What did you do in your garden today?

[flowerbug]

Yeah, gotta have extra freezer space to accumulate and slip skins....but, faster

Hot water works. I've had some that would slip off in real hot water...hard for any of it with quantity you're working. Amazing production.

i get a half a pot of water boiling and then dunk the tomatoes to get the skins to release. years ago we were just heating up water on the stove and dumping it over sink fulls of tomatoes. that was really silly as it didn't work all that great and wasted a lot of energy. now i can do 2-3 buckets and fill up the double sink with tomatoes and they can sit there until i get them peeled and ready to get cut up into chunks. oh, yes, after dunking i drop them in a sink of cold water to cool them off again because it's easier on my hands to not work on the hot tomatoes. having a double sink is very useful.

this morning's picking didn't have as many brains so that will really help speed things up. maybe i can get these done before midnight this time. my feet, left knee and lower back are the parts that feel it the most and i have to take breaks here or there. we'll see how it goes. i'll certainly be ready for my massage appt this week.

 

[CrealCritter]

We processes 27 quarts (almost 7 gallons) of fresh from the vine tomato puree. Smells and tastes FRESH. After we finish juicing, I checked 1.042 on the hydrometer, really naturally sweet this year

I even had tomato seeds in my beard. It's happens, rarely, but I'm now officially tired

Jesus is Lord and Christ

 

[Dreamz]

Well, nothing in the garden today. Finished the roof for the quackies whole run. Just need to work on the front wall, double doors.
It began raining by 1pm, so ut everyone in and took a very late nap of 4hrs,lol 730m began a storm. Hub had to go outside to close coop window. Late dinner around 930pm. Just going back to my bed because there is nothing to do. Internet is down, just cell. Maybe I can get back to sleep soon. Have to be up by 6 to open the nests up because my girls begin laying by 7am,lol Good night and thank you so much!

 

[flowerbug]

...
I even had tomato seeds in my beard. It's happens, rarely, but I'm now officially tired

tis the season! we got 40 quarts of tomato chunks done yesterday (in two batches). i had a nice break between them and we were done by midnight. this was much better time overall than Friday night's larger batch as there weren't so many complicated brains to go through. Mom helped a great deal.

i got a good laugh when cutting one tomato when it squirted all over the front of my shirt and made a design including a question mark.

i won't need to pick again for a few days, but today i'll need to check for any raccoon damaged ones that should be buried as i'm on my way out to bury the scraps.

also yesterday i picked dry bean pods as much as i could get done before the weather and my body said it was enough. too hot and humid. so that will be my light task projects for today to go through all the dry stuff i picked and sort it out and also i harvested a few hundred American Solanum fruits that need to be trashed.

 

[CrealCritter]

tis the season! we got 40 quarts of tomato chunks done yesterday (in two batches). i had a nice break between them and we were done by midnight. this was much better time overall than Friday night's larger batch as there weren't so many complicated brains to go through. Mom helped a great deal.

i got a good laugh when cutting one tomato when it squirted all over the front of my shirt and made a design including a question mark.

i won't need to pick again for a few days, but today i'll need to check for any raccoon damaged ones that should be buried as i'm on my way out to bury the scraps.

also yesterday i picked dry bean pods as much as i could get done before the weather and my body said it was enough. too hot and humid. so that will be my light task projects for today to go through all the dry stuff i picked and sort it out and also i harvested a few hundred American Solanum fruits that need to be trashed.

Sticky tomatoes had them in my hair, beard, clothes, nothing a shower didn't fix. We worked outside on our cement slab. Which was nice. We made a big mess but just hosed it down when we were done

Used a kiddie pool to wash the tomatoes, had a slicing station (oak cutting board) and the juicer running into my 20 gallon stainless kettle. Then we used my propane burner and boiled it down to approx 6 gallons.

Just like brewing beer, watch for the cold break, lots of foam, stirr hard to get past the cold break and into boil, then it rolls just fine.

Neighbor offered her electric juicer, so that's what we used. It had a run time of 10 minutes on, 10 minutes off. Had to clean it out often. I believe we wasted more than I wanted, mostly because of the machine. But still managed to can 27 quarts post boil down.

