Thursday, September 7

7 September - Tomatoes

Tomatoes are ripening rapidly!



I've been picking them every other day, and have already picked about 20-30 pounds of ripe paste tomatoes. I'm starting to get a few beefsteak ripening, and tons of cherry tomatoes (I'm letting most of the cherry tomatoes rot on the vine, I can't keep up and we don't eat them fast enough). Two Oxheart tomatoes ripened yesterday, I'm going to plant more next year, those were very tasty and a good size. Plus, they didn't have any of the blemishes the others had.

So far, I've made 4 pints of sauce, with another batch going right now. After running the tomatoes through a food mill to extract the pulp, they go into the crockpot to reduce. I typically let them reduce to half their original volume (a good number, I think) and then either freeze or can. This year, I'm hoping to can most of them. According to the Ball Blue Book, 1 tablespoon of lemon juice (bottled) and a pint of tomato sauce can be canned safely in a boiling water bath for 35 minutes. That's the plan!



Green beans are also ready. Here's about 2 pounds. I'm going to have to start abandoning them on neighbors' stoops to get rid of them. "Please take care of these beans."

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