There's a rhyme that goes a little something like this:
Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall, Humpty Dumpty had a great fall,
All the King's horses and all the King's men, didn't really care because this guy was always falling off of things.
They were more concerned about how to get rid of their overabundance of tomatoes being the end of Medieval tomato season and all.
Not much has changed since Medieval times. We still don't really care when humanized eggs get drunk and fall off of walls and we're still looking for ways to get rid of tomatoes at the end of the season.
Even with making tomato salad every night, eating toasted tomato sandwiches and perpetually shoving more of them into the oven for a batch of roasted tomato sauce for the winter, I still have an obscene amount of tomatoes.
I think it's because I'm one person yet I planted 839 tomato plants.
If this sounds like you,
IT IS NOW TIME TO GIVE BACK.
Have a nice neighbour? Give them this. Have a favourite barista? Give them this. Come across a random stranger on the street? Give them this.
It's the perfect summer hostess gift.
Fresh tomatoes handed over in an egg carton with some garlic and herbs.
Just throw a bunch of tomatoes in an egg carton, include a head of garlic if you have one, and tie it all up with string. Top the carton with an herbal Tussie Mussie and you're done.
This is where I confess to writing this post, perhaps even starting this blog 8 years ago, just so I could use the term Tussie Mussie. I don't want to live in a world that has given up on phrases like Tussie Mussie. Ditto for Heavens to Betsy!
It's tomato sauce in a box. The recipient has tomatoes, garlic, oregano and basil; all the essentials for a great tomato sauce. Granted, because only smaller tomatoes fit in egg cartons, it's a small serving of tomato sauce, but still. They're getting fresh tomatoes and you're getting rid of fresh tomatoes. Win, win.
All the King's Horses and all the King's Men agreed next year they'll still plant 839 tomato plants again.
Thanks for all your advice, Karen. It's been great!
I suspect our growing season is somewhat longer here. The first frost is likely going to be in late October. I am just now heading off the blooms on the plant now. (I pull in the green tomatoes, keep them in a cold area, and they ripen for me nicely.)
Next year.. I will stop the plant growth in late August. We figure my garden is so much better this year, if it makes that level of improvement next year, I can start canning... if I want to.
I only planted four. They are all in pots, in my west-facing stairwell.
I waited to buy my plants at Home Depot, which was later in the season than I wanted.
One cherry tomato, one "heat resistant," one "red pride" and one beefsteak.
The cherry was at the bottom of the stairwell, got the least amount of sun and produced not well considering we're talking about a cherry tomato plant.
The beefsteak was next up.
Next year, it gets more sun.
The other two are closer to the top. They got more sun and each one has about 25 tomatoes at varying readiness currently.
I learned a lot this year. Next year, they get started in the house, from seeds which I will buy early, put out earlier and position differently on the stairs. (Higher up for more sun.)
Also, two weeks ago in Southern Maryland, a farmer gifted me with a 10 bag of rabbit poo.
My tomato plants are carnivorous and had been happily eating rotted fish with a side of coffee grounds, but I must admit, they like the rabbit poo, too.
So I'm going to store my soil in a large garbage bin, dump ridiculous amounts of other things in on top, during the winter months and be ready to double my crop next year. I may never buy soil again... just keep adding more rabbit poo and fish.
Yup, that's the way to do it. You should pinch off the tip of all the tomato plant leaders in case you haven't already. It's a bit late to do that now but ... You'd normally do it in the middle of August to stop the plant from growing and let it focus on growing the fruit on it and ripening them. ~ k!
So green with envy - I'm in Calgary and didn't even bother with one tomato plant this year. The hail in July would have been enough to damage them, then I was gone for 3 weeks in August (did have people who would have watered, though). The weather is fantastic these days, so I might have got away with a few plants.
Karen - did not read all the comments so perhaps this has already been suggested -sorry if a repeat. I was inspired by you and planted a fairly large garden in Burnaby BC this year. Much to our delight we have had bumper crops of everything - radishes, snow and snap peas, swiss chard, lettuce and now tomatoes. Thought I would make sauce, salsa etc. then came across a simple recipe for homemade tomato juice ....to....die.....for.....No one gets any of my tomatoes now. This juice uses cherry tomatoes, heirloom wonky shaped tomatoes, beautiful regular tomatoes and anything you have . All you need is celery, onion, (salt and sugar aka stevia to taste) and you will never need to find a home for another tomato ever. I have green zebras coming ready and am looking forward to green tomato juice.
