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[BiscottiQueen]

What do you do with 9 lbs of tomatoes?! You make Salsa.

What do you do with another 9 lbs of Tomatoes?! You make Sauce.

What do you do with 7 lbs of tomatoes?! Make Tomato Basil Soup.

What do you do another 9 lbs of tomatoes? ARGH! I'm running out of JARS!






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[love2cookmb]

You share with friends??? LOL Everything looks fantastic! you sure have been busy!
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MICHELE

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[CulinaryAlchemist]

HA HA HA I agree with Michele I would be more than happy to help you deal with your influx of tomatoes...
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[BiscottiQueen]

My husband is trying to convince me of getting a bigger garden. He wants to add more raised beds and another fenced in area. I can BARELY keep up with what I have and I'm out there almost daily.

I have given away some tomatoes as well. A Bucket full to a couple of my friends, and a bucket to my mom. So I must have given away at least 15 lbs of tomatoes already.

I've also had a few on sandwiches, but not much because they cracked really badly this year from so much rain.

I wish I could give you all tomatoes as well!!!
_________________
Following my gardening obsession here:

http://fromseed.blogspot.com

Try some of my custom biscotti here:

http://biscottiqueen.etsy.com

[carolyn]

do you can the tomatos i will be canning a lot of tomatos soon.
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[Pamela]

I made a black bean salsa, Im eating lots of salads. We had great BLT's.

I only had 6 plants (2 each of 3 varieties). I got them from Cottage farms/ QVC . They are heirloom plants . I grew them in pots on the back porch and I cant believe all the fruit it produced. Im gonna try and save the seeds and do it again next yr. Has anyone ever done that and is there anything special I should do when I save them????

[love2cookmb]

Hmmm....Pamela, I'm not sure. I know my grandmother saved seeds. I think she saved basil seeds, not sure what others. Hopefully someone else can be helpful.
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MICHELE

Join my Willow House Facebook Page! http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Willow-House-with-Michele/126721394009070?ref=ts

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[ddpie]

I've never grown tomato plants successfully from seed (I mean out of the envelope LOL), but I did get a couple of surprise plants pop up in my garden one year HA!

Anywho, I've always wanted to know this too (I've harvested several types of seeds, but never tomatoes)

I found this:
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1216/is_3_205/ai_64702592/

this shows the exact method with pics, makes it seem less scary and intimidating:
http://www.sunset.com/garden/fruits-veggies/harvesting-tomato-seeds-slideshow-00400000012404/

[CulinaryAlchemist]

I am not sure if there is anything special you need to do. I am going to try to save some of the seeds from my San Marzanos, I think they just need to be scrped out and dried... I hope, I hope, I hope

ETA: Oh Cool... Thanks DD
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~ Shane


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[BiscottiQueen]

I am getting ready to do a little 'gardeners' tip sheet to put on my blog... one important thing I need to do is simple tips on saving seeds.

Some plants are more problematic then others.

Rule #1 cross pollination does not affect the veggie or fruit you are growing (corn is the only exception to that rule I know of yet!), however it does affect the trueness of the seed you save for a new plant. If you grow a beefsteak tomato next to a brandywine, they both taste right now... but if you save a seed and plant it there is a high chance they cross pollinated during the growing season and the plant that seed produces will produce no fruit.

There are tricks I have to stop that from happening so you can save quality seed, but I'm afraid its too late in the season most places to do anything about it.

Rule #2 when saving seeds the fruit or veggie needs to be RIPE! A green tomato seed is no good... for that matter a green pepper seed is no good. You have to let it ripen on the vine. Once the tomato is good and soft and orange/red/yellow you can pick the tomato remove some seeds, rinse them and then let them sit on a paper towel out of direct sunlight to dry. Once a seed is dry enough to slide around a clean plate without sticking it is ready to store in a container or bag for the winter until spring. (Peppers, sweet and hot need to ripen on the plant until they get soft and have red in their skin before collecting, green peppers at the grocery store are NOT ripe enough to keep seeds from... maybe a 1-20 chance a seed from a green pepper will be good)

Rule #3 Do not save seed from plants that were diseased the previous season. Even if your plant survived this diseased weakened the plant, and the offspring will be weak and susceptible to the same disease and many others!

I will get together the tips on saving seed and getting ready at the begining of the season to plant for it. That way it doesn't matter how many varieties you plant near each other.

(Always plant multiple types of corn at least 1/4 acre away from each other... if they cross pollinate it spoils the flavor of the corn. Corn is a wind pollinator and thats' hard to control.)
_________________
Following my gardening obsession here:

http://fromseed.blogspot.com

Try some of my custom biscotti here:

http://biscottiqueen.etsy.com