I did not plant any vegetables other then Tomatoes in my Georgia Garden this year. The only tomatoes I seem to have luck with are Roma. That is fine by me as I love to use Roma's in sauces, soups and chili.
I planted 4 slips last spring and one did nothing more then just die on me. I have no idea what happened as it was beside the others in a nice row. As you can see, I harvested lots of red beauties from the 3 thriving plants. I had so many that I blanched, peeled and froze many tomatoes in containers in my freezer. 
Here is a tomato plant that came up totally Voluntary for me! I did nothing to this plant but water it when the sprinkler was in the area and water just happen to hit it. I am amazed it survived the hot, dry summer we had.
I was able to harvest many maters from this Volunteer as well. Maybe Mother Nature was being nice to give me a plant since one of my bought ones died. I had a nice stock of tomatoes in my freezer waiting for winter and me to cook some yummy treats. Over the weekend our freezer went out! Yep, it just up and died on us. The freezer was running but not keeping a freezing temperature. So it was out a bit before we realized it had died! Sunday, we grilled all the meat that had thawed. We got the new refrigerator in place on Monday morning but everything else in the freezer had now thawed. I went on a cooking frenzy! I made Soup, Chili, Spaghetti Sauce, Green Bean Casserole, etc. I have cooked enough food to feed an Army! So much for FROZEN TOMATOES, In the Garden...
Note: We lost our Washing machine a few months ago. That makes two major appliances purchased in 2001 now dead. They sure don't make things like they used to....
Words and Photos Property of In the Garden Blog Team, In the Garden
I am sorry to hear about your freezer going out on you, and hope you got everything cooked up and refrozen in new freezer. It sure sounds like you were busy cooking up a storm that is for sure. Something that needed doing immediately, not when you wanted to.
ReplyDeleteYour tomatoes sure gave you a bountiful supply.
FlowerLady
Skeeter,
ReplyDeleteIf they made them to last forever they would go out of business. It is a pain though, glad you figured it out before it all went rotten.
Well it's good you got so many things cooked and saved! I am now worried as we purchased all of our appliances in '01 too when we moved here from Germany. Our refrigerator went out a few years ago but the repairman fixed it by replacing a switch. So far-knock on wood-all else is hanging tough though Mr. Fix-it has had to work on the washer. Hopefully the new freezer will stay around for a while!
ReplyDeleteForgot to say that is a LOT of yummy tomatoes. Way more than I have gotten!
ReplyDeleteVolunteers are simply amazing. Ours too seem to thrive in neglect. But the ones that we raised from seeds and pampered it with water and fertiliser seems to died on us at the first heat wave. Your tomato harvest look great! Hope you have more harvest to come so you can re-stock.
ReplyDeleteYou got that right about them not making appliances like they use to. I didn't plant Romas this year for some odd reason, but they are usually pretty prolific for me too. :)
ReplyDeleteGood Morning everyone! I am still tired from all the cooking yesterday but cannot slow down as we have house guest coming this weekend. Nothing like a broken freezer could happen at a convenient time. Grrrrrrrr...
ReplyDeleteFlowerlady, I now have a freezer full of cooked goodies!
Randy, I totally agree on that one and even said that to the Saint the day it happened…
Tina, We could have probably gotten it repaired but it happen on the weekend plus with it being 10 years old, we just decided to get a new one. We had planned to get a new one with the Kitchen renovation but that was going to wait for a bit to save some money. Oh well, we are one step ahead of the renovation, LOL…
MK-Girl, All the food is now in containers and back into the freezer. Will not be restocking any tomatoes this year as the weather turned cool and I took out the dying plants over the weekend…
Racquel, I have always had luck with Roma and never had good luck with any other tomatoes. I have no idea why but maybe my soil is best for Roma…
Morning all.
ReplyDeleteSkeeter that was a bad timing on the freezer part. Glad you were able to salvage most of it.
Mine went out & Young'un & myself were at big box store at midnight trying to find one. Sadly I lost 2 garbage containers full.
You got a wonderful supply of maters. My little Patio gave me a few but that is all. The other plants bit the dust.
Have a wonderful day all.
Boys oh boy, you have scared the crap out of me Skeeter. I have 2 freezers in my laundry room along with a fridge. One freezer is 34 years old with the other one being 22 years old. The fridge was Tina's at one time and must be around 20 plus years old. I have a side by side freezer/fridge in the kitchen and that is 16 years old. Guess I have been real lucky.
ReplyDeleteFrom what everyone is saying it has not been a good year for tomatoes. I started with 18 plants and due to the darn rain and cold of May and June here half of them died. I had started more than I needed so had backup to replace them but it meant they would be late. Then some of them died. However for the first time ever I had probably at leat 20 come up all over the garden from last year. Can you believe that in Maine. Ones I had started in the house died but ones from last yer grew and grew. I moved them around to where I wanted them and left a few where they were and they actually have produced. I did pull and compost some as they were smothering other plants. Gotta just love dear ole Mother Nature!!!! I had left some split and rotten maters in the garden last fall and they got tilled in where they landed in the spring so I think that is where they came from. They were late coming but I have now frozen over 40 quarts of tomatoes, with yesterday probably being the last one I will do. There are still tomatoes on my plants but I am tomatoed out!!!!
Gosh you had good crops off your plants. I had more plants but my crops didnt seem to be as large. There is nothing worse than having a freezer give up on you especially when you have just spent ages preserving stuff
ReplyDeleteGood evening all, it has been a long day for me and ending it with giving the kitties fur cuts. Not fun but done for a few months....
ReplyDeleteLola, I am sorry you lost so much when your freezer went out. I was so upset but made the most of it and cooked a lot of things. I then cooled and put them into containers and now have a new freezer full of goodies to pop into a pot and heat up this winter. I wish I could grow other tomatoes but Roma seem to be my mater of choice in the luck department...
Jean, Do not worry about your 34 and 22 year old appliances. Back then, they built them to last! You will be safe for another 10 years! LOL, I am with Randy, I think they make things to only last a short period of time now so they can sell more! Grrrrrrr.... Wow, you planted a lot of maters! Good thing too since you lost so many. Smart gal for having a back up plan. LOL. I saw when the Volunteer one started coming up and I told the Saint not to pull it and lets see what it does. The darn thing got so large it fell over and started rooting in several places! I guess it is a vine type plant. I dont feel sorry for you having all that rain this summer when we had a drought. You could have shared ya know Ha ha. I am going to be optimistic and hope for a perfect year next growing season.... The Saint says I like to live in a dream world at times....
Patientgardener, Maybe you will have better luck next year in the Tomato department:-) I was lucky that even though we lost the freezer, we did not loose too much food. Of course this had to happen after I had been to the grocery and stocked the fridge. Just my luck. Ha....
Hahaha Skeeter, i go with Randy, they surely insure their products have a lifetime for them to continue business. But sorry for your sudden experience as well. At least you are not suffering from nature calamities as other areas there in the States, just like many of our towns here too, suffering from high floods, landslides and devastation. As for tomatoes, we have volunteer cherry tomatoes too which wonderfully go with our traditional more sour stews.
ReplyDeleteThe only tomatoes that did well were the volunteers since all mine had blight again...it seems to hit every other year...but to have the freezer die so you have to use the tomatoes is down right unfair...
ReplyDelete