Green tomatoes - winning so far!

Earlier this spring, I started a passel of tomato seeds. "Passel," in country-speak, is a lot. The word is in the dictionary, but it's not a word you'll hear city-dwellers using too often. Anyway, I planted a BUNCH of tomato seeds. I did not expect to have one hundred percent germination so I gave some of the young plants to friends. 

Originally, I planted Roma, Veranda (cherry), and Bodacious (slicing). The Bodacious had excellent germination and the seedlings looked good, then all but two of twenty-four seedlings died. The tray they were in sat side-by-side with the Roma and Veranda seedlings, and they're fine as the pictures show. Not to be deterred, I grabbed a pack of Rutger seeds off the rack at Walmart and started them. They are doing very well, flowering right now, but still behind the other two. 

I'm still calling it a win. I learned not to purchase Bodacious seeds. Learning is good! I learned I may not want to plant an entire pack of 25 or 50 seeds. I might want to scale back to twelve and see what grows because I can always plant more seeds. In fact, having staggered planting might be an advantage when harvest time rolls around. 

What am I going to do with all those Roma tomatoes? The plan is to home-can diced tomatoes in pints to use in chili, soups, and hopefully new recipes we'll find and want to try. I also want to make ketchup and I think for that I can add the cherry and slicing tomatoes to the Romas for a richer flavor. I also want to freeze-dry some of the cherry tomatoes for in green salads over the winter. We'll see how that works out in due course. 

I have a few ideas on how to improve my little garden next year. With a recession starting, I hope I'll be able to carry through on them. Stay tuned.

The Lady of Holly Tree Manor (The Hideaway)

Holly Tree Manor, The Hideaway, gardening, country living, tomatoes, planting seeds, harvesting, a writer's life, simple country pleasures, Roma tomatoes, cherry, staggered planting, home canning, home food preservation