I'm looking at attachments for our kitchenaid mixer. Meat grinder, sausage stuffer, tomato juicer, veggie slicer/ shreader, cheese grader, etc... accessories seem reasonably priced if you buy them all as a package. Not so reasonable priced buy one by one. So I'm going to order all the accessories, because their really is cost savings there.

We should get another round of tomatoes before frost. I would like to be better prepared with a much better machine for pulp extraction next time.

We had fun, but I was tired by the time I carried the last hot jars into the house for my wife to water-bath (she had 2 water bathers going at the same time

Next year I'm at least going to double up the paste tomatoes rows and only one row of slicers. We use so many tomato products throughout the year I know they won't go to waste.

Jesus is Lord and Christ

 

[flowerbug]

there's no way i'm canning outside, way too hot and humid and also not wanting to get all that equipment and setup needed. i have a good enough system for inside that i'm happy with it.

about the only upside i could see to doing it outside would be being able to hose yourself cooler once in a while, but inside with the AC is really a luxury i'd have a hard time giving up.

glad you got it done!

we used to split the harvest between tomato chunks and tomato juice, but there is a slight increase in time for doing tomato juice so we've ended up being happy enough with the chunks that we don't do juice any more. the nice thing about juice is not many seeds. all manual hand crank mill, but it does work (not as easy after i broke the handle off it but it still works). we're both ok with having tomato seeds in our canned chunks and sauces so that doesn't matter much to me.

 

[FarmerJamie]

@CrealCritter , I am with you. With 3 or more people (back in the day) did tomatoes in the garage. First, kept the mess and heat out of the house, and being able to hose everything off was great.

Now, it's just me mostly, so I stay in the kitchen. I felt like I cheated using basically only romas...I could skin them, deseed them, and puree them in the food processor that cut the cook down time to barely nothing.

Be wary of the kitchen aid attachments. Had some (grinder and juicer) that were mostly plastic and did not hold up to mass usage. Maybe they have gotten better

 

[CrealCritter]

there's no way i'm canning outside, way too hot and humid and also not wanting to get all that equipment and setup needed. i have a good enough system for inside that i'm happy with it.

about the only upside i could see to doing it outside would be being able to hose yourself cooler once in a while, but inside with the AC is really a luxury i'd have a hard time giving up.

glad you got it done!

we used to split the harvest between tomato chunks and tomato juice, but there is a slight increase in time for doing tomato juice so we've ended up being happy enough with the chunks that we don't do juice any more. the nice thing about juice is not many seeds. all manual hand crank mill, but it does work (not as easy after i broke the handle off it but it still works). we're both ok with having tomato seeds in our canned chunks and sauces so that doesn't matter much to me.

My wife wants to do the next round differently. Core the tomatoes, throw in a blender skins and all blend untill smooth. She said we are missing out on a bunch of good flavor and nutrition from the skins and seeds. She's probably right, I try and not question her much when she wants to try something new.

As for working outside, it didn't bother me one little bit, it was warm and sunny but I would rather be outside working than inside working. Plus clean up was a breeze. Inside work is for the winter time but even then I tend to put off a lot of outside work like fence building until the winter because it's easier with weeds, blood sucking insects, the ground is soft and I don't sweat as much.

Jesus is Lord and Christ

 

[Dreamz]

Jealous. This time the tomatoes are one by one or 2 by 2 a day. Cannot can like that. Next time hope will be better.
Not much going on besides the rain and stormy weather. I am ok with that. On a later break, will go and check on water for the quackies,they drink a lot.

 

[CrealCritter]

@CrealCritter , I am with you. With 3 or more people (back in the day) did tomatoes in the garage. First, kept the mess and heat out of the house, and being able to hose everything off was great.

Now, it's just me mostly, so I stay in the kitchen. I felt like I cheated using basically only romas...I could skin them, deseed them, and puree them in the food processor that cut the cook down time to barely nothing.

Be wary of the kitchen aid attachments. Had some (grinder and juicer) that were mostly plastic and did not hold up to mass usage. Maybe they have gotten better

Look OK?

https://www.ebay.com/itm/1952783338...7RgSMzMRte&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

I couldn't imagine doing what we did with tomatoes yesterday in the kitchen. It would have been hours cleaning up the mess. But took a few minutes to clean up with the garden hose.

Jesus is Lord and Christ