You will love this - it can be frozen or canned. Try it you will love it Simple with celery
http://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/homemade_tomato_juice/
Hey Robyn! So glad you planted a garden! I "do" tomatoes every year. This year I canned 40 litre jars. But I'll take a look at the recipe and see what it's all about. Maybe I'll make some more. ;) ~ karen!
Krazee K.
Dry the blacks, blues and browns, especially the pear, plum and cherry size.
You will always have crusty grody looking bits of browny stuff to make anything tomatoish taste like you actually care about the people you are cooking for(not that I would share any of mine with others, I give them tomato paste or whatever, but it is your choice to change their lives forever, wrong as it is)
I'm drying Coyotes this year. First time I had enough to do anything with.
Dried tomato Skittles. hmm.
Ha! I'm all out of time for food prep. I just needed to get rid of them STAT. Now ... my tomatoes are pretty much diseased up and croaked. I wish I had a few tomatoes. ~ karen!
That's a really cute way to gift tomatoes!
I need to be your neighbor....just sayin'
<3
I'm with Erin on keeping all of my 16 heirloom tomatoes this year. We've had so much rain and not enough hot days that I am going to enjoy eating every single tomato myself (when or if they ever ripen). Next year I'm going with your string method and maybe I will have more tomatoes and can try your egg carton idea which is so clever.
Wish I could give all my egg cartons to someone...anyone!!
Thanks for reminding me about "Heavens to Betsy!" I've been using "For Pete's sake!" long enough that I've been actively looking for a replacement expression, one appropriate to use around the younger kiddos in our life.
Those are damn fine looking tomatoes.
Heavens to Murgatroyd, that's a brilliant idea.
Tussie Mussie were started in the Victorian era as a coy way of expressing feelings through flowers. According to the Language of Flowers, basil represents hatred and oregano represents birth.
http://www.languageofflowers.com/flowermeaning.htm#anchorb
Not really sure what message you were going for with your tussie mussie other than Go Cook and Enjoy!
I never have left over tomatoes, cause I don't like them. I planted tomatoes one year when I was taking care of my mom. She had lots of space, and liked tomatoes, as does the grandest girl. Sadly, mom died before the tomatoes were ripe. No one ate those tomatoes, and I don't plant them any more.
Mavis, Winnie and Blue want to hear how their friends in your coop are doing. Haven't heard from them in a long while. Braaaaawk!!
839 tomato plants? Really? One year (a long time ago) I planted 50. My relatives were filling up the trunks of their cars, not even in boxes, except in the back seat, which had boxes on the floor and on the seat, right to the ceiling. This year only a few plants, but I have enough for several good size pots of tomato soup. For me, freezing them whole is the way to go.
Just wondering ... do you have a favourite home made tomato soup recipe? I must check your site for one, but would be good to see a tomato soup (re)post/update if you have one.
Unrelated to tomatoes ... how about some info on sour cherries? Do you grow them? The newer cultivars out of U of Saskatchewan, released in 2005 are marvellous. My first choice is 'Romeo'. It is flavourful, makes the best pies, and sweet enough for fresh eating. It has a compact bush habit, insects and birds don't appear to bother it, extremely hardy, and yields profusely. Cherries are dark red, a good size and have small pits.
I must admit that pitting cherries is the pits, so time consuming, but some Russian guy on YT tested out several cherry pitters, and I bought the 'Leifheit Cherry Stoner'. It feeds cherries through a hopper, one by one into position, and you manually punch out the pits using the built in plunger. I freeze all my cherries whole, but at the partially thawed out stage they are firmer and go through the pitter much cleaner.
Sour cherries cost a small fortune to buy, so planting a bush or two pays off very nicely.
Yes, Karen, I 'like to sweat, swear and do stuff'. This is the best go-to blog ever.
Hey Marylin, can you please please tell me where you bought the sour cherry bushes from?
Hi Sorina, Do you live in Canada? What province? In the west, most greenhouse garden centre operations stock these every spring. I am not sure about east of Manitoba, but just search 'buy sour cherry bushes Canada'' and you should get loads of websites. I got mine from Aubin Nurseries in Manitoba, but my neighbours got theirs from a local nursery here in Edmonton. Let me know if you need more info.
Honestly, that is one of the cutest ideas that I've seen in a while. Way to go, Karen!
Now, to come up with a way to fit a 900 pound zucchini into an egg carton.
Send address and I will come pick tomatoes. I've had a miserable tom. year.
That's an insane amount of tomato plants girl! I grow heirlooms in Indiana and 35 different varieties is enough for 2 of us to enjoy, freeze, roast, giveaway! addictive tho!
Actually, that is pretty durn cute. But my eye kept wandering to the jar of twine and how neatly you were controlling the crazy that twine balls can be if left unfettered. Score! and Score!