Monday, August 10, 2009

Tomato , Tomatoe , Tomatoes

~~ Drying Tomatoes ~~


~~ Almost Ready ~~


~~ Dried Tomatoes ~~


~~ Spaghetti Sauce Cooking ~~


~~ Spaghetti Sauce ~~

~~ Spicy Salsa ~~

Do you say tomato or tomatoe ? Around here it's been tomatoes lately , I must admit my tomatoes didn't do so well again this year. We had a very dry June and a cool July , the tomato vines grew beautifully , but the tomatoes are small , rot on the ends and cracking. But I have been saving what I can , I've also bought tomatoes from a local farm to make salsa and spaghetti sauce.



The Roma and Tommy Toe tomatoes have produced well , they're the plants I used clay pot irrigation with , next year I will use that method on all of the tomatoes. Our garden is to far away from the house to water with a hose and toting water is a pain , so clay pot irrigation will be the best solution. I only had to add water once a week or less if we had rain. I tried to leave the tops off if I knew it was going to rain so the clay pots would fill up.


I made spaghetti sauce for the first time this year , my SIL and I canned 17 quarts + 4 jars of tomato juice. I used the recipe from the Blue Book of Canning , but tweaked it quite a bit , so I guess you could say it 's my own recipe , that recipe was just a starting point. I hate those recipes that only make 3 qts , if I'm going to can spaghetti sauce or salsa , I want to make enough for a full canner . Anyway it turned out great and I 'll be making more next year.



I also canned 11 qts of salsa and 4 jars of tomato juice. We love spicy salsa around here , I'll probably make more soon. The small tomatoes coming off my vines , we're eating or dehydrating. This is the first time I've used my dehydrator and I started with the hardest thing to dry , tomatoes. But they seem to be drying well , it has taken longer than the book recommendation though.



BTW , spell check says tomato is the correct spelling (LOL).



~ Garden Blessings ~

JoyceAnn

5 comments:

Vickie LeBlanc said...

Joyceann - you are a very hard worker. Always doing something around the home. All those bottles of tomatos, sauces, salsa and dried (which I have not tried yet) will look so nice in the winter cupboard. It is so satisfying getting ready for the colder months.

JoAnn ( Scene Through My Eyes) said...

All that good harvest stored away in jars - what a happy reminder of summer.

JoyceAnn said...

Hi Vickie & JoAnn ~ Perserving the summer harvest is hard work , but come winter , I'm grateful to have those delicious tasting veggies on hand.

~ Harvest Blessings ~
JoyceAnn

Carol Murdock said...

JoyceAnn...we say maters down here but the correct southern pronunciation is: toe-may-toe or Tomato. I don't know how I missed this great post! Good job!

JoyceAnn said...

Hi Carol ~ My late MIL called them tomaters , most of the older generation still call them that around here(LOL).

~ Many Blessings ~
JoyceAnn