Homegrown Tomatoes
One thing we plant every year in our garden is tomatoes. I used to can them but since I retired I can’t seem to find the time so we only plant enough to eat. I love cherry and pear tomatoes to snack on.
Do you see how the large tomato is starting to blush on the end? We picked the other red tomatoes when they looked the same way and they are almost fully ripe. Did you know that once they start to get the slightest color to them, they will not grow any larger? Ever notice how the bugs seem to be attracted to them when they are ripe red in the garden?
We don’t let our tomatoes ripen on the vine anymore, we pick them as soon as we see a little color change and bring them into the house. We lay our tomatoes on the counter and in a few days they are red ripe and ready to eat, without bug damage! If you grow your own tomatoes, give it a try.
http://www.InDianesKitchen.com
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Categories: My Garden, Vegetables/Slaws/Salads
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Thanks so much!
Thanks for the tip. We did it some years in the past, and its a great difference to the industrial produced tomatoes. xx Michael
You’re welcome!
We planned tomatoes in our garden too. Love the homegrown tomatoes 🍅 Thanks for the tips!
You’re welcome and I hope you have a great crop this year!
Being Italian I can appreciate all your work here. Nothing like home grown tomatoes. Mix them with some sweet onion, garlic, salt and pepper and some good olive oil. Dip some crusty Italian bread and enjoy. That is what God serves your first heavenly dinner.
Your killing me by making me so hungry! Who would think anything could be as good as fresh tomatoes and then you said with bread! I think I will stop by for dinner! 🤣
I love the smell of tomato plants. I wish they tasted the same…
Hahaha do you smell them often?
Not too often.
Still Life in Delicious! Nothing better than when all the beautiful heirlooms come into being!
Absolutely Dorothy! We always hate it when September comes and the tomatoes are done.
It’s so wonderful how you grow what you need and you live from your garden. I did not know that about tomatoes – they stop growing after they start turning colour!
Thanks Ab! Wait until you see what I did with my cherry tomatoes!
Love your variety of tomatoes!
I did not know tomatoes will not grow larger once they’ve started to get a colour … that’s really interesting! Yes, it’s strange how busy you get when you retire, hey 😅.
I would love to be your kind of busy and travel! As soon as my husband retires in less than 3 years we will too!
I will give it a try! Thanks for the tip!
And yes being retired… life is busier!
My motto is… I wake up with nothing to do and go to bed with only half of it done. 🤣😂
Hahaha how true!
Your tomatoes are real beauties. Dom does the same thing regarding harvesting the tomatoes and it does work like a charm.
It sure does, thank you Bernadette!
Lovely! I’ve actually managed to grow tomatoes this year and promptly gone on holiday.
Thanks!
I didn’t know that about tomatoes, thanks. It’s funny that you have “less” time since you retired 🙂
Yes because I a a free babysitter! Lol
When I used to grow tomatoes, I picked them before they were fully ripe, worried that bugs or critters would get to them before I did. My mom always let hers ripen on the vine, saying the skin wasn’t tough if you did that, and she believed they tasted better. When the vines started losing leaves when summer was full-on, she’d cover the ripening tomatoes in the garden with newspaper sheets clipped with clothespins to the stems, to keep them from blistering. I learned how to can tomato juice while still at home, and some years—if I can find a local supply—can a few dozen jars. Nothing as good as a homegrown tomato. Mmmmm…
Fascinating! I miss canning and all the other things I use to can. Maybe someday, when the babysitting grandkids is done I can get back to it. My basement is full of canning supplies and cases of jars. You are so right, fresh homegrown tomatoes are the best. Especially with BLT’s and toasted cheese sandwiches.
