Our tomatoes are coming in faster than we can eat them so the annual process of putting the extra bounty into jars has started.
The only large tomato varieties we grew this year are Cherokee Purple and another heirloom our friend Debbie shared with us. I call it the Randy Hooper after her husband.
The Cherokee purples are doing really good for us as they usually do. The last few weeks of above average temperatures and not as much rain has the plants looking a little ratty here and there, but they are still setting new tomatoes.
The Randy Hoopers are planted in a different area of the garden. They are doing pretty good, but are slower to ripen than the Cherokees. The tomato is large and red with a yellow tinge to it. One plant is producing yellow tomatoes instead of red ones. I’m guessing the variety of tomatoes we grew last year cross pollinated with one of the Randy Hoopers. I plan to save seeds from some of the other plants and I hope they stay true to form. Our garden areas are so tight there’s always a chance of cross pollination.
The tommy toe varieties we planted this year are sun gold, black cherry, an orange one I call David and Carolyn (because they gave it to me years ago), a red one a subscriber shared with us, and a red one we grew last year that was really prolific. I think it’s a sweet 100.
I want to try every new tomato I hear about, there’s just so many! Matt says we should grow what we know. This year he won me over on the tomatoes and at this stage of the garden I’m glad he did.
We can our extra tomatoes for winter use in soups, stews, and sauces. Last year I used the excess tommy toes for canning tomato juice. I used a steam juicer which made the process so easy. The juice turned out so well that I’m doing it again this year and plan to for the rest of my gardening days.
Last night’s video: Summer Upside Down Cake.
Tipper
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That is an awesome bounty of tomatoes! I hear them canning lids popping already to seal the bounty for some delicious future winter feasts. Enjoy!
I remember the anticipation for the first ripe tomatoes, than seems like overnight it was picking tomatoes every day. The joy of tomatoes lined up on the back porch rail, getting to that perfect ripening. Sliced thick on a plate for each meal or sprinkled with salt for a snack. The smell of fresh home grown tomatoes. A running jumping fight with my brother tossing hard little tommy toes at me. The riches of ruby jewel jars hot from canning lined up waiting for winter vegetable soup and stews. An we thought we were poor.
Y’all are blessed with a bounty of tomatoes. Nothing like homemade tomato juice.
What is the name of the company that makes garden tools? You wrote about them in a post back in the spring.
Lenora, thank you! It is Rogue tools 🙂
Tipper, Sure wish my tomatoes had done as well as yours. We had the same problem as Randy and many others. We only did a few different plants on the deck and in a small raised bed. We’re unable to do much more, due to our physical conditions and old age. LOL . I’d love a few Cherokee Reds, just to enjoy for short while. Makes my mouth water thinking of that. Well I wish y’all well with the tomato canning and hope you enjoy all your bounty to the max. Your canned green beans are amazing looking and I have the same thoughts about them as the maters. The deer ate our green beans. Have a great day and God bless everyone today, tomorrow and always. J
I am happy for you that your tomatoes are doing so well this year. We had to replant ours because of some late freezes and then the second crop did not do well either. We have a few but no ripe ones yet. Tomatoes is the one thing we usually have in abundance. This year I am buying them. Happy canning!!
Tipper, the baskets of tomatoes you display make my mouth water for a tomato sandwich even as I eat my breakfast, even though I am enjoying such a sandwich every day here while the season lasts, plus I have frozen some – both the large and some Tommy Toes to use in cooking later when the fresh season is over. It is wonderful that you have had such a bounty.
I like my tomato juice with a lot more pulp in it than your pictures show. I cut mine into pieces, cook them until soft, then run them through a food mill. I end up with a thick red juice. The red color attests to the presence of lycopene, an antioxidant found in red and purple fruits and vegetables. It’s a lot more work to juice tomatoes my way but I think it’s worth it, for me at least.
The groundhogs that dug under my garden fence didn’t leave me much except my tomatoes. Every green bean, including the vines, was gone within a few hours. My tomatoes are producing like never before, but most have splits from the excessive heat. I can’t imagine not having canned tomatoes to make soup and chili during the winter. I dehydrate my tomatoes when I don’t have time to can them. They taste better than greenhouse tomatoes on a garden salad.
Good tomatoes fresh from the garden are a wonderful treat. Ours didn’t do very well this year and I don’t know why. Fortunately, there’s several produce markets nearby that usually have good Cherokee Purple tomatoes and I intend to buy some today. There’s nothing like homegrown though.
So happy you’re having such a bountiful harvest. I imagine those tomatoes are simply delicious.
Your picture of tomatoes looks great! We are now starting to get some tomatoes, ours are producing but not like they did last year. Last year it was all I could do to keep up with them, this year will be slower paced. Hopefully I’ll have enough to make pasta sauce to can. If not, I’ll buy some tomatoes and make our pasta sauce.
I love your steam caner. Watching you make the tomato juice was making me want one.
Most of the tomatoes and gardens around here are “done for” because of the heat and dry weather over the last 6-7 weeks. When I went to bed last night there was predicted a 100% chance of rain for the next 3 hours, but looking out the widow I have not had a drop, not even a dew. Weather radar was showing a large line of heavy rain at the Ga,SC state line but it went away before getting to me. The heat is suppose to break by Friday with a better chance of rain each day. Tipper mentioning Tommy Toe tomatoes brought back a childhood memory to me. One year my parents planted a bunch of tomato plants they had either bought or been given near the old torn away milk cow barn. All of the plants turned out to be Tommy Toe tomatoes, mother canned or froze a lot of tomato soup that year and we were still picking 5 gal. buckets of these tomatoes to give to the hog. Are others like me? I call all varieties of those small tomatoes Tommy Toe tomatoes.