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