Tomatoe Recipes

Hey guys!

So here's 3 tomatoe recipes I think you'll enjoy:

Tangy Spaghetti Sauce for Canning 

-3 medium onions, chopped

-2 cups green bell peppers, chopped

-1 cup banana peppers, chopped

-2 pkg. fresh sliced mushrooms

-4 cloves minced garlic

-16 cups tomatoes, peeled and chopped

-3(12oz) cans tomato paste

-1/4 c. balsamic vinegar

-3 tablespoons brown sugar

-1 tablespoon dried oregano

-4 teaspoons canning salt

-2 teaspoons dried basil

-1 teaspoon black pepper

-1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

-2 tablespoons Italian seasoning

-1/2 teaspoon cumin

Add all ingredients to stock pot. Heat until boiling. Reduce heat and simmer, partially covered for about 1-2 hours, stirring occasionally. Fill clean, sterilized jars within ½” of top. Put on tops and tighten. Process for 35 minutes for quart jars in water bath. Serve over pasta.

http://sherellechristensen.typepad.com/my_weblog/2011/10/recipes-for-canning-tomatoes-stewed-tomatoes-pizza-sauce-spaghetti-sauce-salsa.html

Jen's Fresh and Spicy Salsa 

• 5 tomatoes
• 10 green onions
• 2 jalapeno peppers
• 1/4 cup chopped cilantro
• 2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
• 2 tablespoons hot pepper sauce
• 1 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 tsp. garlic powder
• 1 tsp salt

In a blender or food processor, pulse the tomatoes, green onions, jalapeno peppers, and cilantro to desired consistency. Transfer to a bowl, and mix in the lime juice, hot pepper sauce, black pepper, garlic powder, and salt.

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Jens-Fresh-and-Spicy-Salsa/Detail.aspx

Pasta Pomodoro

• 1 pack angel hair pasta (16 ounce)
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1/2 chopped onion
• 4 cloves garlic
• 2 cups diced tomatoes
• 2 tbsp basalmic vinegar
• 1 can chicken broth ( or 1/2 cup homemade)
• crushed red pepper to taste
• ground black pepper to taste
• 2 tbsp chopped fresh basil
• 1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese

Directions

1. Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add pasta and cook for 8 minutes or until al dente; drain.
2. Pour olive oil in a large deep skillet over high-heat. Saute onions and garlic until lightly browned. Reduce heat to medium-high and add tomatoes, vinegar and chicken broth; simmer for about 8 minutes.
3. Stir in red pepper, black pepper, basil and cooked pasta, tossing thoroughly with sauce. Simmer for about 5 more minutes and serve topped with grated cheese.

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Pasta-Pomodoro/Detail.aspx

Canning Tomatoes

Canning Tomatoes

Alright so now that you have your tomatoes harvested and do not know what to do with all your tomatoes, I have an idea:  Can Them!

So I found a website that has all the info for what you need for canning and I want to share what I learned from it.

   1.)There are 2 methods to can your tomatoes:
            Pressure Canner
            Large Container to boil water in, (other wise known as "water bath boiling method")

   2.)This specific site claims that your Altitude has an effect on your cooking time when canning tomatoes, because the higher the elevation the easier the water boils, so the water may not be as hot to kill the All the bacteria.

Although I see the logic in this I don't really believe that it will be the deciding factor if your tomatoes are canned successfully ( as it also only adds/ or subtracts about five minutes to your boiling time). So I in my opinion it is not a huge factor to stress about.

However here is a site if you would like to know you elevation: http://veloroutes.org/elevation/?location=santa+clarita+ca&units=e

And your elevation time requirements for "water bath method":

0- 1,000 ft =            Pints 35 minutes

                               Quarts 45 minutes

1,000- 3,000 ft =     Pints 40 minutes

                                Quarts 50 minutes

3,000- 6,000 ft =     Pints 45 minutes

                               Quarts 55 minutes

6,000 - above =      Pints 50 minutes

                               Quartz 60 minutes

                                

3.) Adding lime, lemon juice, or salt to your jar before you can them will greatly reduce the chances of spoilage. (bacteria hate acidity!)

