On Wed, 11 May 2011 16:11:44 -0700, Sue wrote:

I am really late getting my garden in this year and finally have the
ground prepared. Whatever tomatoes I planted last year just didn't do
well for canning purposes. I'm not starting from seeds and get my
plants at Lowe's or Home Depot. Any suggestion on a good variety to
can (that I would find at either of those two stores)? My garden is
*very* small so I can't put in too many plants.
Sue in the San Joaquin Valley of Calif.

Romas usually make good sauces and are meatier than slicers. I like
Viva Italia but unfortunately it doesn't seem to be found in most
stores as either seed or plant. I mail order seeds for almost all of
my tomatoes.
--
USA
North Carolina Foothills
USDA Zone 7a
To find your extension office
http://www.csrees.usda.gov/Extension/index.html

A few years ago I made an attempt at canning catsup. That was just too
much work for one measly pint. I'm guessing that making tomato sauce
would be the same. I tried making spaghetti sauce once, but it came out
bitter. Tried twice and didn't like the results either time. I thought
I'd burned it the first time since my stove doesn't turn down as low as
it should so the second time I stirred it for the entire 20 or 30
minutes. Waaay too much work and still awful. I've always grown some
Sweet 100s that were just delicious eating tomatoes. Almost like candy.
Sue

I make a years supply of sauce at the end of August or in early September
which is the end of my growing season. I violate the rule about pealing
the tomatoes, I found that it's unnecessary if you use enough garlic, so
my procedure is fairly simple. I use a blender to puree the tomatoes along
with the garlic and herbs, I use a handful of garlic in each blender batch
along with some fresh rosemary, basal and oregano. I fill a 20 quart pot
with the puree, add salt and some cut up tomatoes, and cook it on medium
heat until been reduced by about a third. I then freeze it. At a later
date I'll unfreeze a few quarts and add sauteed hamburger, onion and
garlic. I also add sauteed shrimp, garlic, shallots and white wine. I do
the meat and shrimp as separate batches because the meat needs to be
drained in a colander to get the fat out, but the shrimp and white wine is
added to the sauce without draining because you want the wine in the
sauce. I use olive oil to saute the onions and garlic. I freeze the
finished sauce in smaller containers, and the unfreeze it as needed. The
sauce gets better then longer it's in the freezer and it will keep for
years. Last year I used Sun Golds and Sweet 100s along with some Cosmonaut
Volkovs and it made the best sauce that I've ever made (I've been doing
this for 30 years). Making the sauce base takes about 30-45 minutes of
work, and a couple of hours on the stove to reduce the sauce. Upgrading it
to the full sauce takes about the same amount of work, but for each batch
you do you get a dozen meals or so.

In article ,
Nad R wrote:

Determinate tomatoes ripen on
the vine all at once which are great for canning.

Make that "all at once-ish". It's more like a bell curve with a few
ripening, leading to a lot ripening, and goes back to a few ripening,
and ends with winter.
--
- Billy

Bush's 3rd term: Obama plus another elective war
Bush's 4th term: another Judas goat

America is not broke. The country is awash in wealth and cash.
It's just that it's not in your hands. It has been transferred, in the
greatest heist in history, from the workers and consumers to the banks
and the portfolios of the uber-rich.
http://theuptake.org/2011/03/05/michael-moore-the-big-lie-wisconsin-is-broke/

Billy wrote:
In article ,
Nad R wrote:

Determinate tomatoes ripen on
the vine all at once which are great for canning.

Make that "all at once-ish". It's more like a bell curve with a few
ripening, leading to a lot ripening, and goes back to a few ripening,
and ends with winter.

Ouch...that hurts!
My math teacher always did hit me with that ruler for not adding my error
rates.

--
Enjoy Life... Nad R (Garden in zone 5a Michigan)

Sue wrote:
On Thu, 12 May 2011 01:29:59 +0000 (UTC), Nad R
wrote:

zxcvbob wrote:
Sue wrote:
On Wed, 11 May 2011 16:21:55 -0700 (PDT), "
wrote:
On May 11, 7:11 pm, Sue wrote:
I am really late getting my garden in this year and finally have the
ground prepared. Whatever tomatoes I planted last year just didn't do
well for canning purposes. I'm not starting from seeds and get my
plants at Lowe's or Home Depot. Any suggestion on a good variety to
can (that I would find at either of those two stores)? My garden is
*very* small so I can't put in too many plants.
Sue in the San Joaquin Valley of Calif.
If your canning for sauce Roma's are the best and the grow in a fairly
compact plant.
Sorry. I should have been more specific. No, I grow for stewed
tomatoes - tomatoes with onion, celery and bell peppers.
Sue

Any tomato will work then. Maybe plant a couple Better Boy and one
something-else (Roma?) Better Boy is a hybrid all-purpose tomato. It
has good flavor and usually yields very high.

