Yesterday, after putting another coat of primer on the walls in the kitchen {I’m up to 3 coats so far and I can STILL see bands of blue from where the previous owners painted around their upper cabinets} I harvested another round of tomatoes.
33.1 pounds from the kitchen garden and 36.4 pounds from the religious family sized garden.
Clearly, there’s not going to be a shortage of tomato products at our place this winter. 😉
Already on the shelves:
- Tomato Sauce
- Canned Tomatoes
- Salsa
- Tomato Bruschetta
- Tomato Jam
- Ketchup
- Hot Sauce
Soon I’ll be making
- BBQ Sauce
- Salsa Verde
- Piccalilli
Bumble Bee Tomato
When I planted our 68 tomato plants back in late spring, I wasn’t sure if I had planted too many, or not enough. But it’s looking like 68 might be the magic number for us.
And that’s with getting our fill of fresh tomatoes along with giving away 30 pounds to The Kiln Guy, and some to our neighbors.
Why is growing a purple cherokee tomato WITHOUT cracks so hard!?
Fresno peppers. Have you tried them?
The Duck Lady gave me a plant and not only is it a fantastic pepper to add to salsas, but it has a nice kick to it too. A little hotter than a jalapeno, but not so hot you feel like your mouth is on fire.
Green beans. Round 5 {or is it 6?} should be ready to start harvesting any day now.
And our celery. It’s done really well this year too.
It’s not quite as big as the stalks they sell in the store, but it’s super flavorful and will make a nice addition to soups and other recipes this winter.
Our corn. It’s still there. Maybe the deer are waiting until it’s ready before they come in and clear us out.
The most exciting thing happening in the garden this week though, is the winter squash. It seems like every day I go out there to check on them. They’ve doubled in size.
The squash vines in the lasagna garden are so huge, I can’t even walk around to get a good count on what we’ve got growing because I’m afraid I’ll step on something.
If things keep going well as they have been though, I think I’ll be baking a lot of squash pies this winter {that is, if my oven ever gets here}.
Gardening in Maine. I thought it would be tricky, but so far it’s been a really good experience. We may get a later start than a lot of places, but it all seems to work out in the end.
Well, that’s what’s going on in my garden. What’s happening at your place? Are you starting to see a lot of squash on the vines? Is your tomato harvest starting to slow down? Curious minds want to know.
Have a good one,
~Mavis
Elle says
I am oozing jealousy. So far this year? 4.5 pounds from 26 plants. This Idaho heat has been brutal on tomato flowers 🙁
Happy canning!
Mavis Butterfield says
Oh my word Elle!!!! So few tomatoes. How disapointing. 🙁
Diane says
Maybe if you set up a shade cloth to give them a little protection they would kick into gear again. I know they start producing when it gets to a certain hot temperature.
Meg C says
Hi Mavis! Unrelated to gardening … I’m not sure what brand paint you use but I want to share that when we moved into our house the previous owners had painted 2 walls of one room chocolate brown and 2 walls of another room navy blue! We thought it would be a nightmare to get rid of those colors but we put on 2 coats of primer & used Sherwin Williams mid-level paint and none of the previous colors showed when we were done. The SW paint is amazing – it does a fantastic job. We had a friend working there who advised us and their advice was spot on. Just thought I’d share our success story.
Julie says
I wonder if painting stain blocker paint might help/be necessary on that blue coming thru.
Garden harvest looks great.
Pat says
Count your blessings that your tomatoes are doing so well. I read an article yesterday that said there will likely be shortages on the shelves this winter on tomato products, ketchup, salsa, etc. due to the California drought. Evidently most of the processed tomato products in the country start there. You’ll be enjoying your harvest while others are scouring the stores looking for canned tomatoes.
suzanne says
Your tomatoes are beautiful. The Jimmy Nardelos you recommended are doing fantastic here PNW. Did you ever plant the pink celery? I was hoping to get opinions on that one.
Mavis Butterfield says
I did, and they all died {my fault}. I will try again next year. Glad you like the Jimmy Nardelos.
Ashley Bananas says
I would love to see how you store things like the green beans and squash for the freezer. my growing season is opposite of yours as I’m in Southern Florida. All our plants would just go to seed in the heat we have. I usually start planting things in late September and then by October the temperatures start to calm down and we do most of our growing over the winter through maybe March here. After that it starts to get hot again.
The kitchen looks great as do your produce!
Susan H. says
I only have about a dozen tomatoes planted around my yard. 4 kinds of cherry, a lemon boy, brandywine and a couple of mystery plants. The cherry are still producing well. 3 of the slicing are gone including the mystery one. It was huge, looked like a hillybilly tomato. My neighbor thinks it was a Kelloggs. Whatever it was the sweetest!. Peppers still producing. Half runner beans just now setting on. We have been picking scarlet beans for weeks. Really recommend them. Cucumbers winding down. We enjoy harvesting!
Susan H. says
CORRECTION! ROYAL BURGANDY BEANS not scarlet Beans! Oops
Lindsey says
Your photos reminded me of the year I was taken over by some sort of tomato fever and planted 90 plants. We ended up having an early freeze so the night before the husband and I picked all the tomatoes. We soon ran out of room on the counters so ended up moving furniture, putting newspaper on the hardwood livingroom floor and over 1000 tomatoes took up residence. It was a nightmare of excess. That was the summer I forced myself to learn how to can and dehydrate.
