A Tidal Wave of Tomatoes
Welcome to our gardens!
It’s that time of year again. The tiny seeds we started indoors way back in March have turned into a gigantic invasive jungle that threatens to overwhelm me with tomatoes.
I made this illustration a year ago when the tomatoes tried to take over the backyard. Thankfully they did not succeed. We ate most of them as pizza sauce.
In reality, having lots of fresh tomatoes is a wonderful problem. Even though I’ll be spending a good part of every day over the next month picking and processing tomatoes, we will enjoy them throughout the year.
Part of yesterday’s tomatoes harvest
We grow a lot of other vegetables, herbs, and flowers. But I don’t think any of them are as high-maintenance as tomatoes. Some vegetables like squashes (squashi? What is the plural of squash?) and potatoes last for months in a cool, dry place of storage. But tomatoes need to be processed or eaten pretty quickly before they spoil. This, and their prolificness, is what can make one feel overwhelmed with them this time of year.
We like growing heirloom varieties. Most of what you see here are black strawberry, blue cream berry, spoon, and roma. Atomic grape aren’t quite ripe yet.
After we pick and wash the tomatoes, I cut them up and stew them for 30 minutes or so to loosen the seeds and skins.
My mom spent countless hours using this strainer to make tomato sauce, grape juice, and apple butter.
After the stewed tomatoes cool, I get out my mom’s old strainer. I have a lot of great memories of my mom using this strainer. Every year, she filled the shelves of our storage room and our extra freezers with canned, dehydrated, and frozen food. My favorite was when she made apple butter. It made the whole house smell like amazing. Even though she canned many pints of it, the apple butter never seemed to last long!
Once the tomatoes are strained, I simmer the juice for hours until it’s the right consistency. Today it’s going to be pizza sauce. Since Chris is truly the master chef of the family he will add the seasonings. He has a knack for making food taste awesome. Finally we’ll freeze the sauce, pre-measured, in ziplocs.
Time to stir the sauce! If it takes me a while to post again, you’ll know I’m just busy keeping tomatoes at bay!