Bob
Find a local green house nursery instead of the big box warehouse places.
Nurseries will have healthier and a greater selection of plants.

Chuckle. We have no local green house. The closest possible would be
35 miles from here. Since I have no pressing need to go out of town
in the next few days (my only reason is for doctor's appts) the cost
would be pretty awful considering the price of gas right now.

Tomatoes for canning are divided into two categories, "Plum" and "Globe".
Plums tomatoes are great for sauces they have a higher pulp to juice ratio.
Plums also have Plum shape to them, tends to be long and tapered at the
ends. Globes are more rounded and good for general canning and for soups.
Romas "plum" tomatoes are good for sauces and Big Boys "globe" tomatoes are
good for Juices and Soups.

One problem I had last year was that I didn't have enough tomatoes at
any given time to can. I'm thinking maybe my error was in getting two
different varieties (2 plants each). I don't know. They just weren't
successful.
Sue



If I get enough peppers and tomatoes at once, I can a batch or two of
salsa, but mostly my tomatoes are for eating fresh and giving a few
away. Commercial canned tomatoes are so good and so cheap, it hardly
pays to can your own -- except occasionally as practice so you know
*how* to can your own if you need to someday. In a pinch I can use
canned whole tomatoes (the big #10 cans from Sam's Club) and fresh
chiles and onions to make salsa.

Tomatillos actually grow better here (Minnesota) than tomatoes, so I
like growing a few of them for green salsa. They usually reseed
themselves and I just transplant a few, but I didn't get any volunteer
seedlings last year so I bought some fresh tomatillos and planted
seeds saved from the biggest one. They are coming along nicely.

Here's my favorite salsa recipe:

Chile Salsa
(from USDA bulletin 539) yield: 6 to 8 pints

5 pounds tomatoes
2 pounds chile peppers
1 pound onions, chopped
1 cup vinegar (5%)
3 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper

Roast and peel peppers if they have tough skins (not necessary with
jalapeños or serranos) remove seeds and stems, chop. Scald and peel
tomatoes; chop. Combine all ingredients in large saucepan. Bring to
a boil and simmer 10 minutes. Ladle into pint jars, leave 1/2 inch
headspace. Adjust lids and process in boiling water bath for 15 minutes.

Notes: If the tomatoes are too juicy, add an 8 ounce can of tomato
sauce or a tablespoon of tomato paste. I like using half bottled
lemon juice and half white vinegar instead of straight vinegar. I
don't know why but it tastes better than using all vinegar or all
lemon juice.

-Bob

On Thu, 12 May 2011 07:05:27 +0000 (UTC), Nad R
wrote:

Sue wrote:
On Thu, 12 May 2011 01:29:59 +0000 (UTC), Nad R
wrote:

Find a local green house nursery instead of the big box warehouse places.
Nurseries will have healthier and a greater selection of plants.

Chuckle. We have no local green house. The closest possible would be
35 miles from here. Since I have no pressing need to go out of town
in the next few days (my only reason is for doctor's appts) the cost
would be pretty awful considering the price of gas right now.

You must be living in the city. I live in the country were their are lots
of green houses and nurseries. I love the nurseries where thousands of
plants of many kinds surround you. The colors and the numerous sweet earthy
smells... Better than going to a movie.

LOL. No city here. I live in a town of 34,000 in the San Joaquin
Valley of California. Thousands of acres of commercially grown
canning tomatoes grown around here (as well as cotton, almonds,
cantaloupes, sugar beats, wheat, dairy cows, sheep. Oh, I could go
out into a field and get the tomatoes I suppose but I'd rather grow
them myself. No, there is no nursery around here other than an orchid
nursery.


Tomatoes for canning are divided into two categories, "Plum" and "Globe".
Plums tomatoes are great for sauces they have a higher pulp to juice ratio.
Plums also have Plum shape to them, tends to be long and tapered at the
ends. Globes are more rounded and good for general canning and for soups.
Romas "plum" tomatoes are good for sauces and Big Boys "globe" tomatoes are
good for Juices and Soups.

