This has not been the best year for tomatoes. In fact, most of our tomatoes (with the exception of Cherokee Purple) have experienced some serious cracking due to a dry July followed by heavy rains. We've also been contending with septoria leaf spot, watching as it crawls up the base of our plants. After reading up on septoria, I think we are partially to blame. We often plant our tomatoes a little closer together than is ideal, due to lack of space and our desire to plant many varieties. Have any of you been dealing with this fungus? It is quite common.
Still, the tomatoes are coming in (finally!) and I have my eye on a few ways to preserve them for winter eating:
Tomato Jam Food in Jars
DIY sun-dried tomatoes Todd Porter and Diane Cu
Salsa Rojo Local Kitchen
Do you have any favorite recipes for preserving tomatoes?
We've been dealing with this fungus, too. We still have the biggest tomatoes we've ever had, though, so I guess I can't complain too much. :) We've seen it before, but never knew what it was called, so THANK YOU for that information! Looks like we're a little to blame, as well: our 50 plants are a little too close together. We'd already planned to plant further apart next year, so hopefully that'll help! Good luck with yours and happy cooking!!
ReplyDeleteWe just made a ton of homemade tomato sauce when we had our crops in Florida a few years ago. The sauce lasted an entire year and I miss having it around. Hopefully we'll get to do tomatoes this coming spring in our new place in Texas.
ReplyDeleteNot our best tomato year either. It's interesting that your CPs are the only ones not to crack though!! They're bar none our favorite for taste but have grown so very poorly here at the new farm, and so we're thinking we may just not grow them anymore...
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