Gardening Gardening

So just lop the tops off by the 4th of July?

 

Update on double bubble chewing gum with groundhog.... The bait's been taken. All 5 pieces as far as I can tell.

 

Also, I'm getting prepped for canning tomatoes. I'll need more lemon juice though.

 

Fourth of July tomato - Google Search

"4th of July" variety tomatoes are like a really big cherry tomato.

You won't get many tomatoes from the top of a plant that big. So yes, lop off anything thats like above 4-5' and branches out the side that are past 3'. It will help the plant feed more nutrients to the fruit also instead of just growing more foliage.

 

We usually just use citric acid. Do you see any advantage to lemon juice?
We've used it in the past but i was afraid it would change the taste.

 

All I've ever used was lemon juice. The concentrate, not fresh. I'm using lime juice concentrate this time. I've got a bunch of that. I think it brings out more good flavors.

As to changing the flavor, my wife has a secret family red sauce recipe as she was raised Sicilian. So when she said that my home grown tomatoes that I canned with garlic, oregano and thyme, made the best sauce ever, I'll take that as a compliment.

 

Lol. Mr 59 lbs this week hasn't gone back there.

 

I've got slews and slews of these Sun Sugar tomatoes. I can't eat them all or give them away. Heck I can't even get the wildlife to eat them.
Can these tomatoes be canned? Any recipe or suggestion how to can them.

 

Any chance she'd give up that recipe?
And yours?

 

Tell that to my Roma that has gone over the 6' fence by about 1.5'. Taller than my indeterminate slicer tomato plant to the left of it

 

If he's eating, put some more out just for good measure. I can't recall how much it took as it's been several years ago.

 

If there's no fruit up there, cut them off.

 

I don't know why not. I would cut them up, cook them for about a minute or two and hot pack your canning jars. Add a tiny bit of salt and then process them in boiling water bath or pressure cooker. Use them in stews, sauces or soups later in the year. Add the flavoring or seasoning later when you use them.

 

I only can the tomatoes that I grow. She uses them in her sauce when u have them available to her, otherwise she uses all store bought canned mater's.

Ah, sharing her family recipe.. I don't even know it. I honestly don't think she's ever told anyone her Grammy's sauce recipe she was given. Also, I'm sure she's got it written down somewhere, but she goes off of memory.

 

My wife makes tomato soup from the excess cherry tomatoes. She'll put them in the food mill and makes tomato soup from the juices.

She's done it before without using the mill, and used the immersion blender , but that ends up having tomato skin pieces in the soup. The mill should work much better

 

I got a whole bunch of guajillo peppers tonight. This is more peppers than when I bought the dried ones in the Spring. Saving the seeds from that dried pack was worth it. There will be plenty more from the garden.

I'll save some seeds from these and dehydrate the rest. Then I can grind up the peppers and make more of the guajillo chili powder that is near impossible to get around here.

I also made a few quarts of canned tomatoes. I canned them on the gas grill side burner so that I didn't bring more heat into the house. Today was the first day that we didn't have to have the AC on in a while.

 

I was worried about the acid content. I could always add some lemon juice or try and pickle them.

That would be some interesting tomato soup using the yellow ones.

 

Why not? You might be really surprised.

 

The acid content may be lower in the yellow so the lemon juice should help.