Every year, I swear I'm going to plant less tomatoes because I can't keep up, and every year I think, "Just one more. Just in case they don't do well." And then a few volunteer plants show up (thank you, squirrels!) and I'm off to the races again. I planted three tomatoes this year, and ended up with seven. Even with dropping them off to various neighbors, we have more than we can eat, so today starts the yearly tomato saucing. It's the earliest ever that I can remember, and because I'm going to be doing a heavy can at a friend's house - he has a restaurant kitchen and I'm not turning down that offer - I'll probably end up buying a crate at the farmer's market so I can make enough to feed us for the entire rest of the year.
Also, tomatoes aren't just for humans. Look at this little bugger, sitting there, bold as you please in my neighbor's tree, eating a perfect, red tomato.
5 comments:
Love fresh tomatoes! We had to build a cage to keep the squirrels away from our tomatoes - they would pick them just before they were ripe, take one bite and throw it away.
I remember years ago we kept seeing half eaten cherry tomatoes littered on our backyard walkway. Couldn't figure out what critter was doing it until we finally spotted the guilty chipmunk sitting on our steps with a lovely tomato in his mouth. He was brazen about it.
I freeze my extra tomatoes and use them in the winter to make sauce. The skins slip right off the mushy thawed tomatoes. I have a running battle with the squirrels for my tomatoes. Green, red, they aren't picky.
Lucky you!
My mom freezes the entire tomato as well. Takes out red balls as she needs throughout the winter.
Ummm, I have about 60 tomato plants this year, mostly paste tomato varieties because this is a canning year for tomato products. I only freeze damaged tomatoes while I wait for enough to make a canner load of sauce. Final picking today or tomorrow, then a marathon session of juice and crushed production! May dehydrate another load, as well.
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