Tomatoes!

I have beautiful, delicious red tomatoes from my garden. I read several things to produce thriving tomato plants. I put a banana peel in the bottom of the hole when I planted the tomato plant. I also ground up egg shells in water and poured them on the dirt around the plant. (I would not recommend the ground up egg shells in a blender. It was very messy and hard to pour out. I think I would just smash the egg shells into the dirt and stir them around next time). I was told once the plants are healthy and full, there is a product you buy to help them produce lots of blossoms. We bought that and it really helped as well as a type of fertilizer for tomatoes. (I'll get you the names of these soon) - I'm not at home right now. Tomato plants like to be watered regularly and put in full sun.

Also, as almost everyone knows - when planting tomato plants, plant it deeply so 2/3's of the plant is underground. The stem will develop roots and make the plant stronger and healthier.

If I could plant only one thing in a garden - it would be TOMATOES. There is nothing comparable in the store to them! I love the way my hands smell after touching any part of a tomato plant.

I have been making fresh salsa with them every chance I get. We've had a lot of salads and I've made bruschetta which was so amazingly delicious and easy. If you have tomatoes, onions, garlic and fresh basil try this bruschetta recipe. It is such a delicious TREAT! (This recipe qualifies to be on this blog with fresh tomatoes, basil, onions, garlic and olive oil.) Just go easy on the bread!

http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/bruschetta_with_tomato_and_basil/

Anyway, I researched freezing salsa verses canning it. I decided to freeze it. I have chosen to use my garden tomatoes to make salsa. We LOVE IT AT OUR HOME! Using a basic recipe I diced the tomatoes, onions, jalapeno's , green peppers (I tried the recipe with and without green peppers and REALLY LIKE THEM in it) from my garden. I bought garlic and the cilantro and lemon. I also have used fresh lime in homemade salsa.

I made one batch of salsa very hot by adding an extra jalapeno and some of it's seeds. It was so good. I have about 9 bags of salsa so far.

Things I have learned:

1.) Cilantro and tomatoes do not harvest at the same time in Ohio. I guess you could freeze the Cilantro, or go buy it fresh.

2.) There is not a good way I have found (yet) to chop tomatoes quickly with their skin on without mushing them. I hand diced them all. If any one finds a product to do this, PLEASE LET ME KNOW!

3.) Green peppers, onions and jalapeno's all are quickly chopped with a slap chop kind of product. It diced them so quickly and efficiently. My personal preference for garlic is a garlic press.

4.) The Roma tomato's are best for salsa. They are dense, have meaty flesh and have low moisture content.

5.) I "flash froze" the salsa first on a cookie sheet with waxed paper on it. When we went to freeze it, it was hard and solid and had no moisture content leaking out. When we used the food saver to freeze freshly made salsa there was a lot of juices in the spill over tray. I'm thinking flash freezing is really the way to go with most things.

6.) You can freeze tomatoes whole. We washed and dried tomatoes, and used the food saver to get all of the air out of the bag and then I froze them. I am told when you are ready to use them, you just run the tomato under hot water and peel off the skin and chop or blend. You then can use the tomato in about anything you use canned diced tomatoes in. I haven't done this, but have heard it works great.

7.) Tomatoes like their soil constantly moist. You can obtain that by putting grass clippings or hay over the dirt to hold in the moisture.

Here's the recipe I used. I really liked it. I really liked this website where I found it.

http://www.ag.ndsu.edu/pubs/yf/foods/fn584w.htm

FRESH SALSA

1-2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
¹/₃ large onion, finely chopped
½ large green bell pepper, finely chopped
½ to 1 whole jalapeno pepper, finely chopped
3-4 large Roma (paste) tomatoes, chopped
1 small bunch of cilantro leaves, finely chopped
Juice from ¼ lemon

Mix ingredients together and serve, altering the recipe to suit your own taste preferences. Store covered in the refrigerator. To keep calorie and fat content low, serve with baked tortilla chips.

(Note: This salsa recipe has not been tested for safety for canning/ processing purposes.)

For those REALLY interested in tomatoes and potential problems and solutions (we had a few split and a few with some white flesh inside) see this website:

http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/HS200

Other websites are:

http://www.njtomato.com/growtip7.htm

http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/hort/hil/hil-8107.html

http://www.bonnieplants.com/LearnGrowLibrary/GardeningMadeEasy/tabid/79/ID/60/Plant-Tomatoes-Deep-Deep-Deep.aspx

Freezing Corn and Zucchini

I have been a busy bee. Someone gave me a nice harvest of corn and zucchini. I got my husband on board (a very smart thing to do) and he's been helping me freeze it all.

I have prayed to live more providently. My food saver was broken. I asked my husband to check it out, and he quickly got it working again. I believe this was a direct answer to prayer. (We were considering going out and buying another one). In the last few days we have prepared 19 bags of corn and 8 bags of zucchini for the freezer. I made 8 loaves of zucchini bread and have five loaves in the freezer.

There is a deep satisfaction of storing food away. It's what our ancestors used to do. The harvest would come, and they would work hard to prepare and store food away for the winter months. In my religion, we are taught that the story of Joseph interpreting the dream of Pharaoh (with seven years of plenty and seven years of famine) is there for us to learn the same lesson of storing up during plenty for the famine ahead. We believe the years of famine will come. (I've wondered if that is as much a financial famine as it is a physical famine).

THINGS I HAVE LEARNED:

1.) Two working in concert together to prepare food for storage is so much better than one.

2.) Grated zucchini has so much liquid in it, even when it's drained and pressed well. Either put it in a baggie first and then use the food saver, or just use freezer bags. I sliced the zucchini up in rectangle chunks (to store it for Zucchini lasagna) and it worked great in the food saver - no juice leaking at all.

3.) I asked someone who knows WHY food gets freezer burn so fast. She said the reason is that the frost free freezers don't get cold enough to keep the food ice cold. (They have to get warm enough to melt the ice, then freeze the food, then melt the ice, etc. ). So she suggested to get as much air out of the bags as possible (food saver), and use a good quality bag.

4.) Quick bread freezes beautifully just wrapped in aluminum foil. Don't try to food saver it. It squishes it down big time.

5.) The skin of fruits and vegetables has the most nutrients of the food (I did know this). Try to leave the skin on whenever possible. I grated the zucchini with the skin on for the bread and for the freezer. I will get back to you how it works with the skin on in the freezer. Some people told me to take the skin off the zucchini because it might get too tough in the freezer. I am experimenting on this.