And finally HERE IS THE SITE: http://www.pickyourown.org/canning_tomatoes.htm

Also a short youtube video on canning tomatoes:

Enjoy!

Harvesting Tomatoes

Alright so it's almost that time... That time when your tomatoes are ready to be picked!

Remember a couple things when harvesting your tomatoes:

1. Once you harvest tomatoes off the vine they still continue to ripen.
2. You can harvest tomatoes early when they are a yellowish orange color, however this will minimize their taste and overall nutrient value, nevertheless, they will still ripen and still be edible.
3. It is best though to harvest tomatoes when fully red (or yellow/ purple for rare varieties).
4. Once tomatoes are picked it it is best to keep out of the sunlight too keep from spoiling.

Here's a cool video to show you:

Enjoy!

Tomatoe Hardiness and Frosts

So tomatoes can you grow them from where you are?

First I'd like to apologize to anyone reading this from any foreign country that doesn't live in the United States, since I am only going to discuss the growing conditions here.

Okay.

So where do you live and can you grow tomatoes there?

Well tomatoes are naturally a warm loving crop. They love the warm, dry weather originally. Tomatoes in general cannot stand any temperature lower than 50 degrees fahrenheit and will either be stunted in growth or worse die! OHHH NOO! Now if where you live is cold and wet then don't worry! There are plenty of things you can do to fix this. Greenhouses, hoops over your tomatoes, placing black plastic on the soil to heat it up underground.

Plan for a mini greenhouse can be modified to fit tomatoes I got off of instructables.com :

Now when deciding what type of tomatoe you want, you need to consider how long is your warm season where you live? If it is long then you should consider getting a slow maturing variety that will take longer to produce. If you live in place with very short summers then you should consider getting a very fast maturing tomatoe variety.

Here is a place that sells fast maturing crops:

http://store.tomatofest.com/Tomato_Varieties_for_Cooler_Climates_s/47.htm

Tomatoes a Quick Overview...

So today I wanted to talk about Tomatoes! Yum!

 

Nothing fancy just a quick overview.

 

The tomatoe "Solanum lycopersicum" as the proper name is originally native to mexico after the Spanish conquered Aztec city of Tenochtítlan, now Mexico City, in 1521, it was shipped to Euorpe and cultivated there, though some think that it goes even as far back as Christopher Columbus. 

 

And I used to always think that tomatoes were from Italy!

Basic Needs for Tomatoes:

Sun:

Tomatoes enjoy full sun for most of the day. So if you are in the western hemisphere make sure they are south facing.

 

Water

Tomatoes in general like to be watered once a day in my experience. It also depends how often you water them. Also if you are watering with a gardening hose make sure to not water the leaves because this can increase the chance of getting diseases and we don't want that! Instead water the soil directly. In general though especially in warm climates watering them daily will do the trick.

 

Soil:

A rich loamy soil with good drainage is good for tomatoes. They also prefer their ph 6.0-6.8. I generally don't follow the ph rules, I like too make sure that my soil is getting plenty of compost as too increase the microbiology of the soil. I always encourage you if you are not already to be adding compost to your soil as to improve it's microbiology, or add compost tea. See the bottom for more details.

 

Nutrients and Fertilizers: 

The three most common ingredients in fertilzers are NPK (nitrogen, phosphorous, and potassium) they will be labeled on the bottle and for example 1-4-1 in the order of nitrogen-phosphorus-potassium. Now I will break these down as to show you which functions each of them serve.

 

Nitrogen- 

this ingredient is responsible for producing leaf growth, although a fertilizer 10-1-1 will give you a massive tomatoe plant but with little tomatoe production.

 

Phosphorous- 

this is what encourages flowering in plants.

 

Pottasium- 

this is what the plant uses to produce the actual tomatoe. yum!

 

Encourage Microbiology!

That being said I highly encourage you to use organic fertilizer and avoid commercial fertilizer because commercial ones will tend to give your plants the NPK but will generally made from petroleum and will end up damaging the LIFE in your soil and killing the microbiology. And what good is soil if it is dead? 