Angie says
I admire you for proceeding with canning without a wholly functioning kitchen – you are a trooper!
I planted about 30 tomato plants and the harvest this year has been mediocre. I don’t blame the plants as I live in the South and my garden did not get planted until the first weekend in June. Shortly after that the heat began to get really, really brutal so growth and production was stunted at best. Even so I am still harvesting all varieties of peppers and my field peas – Crowder & White Acre have begun producing as well. These items are hardy until the frost so I will leave them in the ground and see what else we can get from them. The cucumbers, squash and zucchini are long ago done and the green beans….goodness they are pitiful. Last year I grew enough green beans to feed us for the entire year. This year I have harvested 15 total beans.
I am determined to continue to garden as I love it dearly. With the coming holiday weekend I will be pulling out almost all of my plants, weeding, adding manure and soil and planting seeds for my fall garden. I am planting another crop of green beans because I just can’t give up and there is a lot of sunshine left to be had in the South yet. Also planting mustard greens, collard greens, swiss chard, bok choy, snow peas, shelling peas, celery, carrots, kale, spinach, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, mixed salad greens, and romaine lettuce. I am hoping for an abundant harvest but only time & weather will tell. There are many things on this list I have grown well and many that have not gone well. Gardening is all about try and try again right?
Diana says
I’m in GA and am having the same issues. I’m putting out my fall crops now and hoping for a decent harvest.
Jim says
Based on my close to 60 years of vegetable gardening, my suggestion on preventing tomatoes from developing cracks is to water them frequently and deeply, as well as providing ample food and a deep mulch layer to retain the moisture. From what I understand uneven watering, either human or natural, causes the internal tomato to absorb water faster than its skin grows. The result is cracked skin. 🙂
Elise in the SF Bay Area says
I have an Arizona pepper plant, and I really like it too. I just made a half batch of your Coscto-like salsa and used 2 of those instead of jalapenos 🙂 I don’t love the flavor of jalapenos. They are a nice kick, and I really like the flavor of the red ones. The green ones are a little “grassy” for me, but still better than a jalapeno 🙂 THIS particular plant is actually left over from last summer, we had a decent amount of rain over “winter” (SF Bay Area), so my peppers ALL over-wintered! The plants are HUGE now! Like 3-5 ft tall… In tomato cages. I’m thinking of also planting habaneros and pablanos this winter or EARLY spring (no fear of frost here).
Dot says
Do you and your husband really eat all the things you make out of your tomatoes?
Dot says
My tomatoes are just starting to set on. I live in Ks. The extreme heat has been hard on our gardens.
judy egan says
what a beautiful sight!!!!! You are doing such a great job. So happy things are going so well.
Diana says
I’m in GA and my harvests have been pretty mediocre. Most of the spring/summer crops have been pulled and I’m planting fall crops – broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, etc.
I’ve also been doing a lot of experimenting. The bush green beans I planted in a large raised planter did terribly (I got a handful from about a dozen plants) while the 3 plants I put in a small railing planter did great and are still producing. I probably harvested more from them so far (with more on the plants, yet) than I did with the other crop.
I also planted a lot of old seed – just to get rid of it and if something came up, then all the better.
Some ‘mystery seeds’ came up in places I didn’t plant. I currently have an eggplant that got HUGE and has 3 fruit on it in my railing planter – and I didn’t put it there. I thought I was planting a pinto bean seedling. I’ve got black eyed peas growing in a large pot that I thought I planted butterbeans in.
It’s been really strange, lol, but at least they’ve been productive.
Heather K says
Here in Western Illinois – harvesting quite a few Roma, Grape & Beefsteak tomatoes. Freezing whole as I go to sauce later. I may try to dehydrate some this year too. Have had a few green peppers. Cukes are done for the first round. A little late but planted another set of cukes and beans. Beans did not fill out as I had hoped this year. Need to get them in the ground earlier next year. Our white peach tree has done well – no raccoons to fend off or they are lazy & eat the peaches that fall to the ground. I was prepared to implement covering the peaches with clear plastic containers from my winter salad & fresh fruits/veggies purchased off season (hubs showed me A video he found). Freezing peaches and did a batch of jam. I make constant deliveries to share the abundance of whatever we have with the neighbors. Gardening is my therapy even when it doesn’t always go as planned. I do enjoy providing for the bees, birds, and butterflies. I can spend all day watching nature.
Emily says
To quote my husband “ my favorite part is that you have tomatoes everywhere.” I may have exceeded the space in the kitchen with my harvest. I’ve already canned salsa for the year so I think these will likely go to fresh eating and sharing. I am curious though, have you ever frozen tomatoes for later use?
Meg C. says
Emily, we freeze tomatoes when we have the beginning of our harvest when there aren’t enough to get all the canning supplies out. We remove the skins, freeze in freezer ziplock bags and stack them so they freeze as flat as possible. We use them just like canned but they do tend to be a bit more watery than canned so be prepared for that aspect. I just drain it off but it might bother some people.
You could also cook them down & make plain tomato purée or pizza sauce to freeze for recipes throughout the winter.
cat says
I have! Depends what you want to do with them later on but they cook right down for sauces and such!
Cat says
I’m in the prairies (canada) my tomatoes are just starting to get big enough to ripen. I probably shouldn’t have planted a garden, I keep forgetting to water this year with everything we’re renovating in the house. Currently also doing a kitchen and just got my cabinets yesterday!!