Oh my God, yes! And you can’t make a decent BLT with store-bought tomatoes. Another memory of my mother concerning tomatoes….she saved the fat from frying bacon to fry potatoes and such with, and when she ate sliced tomatoes, she drizzled them with melted bacon grease, and sprinkled them with salt and pepper. My 1st husband baked whole tomatoes. He sliced just enough off the bottom so they would sit in the baking pan, slice off the top, take out a little of the white core if there was any, then mound them with buttery cracker crumbs, sprinkle with basil and salt, then bake for about 20 minutes if I remember correctly. You had to eat them in a cereal bowl because the juice would literally squirt out when you cut into them. Heavenly! I hadn’t thought about them in years. I kept most of his recipes (he died many years ago). I’ll have to see if I can find it.
OMG I have bacon grease in my refrigerator and use it often but NEVER thought of drizzling it over sliced tomatoes. Your mother was a genius! Lol I love stuffed tomatoes and today for a snack I stuffed cherry tomatoes. I will post it soon.
Looking forward to reading…I’ve never heard of stuffed tomatoes, cherry or otherwise.
My sister is growing tomatoes this year, I shall pass on to her your excellent tip Diane.
We were nervous the first time we tried it so we only did the first six or so. However, they ripened pretty quickly so we never stopped. Now we even do our cherry tomatoes because they always seemed to split when we left them on the vine.
Using fruits and vegetables of one’s own garden means a lot ,it is a sheer pleasure to taste them.Thank you very much for sharing.Take care.🙏😊🌹
You are so right Francis! Thank you and have a great week!
My pleasure dear madam.🙏😊🌹
What beauties!
Thank you Angela we love August just for the tomatoes!
My problem was never bugs since it was the other critters in the woods behind us that would get them first.😂
Yes our gardens are a free for all…lol
Wow! Those look amazing! Much better than the one I find in the stores or farmer’s market. I bet they taste better too! – Neek
Thank you and yes they taste wonderful. Next up is Bacon, Lettuce & Tomato Sandwich!!! I look forward to these every August when the tomatoes are ripe.
Yum! Can’t wait to see the post!
I laughed at your comment about now you’re retired you’re too busy to can etc…..yes, that is so true!
It really is Joni! It seems with the pandemic there are no babysitters anymore except us. 🤦🏽♀️
I always leave them on the vine to ripen or very close to unless blight threatens. Yield is slightly less but flavour is so much more.
We can’t do that or they split, rot or we get bugs. We don’t lose any tomatoes this way. I’m glad it works well for you.
I have heard this before, Diane! Beautiful tomatoes!
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It really works well for us, thank you Mitzy!
That is interesting Diane. Are those Heirloom Tomatoes at the top? We used to like those for BLTs. We only planted tomatoes once – my father years ago. They were left on the vine til bright red (as we were not savvy like you) and my father went out and found the squirrels pulled them off, took a bite, then discarded them. The birds also pecked them. 🙂
They are called Big Boy tomatoes and I don’t believe they are heirloom Linda. The birds use to always peck ours too! The most irritating thing was the tomatoes would crack and then the bugs went in them and that grosses me out. I won’t even eat a cherry tomato if it splits.
I was going by the “shoulders” of the tomato which made me ask, as I recall buying Heirloom like that in the past. The “Big Boy” tomatoes are certainly delicious looking Diane and it is BLT time. Yes, those cracked tomatoes with worms or bugs in them were not fun. My father was not successful at all with his garden.
Gorgeous!
Thanks we love August just for the garden. I walked out there today and had a handful of blueberries, yellow pear and cherry tomatoes. I don’t know why they taste so good right off the vine when they are warm from the sun. Lol
It’s so true– the best flavour is warm off the vine 🙂 I’m hoping I can have a garden again next year– homegrown tomatoes are the best.
I always felt if I couldn’t have a garden, I would at least plant some tomato plants in a pot. I have to have my tomatoes. Lol
That’s what I was doing, but we’ve been trying to move, so I haven’t wanted to plant anything in pots only to have to move them (the houseplants are going to be bad enough). Unfortunately, the situation keeps dragging on so it’s been a while since I’ve grown tomatoes 🙁
It’s like riding a bike, it will come right back to you!
I hope so 🙂
Beautiful! I know you enjoyed them.
We sure did and they are almost done now. 😩