Tomatoes, Tomatoes, Tomatoes!

After years of admiring my Father's tomatoes (I hope that doesn't sound too weird!), I decided to double our area for growing the prized, and expensive vegetable. I collected tomato seeds and bought a number of varieties from our local 'Seedy Saturday' event. The name can falsely mislead the uninititiated, believing 'Seedy Saturday' is a rather decrepit affair, and to be avoided. But nothing could be further from the truth! Our 'Event' attracts over 70, primarily organic, suppliers of seeds. Some suppliers only sell seeds for growing vegetables, while others have various grains, flower seeds and even mushroom cultures & mason bees. This year, armed with over $100 of seeds, I began to plan our garden.

In March, I began to place my tomato seeds into little peat containers with rich, sterilized potting soil. After a few weeks, a spindley little tomato sprout begin to emerge. It is important to keep the little guys in a warm area (60-70 f), with plenty of light and never let the soil dry out. After close to 2 months of babying we had about 36 little tomato plants to place outdoors, during the day. At night we bring them back inside, into the comfort of our home. This process is called 'hardening off', which basically 'hardens' them to the real world, outside-- aclimatizing them. Depending on your zone, planting of the tomatoes, after a week of 'hardening off', can begin in the beginning of May until late June. Most people in zone 6-8 wait until May 24th weekend, as asudden cold spell will either kill the sensitive plants, or stunt them. A stunted tomato plant is not a pretty sight!

Tomatoes love sun! But they don't like their leaves to get wet, so we try to construct a plastic roof over them during the spring or late summer/fall. Some varieties are called 'indescriminate' which means they grow....indescriminately! These are the sprawling kind which needs plenty of room, at least 6 feet to its nearest neighbour. Tomato plants, that are not 'indescriminate' need less space, but still need to be at least 3 feet away. This is a very difficult lesson as when the little plants are only around 8" tall, it is very easy to place the plants too close. If the plants are too close than disease can be transmitted between themselves, as touching leaves collect moisture, creating a nice environment for the various tomato diseases. (The other important task is removing 'suckers' from the crooks of the stems. These will grow tomatoes but they tend to weaken the overall plant.)

By July, we were beginning to think that we planted our tomatoes too late as we had few tomatoes and even fewer flowers, and wondered if would get much produce. Were we ever wrong...

Well, we grew bushels of tomatoes. We had tomato salads, greek salads with tomatoes, tomatoes off the vine; we had so many tomatoes that I began to roast them and make sauce. 375 degree (f) for 1 hour or so. I rubbed the tomatoes, first, with olive oil and added whole garlics covered in olive oil for the last 20 minutes. I then simmered the tomatoes, garlic and carmelized onions for 1 hour or so, removing the tomato skins. I then froze the sauce in tupperware containers or ziplock bags. I made one mistake though; I forgot to label everything. I know, you're thinking "why label tomato sauce". This is a good question but I forgot to mention that I made other recipes with the tomato sauce. The other day I was de-thawing a ratatouille (tomato sauce with garlic, roasted eggplant & red peppers), or at least I thought I was de-thawing ratatouille. It turns out it was curried shrimp with tomato sauce. Now, this wouldn't have been a problem but I was planning to use up the goat cheese.

It is late January and we still have over 50 pounds of frozen tomato sauce or tomato-based sauces in our freezer. My wife has begun to take tums...