Tomatoes Galore - Goal Within Sight

This weekend I picked a ton of tomatoes.

We got a total of 235 off 4 plants, for a bit over 4 gallons...

• Sunsugar:  116
• Lemon Boy:  68
• Early girl:  33
• Celebration:  18  (it finally started producing!)

I am only counting them as 2/3rds the usual weight, because most did end up a bit small despite being fully ripe.  The plants are starting to look a bit stressed, so it is probably time for a heavy fertilizing or a rain dance.

Here's 2.5 gallons, ready for canning.

Lots of yummy red ones this time.

My ultimate, too-optimistic-for-reality, ridiculous goal was to can 40 quarts.

This makes about 1 quart per week for times when we are not picking fresh ones to eat.  I'd say that is a fairly good approximation of how much we usually eat, considering pasta sauce, soups, and salsas.

After I canned this batch today, I have 24.5 quarts canned, and there are enough dried tomatoes to equal 6 quarts canned.  That means we have 30.5 quarts and just need to preserve another 9.5.  C'mon plants, you can do this thing!

And that's not all...

There are still some bruised ones left over which I'll make into tomato soup to eat today, and the dehydrator is full and running (and I have enough skins to make another full dehydrator batch this afternoon).

I also gave my parents about 1.5 gallons of fresh tomatoes, which makes me feel warm and happy.

It is a day for celebration!