Tomatoes

We had twelve tomato plants this year. They ended up producing quite a bit of fruit, however they were slow to ripen. We were expecting a freeze at the beginning of October, so we ended up picking the remainder of our tomatoes while they were still green. We wrapped them in paper, stuck them in a box, and a few weeks later some of them had turned red. We have a few green ones left, so they are still in the box.

I like tomatoes, so when they went on sale at our local grocery store I went a little crazy. I bought 30 pounds and added them to what we already had. Then I got home and didn’t know what to do with them. I decided to do this:I boiled them. Look! The skin is already starting to come off.Then I stuck them in an ice cold water bath and peeled the skins off.Just hanging out in their ice cold water.

Those skins just wrinkle up and pretty much fall off on their own.

Yikes! Naked tomatoes!

Then I stuck them in a meat grinder.

If you’re the type of person with texture issues, then sticking them through the grinder is perfect for you. If you like chunkier tomatoes then don’t stick them through the grinder. You won’t like the texture.

I decided to make salsa and pasta sauce! Now we’ll see how long it all lasts.

Garden

We just harvested our first tomato at our new house!  It even looks like we'll have quite a few more.  This is pretty exciting for me because the last time I tried to grow tomatoes they were picked or eaten before we got to them.  We did have one incident this year.  One of the children brought a green tomato to me.  It had "fallen" on the ground.    Nobody would confess, so we can only guess what happened...

So far we also have a little zucchini growing.  We'll see if we get anymore.  That's about it in our garden this year.  If all goes well this year, maybe next year we'll plant a few more crops.  I am beginning to think that my brown thumb is starting to turn green, or maybe Jared has done a good job watering.  :)