A fitting tribute to a super summer growing season, I made a big pot of red sauce today from my tomatoes! It's the first time in years that I've had enough tomatoes to do this. It included a mix of San Marzano Gigante, New Girl, Brandywine and Purple Calabash tomatoes. I added some of my onions and peppers. Also oregano, thyme and chives.
We had some of the fresh sauce on pasta tonight and it is fantastic!!!
I will freeze the rest.
I have been picking my tomatoes as soon as they turn a bit red and keeping them in a wooden box that I found at a local wine store. Today I used all of the red tomatoes, then washed and replaced the green ones to continue ripening.
9 comments:
Hi there! I envy you with all the tomatoes from your garden...we were so dry where I live in wisconsin that nothing grew, havent mowed the lawn here in months!
Fantastic, have missed reading your blog, haven't been able to use the internet for a few weeks. What a marvelous crop. Our tomato crop has been next to none, shame as like you I love home made tomato sauce for pasta etc. Never mind, I am already thinking about next year!!!
Enjoy!
Marian (LondonUK)
Delicious sounding mix for red gravy! This is the weekend I usually can up tomatoes, like having gold in the pantry...
Even frozen, homemade marinara is so much better than what you buy from a store. Another thing I do with tomatoes (when I have them) is to can tomato juice ... can't keep it on the shelf.
Looks delicious!!
Great tomato year here in the Boston area.
About San Marzano Tomatoes - I grew them when I was in the Belmont area, but have had poor results with them in southwest Boston (West Roxbury area). Do you have any clues as to the microclimate or whatever could be the difference?
What an impressive haul from the garden. You have a very lovely gardening blog, and it's a joy to read it.
Z
I find that I have very different results with them in different years. Not so sure why, but I suspect that the weather and where I place them in the garden can make a big difference. Some years the tomatoes end up very small with few fruits per plant.
Last year in particular, they did not do well. I planted them next to a dense, tall stand of corn. And I planted them too close together.
My guess is San Marzano's need ideal conditions to do well. Full sun, lots of airflow, regular irrigation and very rich soil.
My parents' tomatoes north of the city suffered from the dry weather this year. I think their soil has very high drainage and its hard to keep up with watering if there isn't regular rainfall.
I used some of this sauce again last night and it is the best I've ever tasted. I made an eggplant and risotto casserole with red sauce that was sooo good. Next year, I'll see what I can do to repeat this year's success. I'd like to plant even more San Marzano's if I have the space.
Thanks for your response, kathy. It confirms what I already suspected - San Ms are just fussy. This year I crammed too many tomatoes into the space because I got a couple of extra plants from other gardeners. I'll try San M again, but maybe coddle it.
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