Home grown tomatoes, home grown tomatoes
What would life be like without homegrown tomatoes?
Only two things that money can’t buy,
That’s true love and home grown tomatoes. ~John Denver
Last week I had an invitation from my nephew and his wife, Bob and Peggy Carnahan, to come to Marshfield, Missouri, (about a half hour north of Springfield). Both are retired Air Force pilots, who now enjoy raising Black Angus cattle and cultivating a home garden. They were canning tomatoes, Bob said, and thought I might be interested in the task.
Actually, I was, even though my tomato canning skills are a bit rusty, not having been used since the last century. But like riding a bike, I figured it would come back to me once I got into the heat of the kitchen with all the canning paraphernalia.
As it turned out, my dance card was full, so I was unable to attend “The Great Canning Escapade of 2017,” but they sent photos. Absent my help, they were still able to put up 60 pounds of Super Sauce tomatoes. I was impressed.
The Superhero of Sauce Tomatoes
I wrote about this Roma with aroma a few years ago. Aptly, called Super Sauce, it’s one of Burpee’s meaty, nearly seedless varieties that’s great for making sauce. One of the bonus features for a home packer is the small amount of waste. Out of 25 pounds of tomatoes, Bob said there was less than 2 cups of waste!
The Super Sauce variety produces the world’s largest sauce tomatoes. Plants grow in cages to about 4-5 feet tall. Each plant produces up to 20 tomatoes, some weighing as much as a pound each.
An incredibly small amount of wastage for 25 lbs. of tomatoes.
The meaty inside of a Super Sauce tomato.
The chunks of tomato become a thick, rich medley of flavor.
Peggy Carnahan displays the latest round of canned Super Sauce tomatoes.
Bob Carnahan adds another jar of Super Sauce to the summer collection.
Ah, the joy of “putting food by”—an old country saying used when you have an excess of something now, that you “put by” for use later.
Final Thought for the Day
