[ponygirl]

I canned tomato sauce last fall and it was really tasty when I used some recently... didn't have that metallic, canned taste at all, but tasted fresh. The problem was that I bought a whole flat of organic tomatoes at my farmer's market and it cost me $15... but I only got 2 1/2 pint jars of sauce out of it. That's some expensive tomato sauce and it's not even including the cost of lids and my time! This year I am patio gardening, but not sure I'll get enough tomatoes to can. I've got four Early Girl plants going now and hopefully the tomatoes will ripen before the temps hit 100.

I started prepping right after the stock market crash in '08. The tomato paste was one of the early items I bought sometime in '09, so they had been in storage for over 2 years. They were casualties of my learning process and I won't buy any more tomato products in cans. I had only used about a third of the box, so obviously I didn't use them up fast enough to warrant buying an entire case. What I'll do now is use up the canned tomato products I have and save the stuff I'd put in glass. Thanks for the tips FRiends!

[Sarajevo]

I had a bumper crop of tomato’s last year. They are easy to grow. Keep the roots damp (not wet). If they’re in a large pot or 5 gallon bucket, make sure the pot stays relatively cool or the plant won’t produce and grow long and leggy. IIRC, we canned over 20 quarts of canned tomato’s and sauce last year.

[Sarajevo]

Just as an aside, have you seen the Gardening Thread?