 

If you want to bring the microbiology back in your soil and make it ALIVE, check out this site:

 

http://www.boogiebrew.net/

 

Here's a youtube video from one of my favorite gardeners John! Interviewing the boogie brew man.

 

Enjoy!

 

 Resources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomato

http://homeguides.sfgate.com/much-water-tomato-plant-need-day-55659.html

http://www.uri.edu/ce/factsheets/sheets/tomato.html

Serenade... Organic or not?

So I looked up Serenade for you guys and turns out ding ding ding, it is organic!
The main ingredient in it is called "Bacillus Subtilis strain QST 713.

Sounds scary huh? Well turns out it is not a GMO (Genetically engineered organism). It was discovered in Argentina in 1995 and was named Bacillus Subtilis strain QST 713/ not formed.It is also certified by the OMRI (Organic materials review institute). Ill put their link at the bottom.

However, Serenade does not offer a list of ingedients, this is because their formula is patented. So that raises some concerns of what else is in their formula.

I did find a baking soda alternative for you if you are like me and like to try the most basic solution.

4 Level teaspoons or 1 1/3 tablespoons of Baking Soda
1 teaspoon of Mild Soap (Dawn, Ivory, should be biodegradable with no phosphates)
1 gallon of Water

Mix well and keep agitated when spraying on plants


Links

Bacillus Subtilis Wiki:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bacillus_subtilis#Uses


B. subtilis not a gmo:
http://biotechawareness.com/index~option~com_content~view~article~id~216~Itemid~1.php


baking soda formula:
http://www.naturalgardeneraustin.com/baking-soda-fungicide.html

OMRI website:
http://www.omri.org/certifiers

3 Diseases for Tomatoe Plants

Septoria Leaf Spot
 
What: The fungus known as  "Septoria lycopersici" causes septoria leaf spot and is known to infect leaves and leave small black spots and as time goes on will get bigger and gray circles will appear in the center of the black spots. This can also occur on stems as well. When leaves are infected the leaves can turn yellow, die, and fall off. Do not want that!

Prevention: Any spot where tomatoes grew the year and might have been affected by a disease, do not plant in there.The fungus will still be contemplating you tomatoes demise! The fungus can still be alive in the soil and infect your plant that way. Make sure to spread tomatoes plants in different locations because this disease can spread and infect all the surrounding plants.

Solution: "Serenade" is a good organic solution for funguses or so i have heard so I will be doing a more thorough investigation on this next post. So stay tuned!



Early Blight

What: The fungal pathogen known as "Alternaria solani" produces characteristic bulls-eye marks on leaves when it infects a tomatoe plant. This fungus when it infects, affects the older leaves first and works it's way up. This disease can lower yields of tomatoes. OHHH NOOO! We do not want that, that means less tomatoes for eating!

Prevention: This fungus loves warm wet weather so make sure when watering your tomatoe plants try not to wet the leaves because that will increase the chances of infection occuring. Also using mulch on the garden bed will prevent and spores that are in the soil from splashing on your plant. If you are not already try shifting to drip irrigation.Make sure to spread tomatoes plants in different locations (spread those guys out in the garden!) because this disease can spread and infect all the surrounding plants.

Solution: "Serenade" is a good organic solution for funguses or so i have heard so I will be doing a more thorough investigation on this next post. So stay tuned!



Late Blight

What: This was the disease that caused the 1840's european irish potatoe famine. This fungus is known as "Phytophthora infestans" and is known to thrive in cool wet weather. It usually appears later in the season, mid to late August.The symptoms include dark blotches on leaf tips and white mold appearing on underside of leaves, the plant is also likely to start collapsing. Poor tomatoe!

Prevention:  This fungus again likes wet conditions, so do whatever you can to keep the leaves dry by not watering the whole plant but watering the soil. Also using mulch is also a good barrier between the fungus. Block those bad fungus from entering your plant! Make sure to spread tomatoes plants in different locations because this disease can spread and infect all the surrounding plants. Yes the prevention is the same for this fungus also.

Solution: "Serenade" is a good organic solution for funguses or so i have heard so I will be doing a more thorough investigation on this next post. So stay tuned!