(Sunday scheduling fail by FYWP!)
From commentor Satby:
I grow only heirloom tomatoes in my garden, along with the other stuff. It was a predominately cooler summer than normal here in SW MI, so the tomatoes were a bit slow to come in, but when they did, whammo! For the past week I’ve been canning, dehydrating (which has been more work than I think it’s worth) and freezing what I can. As I live in orchard and fruit country, I’ve also been doing jams and jellies; low sugar with Pomona’s Pectin, which I recommend to everyone.
And then I discovered the Ball Fresh-Tech and tomato-basil jam…. and there’s no going back. I’ve tweaked the basic recipe you can find online anywhere to use balsamic vinegar instead of lemon juice and it’s such a hit with the skeptics that it’s now one of the jams most people ask me to make. For those with an oversupply of cherry tomatoes especially, it’s a great way to keep them from going to waste.
I went almost the whole month of July with tiny little green tomatoes (or none at all) on the plants because it was so cool, and then we had a couple of weeks of 90+ temps and they finally took off. But that meant that almost all of the tomatoes ripened at once, which left a lot of them rotting before I could get to them. I bought grafted tomatoes this year, and I’m unlikely to do it again; they weren’t any more productive than the volunteers that sprouted from last years crops. And I had as a result about 20 plants; which I never would have planted on purpose for just me. I got black krims, a lot sungold cherries, and a couple of beefsteak types as volunteers; I had planted pinapples, Cherokee purples (those were a complete failure, or they sent me the wrong plants), indigo roses, chocolate cherries, and Orange Whoppers. What can I say? I like colors.
Recipe below the fold, as written online with my changes in parentheses where applicable. I usually make only apple butter and crabapple jelly, but I’ve been a woman unchained with this Fresh Tech jelly maker. It makes small batches, which is perfect for me, and so far I’ve made about 50 1/2 pints of different types of jelly, including a merlot. My new favorite kitchen gadget!
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What’s going on in your gardens this week?
<del>Sunday</del> Monday Garden Chat: Tomato Bounty (with Bonus Recipe!)Post + Comments (53)