Good for you!........I will gladly trade you, our cool wet spring, that lingered into late June, stunted my tomatoes.........lots of leaves, no tomatoes, small plants.........on the other hand, the strawberries were to die for this year.

 

Excellent news! Glad it was not too serious of a problem.

 

Me too. I picked at least 20 pounds of tomatoes yesterday. Time to start making salsa and spaghetti sauce.

Sad news though, my best "Better Boy" was weighted down and it actually broke the stalk of the plant. I was bummed - shouldn't be, I have too many tomatoes as it is.

Anyone got any good salsa recipes?

 

For starters; get yourself a 'Slap-Chop' (you know, the kitchen tool that cockeyed goofball 'Vince' sells on TV).

No. I am NOT joking. One of the best pepper choppers I've ever used. Cuts down on a lot of time when I process mass amounts of peppers......and it's neater and more precise than just putting it into a blender.......It also breaks down for cleaning real easy. If you only use with veggies, a good rinse with hot water is sufficient to clean.

I'll just give you what I did today (you can adjust to your own taste):

12 medium tomatoes (ripe)
6 habaneros
12 jalapenos
8 serranos
1 medium sweet onion (I prefer vidalia)
1 bunch cilantro
2 teaspoons sea salt
3 teaspoons lime juice

Cut tops off of the habaneros and jalapenos........Halve them and slice out most of pulp and seeds (don't be afraid to leave some seeds in them. Chop them into small dice-size pieces......3 or 4 pieces at a time. This is about a dozen quick 'whacks' with the slap-chop.....

Cut tops off of the serranos. No need to halve and seed. Again.....3 or 4 serranos (they're small) at a time...about a dozen 'whacks'.......

Slice and dice the onion into small pieces.

Slice and dice the tomatoes into small pieces (I do NOT worry about skinning and seeding them.......)

Start adding and stirring all ingredients into mixing bowl with the salt and the lime juice until blended well. Cut off the long stalks on the cilantro and rinse well and separate the leaves and let drain. Then roughly chop (3 or 4 whacks) bunches of the cilantro and add to the mixing bowl and blend well.

Put into covered dish and put into fridge at least one full day (preferably 2 days) until using.....Occasionally shaking to blend the juices. It'll keep a good week in the fridge before becoming 'mushy'. Of course, by THAT time you've already made another batch!

Enjoy

***Good with chips, western omelets, fajitas, etc..........

*****Again, you can variate the ingredients....This one is moderately hot.

 

Use green tomatoes to make some chow-chow.....mmmmmm!

 

Ok, I'm aware of some strange southern foods like "balled peanuts", but what the heck is chow-chow besides a really hairy dog?

 

I thought it was someone telling you 'goodbye' twice in Italian......

 

Chow-chow is a spicy relish that uses green tomatoes, peppers, cabbage and just about anything else. Use it on burgers/dogs/chicken/fish...anything. There are people down here who simply will NOT eat pinto beans without chow-chow.

 

I was gone for two days and came home to pick 16 pounds yesterday.....another 7 today.

Giving away a mess tonight at work and some to the parents tomorrow. Salsa being made and tomato puree going in the freezer by the end of the week.

 

Too late for 'before' pics....alas......

Sounds like the crop is going well......Enjoy.

 

But not too late for the after pics.....

 

Some bread, bacon and lettuce and you're in business...

 

Looking good!

And kudos on trying to avoid 'dishpan hands'......