One problem I had last year was that I didn't have enough tomatoes at
any given time to can. I'm thinking maybe my error was in getting two
different varieties (2 plants each). I don't know. They just weren't
successful.
Sue

I will subdivide tomatoes once again. Their are two kinds of tomatoes
plants, "Determinate" and "InDeterminate". Determinate tomatoes ripen on
the vine all at once which are great for canning. Determinate tomatoes have
a single stalk that grows upwards, Romas and Beefsteaks are determinate.
Indeterminate tomato plants provide fruits throughout the season, never
enough for canning. Indeterminate tomato plants are bush like with no main
stalk. Examples of indeterminate tomato plants are "Early Girl" and
"Cherry". You will not get enough to even think about canning.

Indeterminate tomatoes use those ring like tomato supports. Determinate
tomatoes plants tend to use ladder supports. I would think for canning
small amounts, six plants at least would be a minimum. Around Three pounds
of tomatoes for each quart of whole canned tomatoes. I will be growing
close to forty tomato plants for canning this fall for me myself and I.

Excellent info. I knew about the two types and suspected that's where
I may have gone wrong in the last couple of years. I think it was
just luck my first 3 years of growing tomatoes. Thanks!
Sue

On Thu, 12 May 2011 12:48:57 -0500, zxcvbob
wrote:

Sue wrote:
On Thu, 12 May 2011 01:29:59 +0000 (UTC), Nad R
wrote:

zxcvbob wrote:
Sue wrote:
On Wed, 11 May 2011 16:21:55 -0700 (PDT), "
wrote:
On May 11, 7:11 pm, Sue wrote:
I am really late getting my garden in this year and finally have the
ground prepared. Whatever tomatoes I planted last year just didn't do
well for canning purposes. I'm not starting from seeds and get my
plants at Lowe's or Home Depot. Any suggestion on a good variety to
can (that I would find at either of those two stores)? My garden is
*very* small so I can't put in too many plants.
Sue in the San Joaquin Valley of Calif.
If your canning for sauce Roma's are the best and the grow in a fairly
compact plant.
Sorry. I should have been more specific. No, I grow for stewed
tomatoes - tomatoes with onion, celery and bell peppers.
Sue

Any tomato will work then. Maybe plant a couple Better Boy and one
something-else (Roma?) Better Boy is a hybrid all-purpose tomato. It
has good flavor and usually yields very high.

Bob
Find a local green house nursery instead of the big box warehouse places.
Nurseries will have healthier and a greater selection of plants.

Chuckle. We have no local green house. The closest possible would be
35 miles from here. Since I have no pressing need to go out of town
in the next few days (my only reason is for doctor's appts) the cost
would be pretty awful considering the price of gas right now.

Tomatoes for canning are divided into two categories, "Plum" and "Globe".
Plums tomatoes are great for sauces they have a higher pulp to juice ratio.
Plums also have Plum shape to them, tends to be long and tapered at the
ends. Globes are more rounded and good for general canning and for soups.
Romas "plum" tomatoes are good for sauces and Big Boys "globe" tomatoes are
good for Juices and Soups.

One problem I had last year was that I didn't have enough tomatoes at
any given time to can. I'm thinking maybe my error was in getting two
different varieties (2 plants each). I don't know. They just weren't
successful.
Sue



If I get enough peppers and tomatoes at once, I can a batch or two of
salsa, but mostly my tomatoes are for eating fresh and giving a few
away. Commercial canned tomatoes are so good and so cheap, it hardly
pays to can your own -- except occasionally as practice so you know
*how* to can your own if you need to someday. In a pinch I can use
canned whole tomatoes (the big #10 cans from Sam's Club) and fresh
chiles and onions to make salsa.

Tomatillos actually grow better here (Minnesota) than tomatoes, so I
like growing a few of them for green salsa. They usually reseed
themselves and I just transplant a few, but I didn't get any volunteer
seedlings last year so I bought some fresh tomatillos and planted
seeds saved from the biggest one. They are coming along nicely.

