the middle of August at the earliest it looks like. Getting quite a bit of fruit set now. Afraid this hot spell will slow down set. My sprawlers are setting fruit better than my caged ones like usual. JD

I use a lot of tomatoes in my cooking--hence the 6 tom plants. I'm think I'm going to just go gung-ho next year and plant a couple dozen like you, amigatec.

Elkwe36, yup, my garden is finally starting to perk up and produce some veggies! I'm still waiting for my peppers to really get going but their working on it! Got some rain on Monday, which even greened-up my yard!

When I made the sauce it took a couple of times to get it right but I think I have it down now.

I took the Romas cut off the top, sliced them lengthwise, and scooped out the seeds.

Put them in a stainless steelpot (Don't use aluminum it will discolor the pot) with no water, they will make plenty of liquid themselves.

I cooked them until they were very soft. I them ran them through a food mill to remove the skins. (This will extract the pulp from the skins.)

I washed the pot and added the pulp back into the pot, chopped up a couple of onions and added some wild garlic to the pot, and simmered for a couple of hours.

I used a Stick blender to puree the contents of the pot and continued to simmer until it thickened up a bit. I added basil, and salt to taste and simmered another 30 minutes.

When I added the basil I got the canning jars ready.

I figured a 5 gal bucket will make about 6 pints of sauce.


This is a lot of work, but there's nothing like homemade tomato sauce!!!

Sounds good. What is a stick blender?

This is the one I have.

Stick Blender

LOL, Triss, I just thought the same thing!!

Amigatec, do you think that vinegar would correct any staining done to an aluminum pot? I think I read somewhere that vinegar should erase heat and acid stains from most cookware...

Thanks for that Pat. I was thinking wooden sticks for some reason.

I don't know about the vinegar, I have a 8 qt Stainless Steel pot that works well for this. This pot came with a deep basket for pasta, and a shallow basket for steaming. I just used it without either basket.

I do use a little vinegar in the bottom of the canner, to keep the water deposits down. Otherwise the jars get a white film on the outside, and look bad.

My big aluminum pot is really discolored, about all I use it for is for Water bath canning.

I have a pot just like that. I use it ALL the time. Will have to make sure it is stainless steel for when I get ready to do my salsa. IF I ever get enough tomatoes.

I have tried making sauce 3 different ways and this seems to be the best way.

Well I have never made it so I am going to borrow yours.

Bestofour, What variety is that?

I can't remember what type this is but I wish I knew so I could plant them again. Johnny got this one yesterday. They are so tasty.

Sheri, why don't you just save some of the seeds, & see if you get the same thing next year?

I was busy for 10 days with company, then it was so hot last week that I couldn't/wouldnt work outdoors. Yesterday when I went out to weed my lily garden, I spotted a tomato plant that's about a foot tall, & has blossoms on it! (I didn't plant it... & certainly wouldn't have planted it in my lily bed!!

I found my sticker. They are brandywine.

Patty, that's a good idea. Take a tiny tomato and put it in a dollhouse. We could amaze everyone.

Can't go wrong with brandywines. No wonder it was so good.

You are so funny John!!!! But I do agree on the Brandywines.

Very nice looking tomatoes Sheri!!!!!