***What's growing? The official garden thread***

lastexitlondon said:

They look great quality.  Mine were shit.

They start rotting before they finish growing no matter what I do in my clay soil 😠

rgambs said:

Amazing

Beautiful 

GlowGirl said:

rgambs said:

Nice. Are you canning those as well. I see marinara sauce when I look at that pile of tomatoey goodness.

Yeah, I'll finish cooking them down and can them up probably this afternoon. 
Eh, marinara/spaghetti sauce is overrated with garden fresh tomatoes. 
If you do the "light cook" for a fresher northern Italian style, you just end up with less flavor and a plate covered in tomato water when you're finished.
If you cook it down into a thick Sicilian or American style sauce, you end up with a sauce that is usually very sweet...great for pizza sauce, but too sweet for pasta dinner, IMO.
Mostly I just cook it down without any added ingredients, and use the tomato sauce for various recipes throughout the year.  Stuffed peppers, chili, pizza sauce, veggie soup, bacon/cheese spaghetti, sloppy joes mostly.

GlowGirl said:

rgambs said:

GlowGirl said:

rgambs said:

Nice. Are you canning those as well. I see marinara sauce when I look at that pile of tomatoey goodness.

Yeah, I'll finish cooking them down and can them up probably this afternoon. 
Eh, marinara/spaghetti sauce is overrated with garden fresh tomatoes. 
If you do the "light cook" for a fresher northern Italian style, you just end up with less flavor and a plate covered in tomato water when you're finished.
If you cook it down into a thick Sicilian or American style sauce, you end up with a sauce that is usually very sweet...great for pizza sauce, but too sweet for pasta dinner, IMO.
Mostly I just cook it down without any added ingredients, and use the tomato sauce for various recipes throughout the year.  Stuffed peppers, chili, pizza sauce, veggie soup, bacon/cheese spaghetti, sloppy joes mostly.

Thanks for the info. I didn't know that about garden fresh tomatoes. I have never made my own sauce - so that is good to know. Sloppy Joe's sound great. I haven't had one in years. Enjoy the tomatoes.

There are surely people who disagree with me on that lol
Northern Italian pasta is basically just warmed tomatoes on pasta.  I don't care for it at all, I think it's bland and not a good use of either tomatoes or pasta, but plenty of people do.

deadendp said:

Cooking tomatoes down takes forever and when making a thick sauce, what you start with and what you end with are quite different.  I usually start the process in the crock-pot with the lid tipped open for a day or two, continuing to add as I go.  A potful of tomatoes usually cooks down to maybe a pint or two.  Great stuff though.  

I use a big pot lol 
I usually thicken down to about the same as a can of grocery store tomato sauce, and then go further when it comes to recipe time.

The bird gifts...

What appears to be a standard round grocery tomato, micro toms and pear tomatoes. I didn't plant any of these, but we really do try to embrace as many volunteers as we can. 

lastexitlondon said:

They all just turned up?

Yup. I knew volunteer tomato plants popped up and left them. If I have room, I leave them ramble. 

deadendp said:

The bird gifts...

What appears to be a standard round grocery tomato, micro toms and pear tomatoes. I didn't plant any of these, but we really do try to embrace as many volunteers as we can. 

Looking good @deadendp I gave my first tomato of the season to our local homeless guy who gave me the baby tomato plant x