Here's my favorite salsa recipe:

Chile Salsa
(from USDA bulletin 539) yield: 6 to 8 pints

5 pounds tomatoes
2 pounds chile peppers
1 pound onions, chopped
1 cup vinegar (5%)
3 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper

Roast and peel peppers if they have tough skins (not necessary with
jalapeños or serranos) remove seeds and stems, chop. Scald and peel
tomatoes; chop. Combine all ingredients in large saucepan. Bring to
a boil and simmer 10 minutes. Ladle into pint jars, leave 1/2 inch
headspace. Adjust lids and process in boiling water bath for 15 minutes.

Notes: If the tomatoes are too juicy, add an 8 ounce can of tomato
sauce or a tablespoon of tomato paste. I like using half bottled
lemon juice and half white vinegar instead of straight vinegar. I
don't know why but it tastes better than using all vinegar or all
lemon juice.

-Bob

Thanks. Oh, I don't see that my canned stewed tomatoes are any better
than what I could buy at the store. It's just the satisfaction of
doing it. I was raised by a career woman who made strawberry jam
*once*. That was the total of her canning.
Thanks for the recipe!
Sue

On Thu, 12 May 2011 08:49:31 -0500, Derald wrote:


Sue wrote:


I was pretty sure I'd get some objections when I posted about Lowe's
or Home Depot. At least I didn't say Wal*Mart. We have no local
nursery.
Well, take those objections with a grain of salt. All of that rhapsodic
prose about local nurseries simply "ain't necessarily so". Many of them sell
plants that come in on the back of a truck just like the "big box" boys; they
just don't tell you. There is nothing magical about unusual, oddball varieties
or heirlooms. I say experiment until you find a variety that suits your palate
and your garden and stick with it. You might try to find out what other folks in
your area grow and use that as a starting point. Grow what you eat the most of
(because, at the end of the year, that's what you will have spent the most money
on) and save the cash for the relatively expensive treats, says I; anything else
is false economy.
You must really have specific tastes, if you're willing to can your own
stewed tomatoes. Or, maybe, you're having a domesticity attack ;-)! It happens,
sometimes, LOL. I can offer no specific suggestions because, to my taste, there
isn't a dime's worth of difference among them, although, I'm certain some tomato
varieties are better suited to specific uses than are others. My garden grows
determinate (Celebrity) because they're reliable and early AWA indeterminate
(Big Boy) because they're reliable and everbearing (at least until Jul-Aug) and
easily rejuvenate for a second crop in the fall. This morning, they all (four of
each) are loaded with fruit, much of it frying sized. I only grow a few tomatoes
and most of those don't make it to ripeness because we eat more of them green.
I'm not much of a fruit eater and ripe tomatoes are "okay" as long as they're
not sweet. Ripe tomatoes are "for" hamburgers; end of story. LOL We always let a
few ripen, though, because DW likes the occasional fresh tomato with meals and I
eat them, if they're there.
As you know from your own experiece, BWB is perfectly fine for acidic foods
like (most) tomatoes and the percentage of peppers present is not likely to be a
problem. If you're unsure, add a bit of ascorbic and/or citric acid to the
finished product; that's what commercial canners do and it is undetectable.
Citric acid also helps retain color. See the "****" footnote on the citation
further down. USDA used to have a web site that addressed food safety at home,
including home canning. Probably still does; I didn't look. The Ball "blue book"
remains the standard reference. Warning: Many of the suzy home-maker variety
private web sites are dessiminating inaccurate or misleading information that
may prove hazardous to your health or, at the very least, will produce an
unsatisfactory product!
Some years back, unbeknownst to me, my wife ordered the blue book directly
from Ball. Within a couple of days, I bought a copy at a discount chain
bookstore, Booksamillion or some such. When the book arrived from Ball, we
discovered the off-the-rack copy was a later edition. Life is funny that way
sometimes....
You may find the information here to be redundant but I hope some of it is
helpful:
http://pubs.ext.vt.edu/348/348-594/348-594_pdf.pdf

Thanks so much! Yes, it's excessive domesticity. As I said in
another post to someone else, I really don't see that my canned
tomatoes are any better. It's just the challenge and satisfaction of
doing it. I was not raised by a stay-at-home-mom (rare for the 50's)
so this canning business is new to me.
I grow green beans, too, but I freeze those. Except for last year
when I went on vacation leaving instructions to my adult daughter to
water the garden. She managed to water the tomatoes and bell peppers
(I had excellent ones last year) but completely ignored the bean which
were in an adjacent plot. Hmph.
I tried corn one year but it was completely overwhelmed by ants. yuck.
Also, it fell over and I had to stake it up. All I can think is that
I over watered it. I never tried again.
I appreciate your dash of humor.
Sue

Sue wrote:

Oh, I don't see that my canned stewed tomatoes are any better
than what I could buy at the store. It's just the satisfaction of
doing it. I was raised by a career woman who made strawberry jam
*once*. That was the total of her canning.

