25lbs made 3 one gallon bags of puree that now sits in my refridge waiting to be cooked down and canned into tomato sauce and salsa.
I used my KitchenAide mixer with the food grinder and strainer attachments that I inherited from my aunt. It made easy work. No boiling and peeling hot tomatoes.
There are more romas that need to be picked in the garden as well! The Amish Paste are big and meaty. Definitely my favorite roma. We got off to a rocky start. I bought several plants and only two made it, but each plant has produced more than I expected already. Some weighed 7 and 8 ounces each. There is very little waste on those tomatoes. I am looking forward to growing a bunch of them next year from seeds I save this year. They are hard to find in my area as seedlings. If you have a chance to grow the Amish Paste I highly recommend it. I did have to throw away a few first tomatoes that were hit by blossom rot, and I was thinking to myself this tomatoe just wasnt going to make it for me, but they really pulled through. I'm hoping all the blooms set and I don't have any problems next week since our temps will be over 100 again all week.
How is everyone's tomatoes doing? What's your favorite this year?
I think I'm just lazy...LOL! I never bother to seed the tomatoes I make into jams, ketchup, sauce, etc. None of us mind having the seeds in sauces. I have a device that will peel and strain the tomatoes, but it seems like it would be harder to clean it afterward than to just blanch and peel the hot tomatoes by hand.
ReplyDeleteI also use whatever types of tomatoes are ripe for our sauces. We generally don't know all the varieties we have during any given year. I know this year we have a 10 heirlooms (Black Krem, Mr. Stripey, etc.) but we also have about 25 volunteer plants that we can't identify beyond their general shape and size.
How bad was your blossom end rot? A few of the first tomatoes to ripen had BER, but they weren't that bad, so I just cut the bad part off and we sliced and ate the good part. Our tomatoes are just now going good on the plants we planted earliest. We have many plants that are just now blossoming and setting on fruit. All are doing well, though, despite the heat.