Just curious...

[cdbva]

For those of you who grow 20 or 30 or more tomato plants: What do you do with them all?

Christine

[cottonpicker]

Eat some, give some away to friends, make sauce with some.....

[camochef]

Originally Posted by cdbva

For those of you who grow 20 or 30 or more tomato plants: What do you do with them all?

Christine

Christine,
As someone that grows between 200-300 tomatoes each year for the past few years, I'm afraid you just wouldn't understand. It's a disorder, that we just cannot escape from. I'm going to try and break the habit again this year, but I say that every year!
I'm camochef and I'm a tomato addict!

[TomNJ]

90% of my yield gets canned as salsa, soup, and sauce. The remaining 10% are instantly and eagerly devoured.

TomNJ

[Blueaussi]

Eat a bunch, can a few, give away a bunch.

You can generate a lot of good karma with a home grown tomato or two.

[brokenbar]

I have a sun-dried tomato business (and please note: The term "Sun-dried" is now the industry standard for dehydrated tomatoes...sounds better.) I have nearly 300 plants every year. I also processed 250 pounds of tomato's into sauce. I gave this away as "presents" with my special marinara sauce recipe for canning after canning 49 quarts for my family. I also make "Snappy Tom", Salsa, tomato soup, pizza sauce and taco sauce. In addition, canned diced tomatoes with green chilies & canned whole tomatoes. I don't do "ketchup" but have friends who do. I have become extremely popular with my neighbors.

[SunnyK]

Originally Posted by cottonpicker

Eat some, give some away to friends, make sauce with some.....

Ditto .....although since there are just 2 of us in the house that really love the 'maters(the kids tolerate them LOL)...me and hubby eat a ton, give a few away(have started giving away seedlings as well since I cant seem to restrain myself when sowing seeds LOL) ....and I make loads of sauce.

[nosnow]

Nary a one shall go to waste.

Home canned salsa, vegetable juice, pasta sauce, chili sauce, catsup, etc. and just plain old canned tomatoes! More goes in the dehydrator, and as a last resort I'll just chop 'em and freeze 'em, but my 2 deep freezers are usually full with my other bounties.

They're all good, and for canning, I don't give a darn what color, shape or size, It's all good! I find that the stranger the color of the finished product, the tastier it is.

Joan

[Farmette]

Like Camochef, I find myself in the midst of this disorder. Unlike Camochef, I am in the beginning stages. I started with 8 plants and last year I NEEDED to grow many more. I started just short of 100, planted 40 and gave away the remaining plants. It was hard, actually it reminded me of when I bred Cocker Spaniels and it came time to get the puppies to their new homes. Between the plants given to their new owners, the jars of salsa and the fresh tomatoes given to friends, I had a great experience this last season. Now, I am finding that I NEED to grow even more plants of more varieties!

[cdbva]

Originally Posted by camochef

Christine,
As someone that grows between 200-300 tomatoes each year for the past few years, I'm afraid you just wouldn't understand. It's a disorder, that we just cannot escape from. I'm going to try and break the habit again this year, but I say that every year!
I'm camochef and I'm a tomato addict!

Ah, no criticism was intended. I just wondered -- in a rather shocked way, admittedly.
And I'm well on my way down the slippery slope. I want to know what they all taste like. I want to see what they look like, and gaze into their shiny red/black/ greenness until I understand their perfect assymetry, and why they are the way they are.

And I'm wondering what I'll do with them all -- I have room for about 12 plants -- even as I think about finding space for more. But from what you all say, it sounds as if way will open to deal with the extras.

Christine

[Worth1]

Originally Posted by cdbva

Ah, no criticism was intended. I just wondered -- in a rather shocked way, admittedly.
And I'm well on my way down the slippery slope. I want to know what they all taste like. I want to see what they look like, and gaze into their shiny red/black/ greenness until I understand their perfect assymetry, and why they are the way they are.

And I'm wondering what I'll do with them all -- I have room for about 12 plants -- even as I think about finding space for more. But from what you all say, it sounds as if way will open to deal with the extras.

Christine

Well that does it she's HOOKED!!!!

Worth

[Fusion_power]

12 step program for the tomato holic.

1. We admitted we were powerless over tomatoes—that our lives had become unmanageable.
2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.
4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
5. Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
6. Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
7. Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.
8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.
9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.
11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.
12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to other tomatoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.




I am here to help you. I will feed your addiction.


DarJones - who really does feed the addiction by selling thousands of tomato plants each year.

BTW, don't under any conditions get the idea I am making fun of 12 step programs. They are invaluable for people with real addictive behavior problems.

[nosnow]

Hello Christine,

Welcome to the dark side! You'll soon find yourself just looking for that one "perfect " tomato, never ever grown before. And then you'll say 'PERHAPS, I can squeeze in one more", until your friends and family can't stand you any more, you have every horizontal surface in your house covered with varying shades of delicious ripeness, and even your stained gardening T-Shirts can't stand another moment around you.
Start with 12 plants and you'll soon find that you're lacking by at least 35-50.
Again, welcome to our world!

Oh yea, do a search here, I think a well known member has a great heirloom offering, "Yellow Streak".

Joan

[Worth1]

I'm still trying to get around "perfect assymetry".

Worth

[kimpossible]

And seed saving ... don't forget seed saving!!