I sympathize with running a hobby to completion once and then losing
interest. I've done that with most of the crafts that I have tried. I
demonstrated to myself I could do X. Done. Next project type.

Only a few hobbies I've continued. Herb gardens, home brewing ...

Doug Freyburger wrote:
Sue wrote:
Oh, I don't see that my canned stewed tomatoes are any better
than what I could buy at the store. It's just the satisfaction of
doing it. I was raised by a career woman who made strawberry jam
*once*. That was the total of her canning.

I sympathize with running a hobby to completion once and then losing
interest. I've done that with most of the crafts that I have tried. I
demonstrated to myself I could do X. Done. Next project type.

Only a few hobbies I've continued. Herb gardens, home brewing ...


I even lost interest in home brewing once I "mastered" mashing pale
grain malt. But I've been thinking I should dust off my equipment and
try it again and see how much I've forgotten; see if I can still brew
a drinkable beer.

-Bob

In article ,
Nad R wrote:

Billy wrote:
In article ,
Nad R wrote:

Determinate tomatoes ripen on
the vine all at once which are great for canning.

Make that "all at once-ish". It's more like a bell curve with a few
ripening, leading to a lot ripening, and goes back to a few ripening,
and ends with winter.

Ouch...that hurts!
My math teacher always did hit me with that ruler for not adding my error
rates.

Too young to hit with a slide rule, huh?
--
- Billy

Bush's 3rd term: Obama plus another elective war
Bush's 4th term: another Judas goat

America is not broke. The country is awash in wealth and cash.
It's just that it's not in your hands. It has been transferred, in the
greatest heist in history, from the workers and consumers to the banks
and the portfolios of the uber-rich.
http://theuptake.org/2011/03/05/michael-moore-the-big-lie-wisconsin-is-broke/

Sue wrote:

LOL. No city here. I live in a town of 34,000 in the San Joaquin

Wow! That's massive! My township I live in has less than 5,000 people for
100 square miles... You must be living on top of each other no wonder
you only have space for just a couple of plants

--
Enjoy Life... Nad R (Garden in zone 5a Michigan)

On Fri, 13 May 2011 00:50:16 +0000 (UTC), Nad R
wrote:

Sue wrote:

LOL. No city here. I live in a town of 34,000 in the San Joaquin

Wow! That's massive! My township I live in has less than 5,000 people for
100 square miles... You must be living on top of each other no wonder
you only have space for just a couple of plants

) I understand. I used to live in a small town in Alaska.

On Thu, 12 May 2011 07:05:27 +0000 (UTC), Nad R
wrote:



I will subdivide tomatoes once again. Their are two kinds of tomatoes
plants, "Determinate" and "InDeterminate". Determinate tomatoes ripen on
the vine all at once which are great for canning. Determinate tomatoes have
a single stalk that grows upwards, Romas and Beefsteaks are determinate.
Indeterminate tomato plants provide fruits throughout the season, never
enough for canning. Indeterminate tomato plants are bush like with no main
stalk. Examples of indeterminate tomato plants are "Early Girl" and
"Cherry". You will not get enough to even think about canning.

The Early Girl were labeled as determinate. Oops.
Sue

Sue wrote:
On Thu, 12 May 2011 07:05:27 +0000 (UTC), Nad R
wrote:



I will subdivide tomatoes once again. Their are two kinds of tomatoes
plants, "Determinate" and "InDeterminate". Determinate tomatoes ripen on
the vine all at once which are great for canning. Determinate tomatoes have
a single stalk that grows upwards, Romas and Beefsteaks are determinate.
Indeterminate tomato plants provide fruits throughout the season, never
enough for canning. Indeterminate tomato plants are bush like with no main
stalk. Examples of indeterminate tomato plants are "Early Girl" and
"Cherry". You will not get enough to even think about canning.

The Early Girl were labeled as determinate. Oops.
Sue

I wish I was perfect
Sounds like you know the process of selecting the kind of tomato you want.
Now where did I put that Arecept memory drug.

--
Enjoy Life... Nad R (Garden in zone 5a Michigan)