Checking in on your tomatoes!

[Marian Worley]

Very soon we will begin the summer harvesting of tomatoes and I cannot wait. Wilth the cool wet summer in the south the tomatoes took a while to make, and I have experienced a bit of blossom drop and lack of blossoms, but the tips I have received, calcium, fish emulsions, have helped and I have a nice crop coming. How are yours coming?

[Judy Williams]

Oh, I am so glad you said that. I was thinking of doing just that but thought maybe it wouldn't be safe. I will wash it well and cut off the teeth marks and no one will be the wiser. I can't wait until some are ripe. They are Beef Steak tomoatoes which I love for their juiciness and flavor!

[Marian Worley]

They are a good eating and canning tomato. I like to eat those big slicers and can the smaller ones. Keep an eye on the seals periodically. Check in the pantry from time to time to see that they stay sealed. And always heat the tomato product to a boil before you eat. Always better to use safe handling methods for any home canned product.
Been doing this for 30 years, never had a problem but I am vigilent about food safety.

[Adrian Fox]

I'm trying to do sun dried tomatoes this year for the first time as a way of preserving them. We have a lot of smallish pear shaped tomatoes with firm flesh, and I'm cutting these in half, shaking salt over the 'cut' side, and then placing them on a tray over greaseproof paper in a small glass greenhouse (which is too hot to use for anything else during the main summer.) It's south facing and gets lots of sun.
The first batch looks like they may be ready, but can anyone tell me 1. How 'dried' they should be. These have been there for about four days and look pretty shrivelled to me. Are they ready? 2. Do you need to turn them over for the rounded side to be suntanned too?
Once they are ready, I've been told to put them packed down in a jar and cover with olive oil and herbs.
Any tips or advice from any sun driers out there would be very welcome.

[Marian Worley]

Hi,
It is a good question to ask about the"dryness" needed for preservation. I dry mine in a dehydrator and even though they are exposed to drying on all sides I have some plumper areas. My best guess is to stir or flip at least once during the greenhouse part of the drying and then dry them to a raisin like or dried peach like consistecny, which is to say they are not leathery or crispy. If you go to a food store that sells dried tomatoes, you can observe them. They still have some stickiness to them. As for the preservation, I sterilize my canning jars and add the tomatoes to a small pot and then add salt, herbs, a tiny bit of balsamic and drizzle oil over. Then I let the mixture stew until the oil begins to sizzle, just to get it all nice and combined and hot. With tongs, place solid tomatoes in the jar, pour oil over, wipe the jats clean and screw the lids on very tightly. I then submerge the jars back in the hot water for about 3 minutes at a rolloing boil, remove and wait for the lids to seal. FYI, the tomatoes are super in the winter, but the olive oil left in the jats is also delicious. Use for dressings, bread dipping, anything you would use oli for. let us know how it goes.

[Michelle W. Flannery]

I also dry tomatoes in a dehydrator - usually cherry tomatoes. I let them get pretty dry, but not crispy. Then I store them in a jar of olive oil. Adrian, your tomatoes sound dry enough. Try squeezing one, and if no juice runs out, then they're probably ready for your next phase of preservation. Marian is a good one to listen to about tomatoes. With her advice and instruction, I am canning my own tomatoes this year, confident in the end products, including my own tomato juice (which I absolutely love). The recipe Marian has added here for canning dried tomatoes sounds wOn-der-ful! And I can't wait to try it!! Marian, what other delicious tomato treats do you have up your sleeve!

[Marian Worley]

I am jarring up a batch of sun dried tomatoes as we spaeak!
Other tomato recipes that I like are :
Peach and Tomato Chutney
1 quast vinegar - apple, white, or a combination of your favorites
3 pounds brown sugar
a total of 4 pounds of ripe peaches and tomaotes - this can vary, start with half and half, peeled and coarsely chopped
2 T kosher or sea salt
2 pounds raisins, or any dried fruit you like
1 small hot pepper
4 Oz frshly chopped ginger
4 ounces chopped garlis
Boil vinegar and sugar gently 5 minutes. Add fruit and tomatoes and simmer about 20 or 30 minutes. Add the rest of the ingredients and slowly simmer like you do preserves until the fruit is glazed, total cook time is 1 - 1/2 hours or so.
Sterilize jars. Pack chutney into hot jars, wipe lids, seal and process in water bath about 3 minutes or so.
I use this recipe and interchange the fruit and often use whatever I have hanging around. Keep the sugar, vinegar ratio the same and make your own concoctions. The ginger and garlic are standard in chutney. This is good with cheese, meats, rice and beans, currey, and as a topper for salads with sliced chicken on top.

Pasta Sauce
I cannot give you exact amoounts here, but I am guessing you can figure this out:
About 15 0 20 various tomatoes, dipped in hot water, peeled, cored, seeded over a seive with a bowl under neath to capture the juice.
Meanwhile, in a large stockpot, sautee about 1 chopped onion, 3 of your smallish homegrown peppers, chopped, chopped garlic. I use a very small amount of olive oil, as lilltle as I can get away with.
Add tomatoes to the sautedd mix, salt and pepper to taste and let simmer while the water bath is being prepared. Sterilize your quart jars, 3 - 4 or so. At the last 15 minutes of cooking, add some slivered basil, and if you have flat leaf parsley and oregano, add that. Add a splash pf balsamic vinegar if you have it and a healthy pinch of sugar. Let simmer a few more minutes. Total cook time is about 45 minutes to an hour.
Ladle sauce into jars, wipe rims, and seal. process in hot water bath about 5 minutes.
You can heat the captured juice in a sauce pan, add a pinch of salt, and jar and process it in the water bath as well.
This pasta sauce can also have diced zucchini, eggplant, carrots, yellow squash added, clean out the frige!
This is my version of fast food in the winter. Heat a jar of this sauce and boil 5 - 10 minutes while your pasta is cooking. Pour over and add cheese. You can also add ground beef for a more traditional sauce. If you add the beef, you may want to add the jar of juice or a second jar of tomatoes. The meat sauce needs to simmer about 20 minutes or so.

[PennyG]

That sounds so good Marian.............thanks

[Ragnar]

What kind of tomato production have others experienced in the fall on plants that stopped producing during the mid-summer heat, but were well maintained? Here in SE Texas, I am considering leaving a bed of 12 giant plants, after weeding, feeding, and removing any dead.

[Michelle W. Flannery]

Ragnar, last year I had tomato production well into the fall here in NE central Georgia. Things had slowed, but never stopped. I moved 2 of the plants to the greenhouse in October, and they continued to produce tomatoes through January. Nothing spectacular. They were small and just a few here and there, but tomatoes none-the-less.

[Ragnar]

My tomato production went way down with the heat (95F+ for several weeks), while vine growth went up. Maybe it wasn't just the heat...maybe I had a bug or a soil problem. I hope that I have fixed it, and that I can get them to start producing again as it gets cooler. It will be an interesting experiment, nevertheless. The alternative solution of planting new tomato plants for the fall garden will have to wait. Over the next month I am planting pumpkin, peas, eggplant, potato, squash, and second round of corn.

[Rose Keppler Moradian]

Seriously, you are planting all those? Are you in Australia?

[PennyG]

I am getting more and more different cherries and they should all be ready by the end of the week, and as for the bigger tomatoes, they are all turning red now........wooooohooooooo, cant wait!