I spent yesterday trying to work through what I affectionately call "tomato tangle". We only have six plants, but they're all over each other. We haven't picked a tomato in a long time, and so I'm trying to encourage some air flow or something so the tomatoes can ripen yet this year. Thankfully the weather has been beautiful this week, but there are still about 50+ green tomatoes out there!
There was a time however when we had a few tomatoes sitting on our counter. Not a lot, but more than we could eat....which also means fruit flies. I can't stand fruit flies. They make me feel like my whole kitchen is disgusting. Anyone relate?
I came upon a rare morning however when Matt and Nathan had already left, I must have had my Bible study finished (or so I would like to think), and the girls were still in bed. So, I decided to take care of the few tomatoes (and the fruit flies). I have canned tomatoes before, but didn't have enough tomatoes or time to start that, so I decided to try freezing them. I've never frozen tomatoes before, but it was very simple! The preparation was the same as if canning, but then instead of filling jars and waiting while they sit in a water bath, you can just put them in an air-tight freezer bag. I'm not going to write the steps of how to do this here because it would then make it seem like I know what I'm doing. However, I love pickyourown.org and get all my information for freezing and canning anything and everything there.
The above tomatoes produced this:
Two bags with about 3 cups of tomatoes each.
Not super impressive, but I think my time in the kitchen was only between an hour and an hour and a half. Better than rotten tomatoes, and better than having fruit flies!
The issue I have when processing tomatoes is the amount of liquid that you lose. The instructions said you could just drink the tomatoes juice...
Gross, right? I am not a tomato juice fan.
(we don't always have a world map on our table, but this day we did)
However, I've never had fresh tomato juice. It was actually, genuinely good!
Don't get me wrong, if you don't like a fresh garden tomato you're probaby not going to like the juice it produces. But, don't knock it until you try it.
By this time the girls had awoken and were ready for breakfast. My girls don't have many reservations about trying new foods, and Adeline and Evelyn love tomatoes, so I offered them some juice.
Ella politely tried it, but was not interested in having more than a taste.
Evelyn and Addie really liked it though.
Here's Evs with her tomato juice. She perhaps does look a little unsure...or maybe that's a grin.
And of course, nothing complements a yogurt beard better than a tomato stache.
And here's Addie, loving' it up.
So, here's hoping the beautiful weather continues, we can gather a late harvest, and make some more tomato juice!
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