It’s that Tomato time of year! Late February, early March have all of your tomatoes planted and growing. Sow your seeds (indoors) in early February so you are ready to thin and transplant outside. Today I planted Big Beef and Red Beefsteak Tomatoes. Planting now should give me my first harvest in late May to early June.
I stagger my planting of tomatoes every two weeks and will harvest through August. In two weeks I will start Roma Tomatoes; which are great for canning marinara sauce.
As I have time, I will post recipes on how to make tomato sauce, marinara sauce, spaghetti sauce, etc. and how to can them for long term storage.
Last year I processed and canned about 100 pounds of tomatoes and just finished the last jar of marinara sauce last week. This means I am going 3 to 4 months without my canned tomato sauces. This year I’m looking to can about 150 pounds and see if it gets me through an entire season. I also have to account for gifts; I enjoy giving some away to family and friends.
I have more general Tomato sowing, planting and harvesting information here.
Happy Planting!
Hey Bob,
I didn’t know you were into gardening! I’m trying tomatoes, corn, potatoes, broccoli and lettuce this year. The snow just melted so its busy season now.
C
Hi Cornelius,
It’s been some time since we last talked. I hope all is well.
Yes, I’ve been gardening for a long time and thoroughly enjoy it. The tomatoes, corn and potatoes are relatively easy to grow with little issue. I have always found the broccoli and lettuce to be more difficult. Bugs and little critters always seem to cause some problems. I’m not doing broccoli this year but I do have different types of lettuce growing. My romaine is doing great but the head (iceberg) has some bug issues. I am working on that now.
Good luck wit it and send me some pictures; I would like to see how your garden turns out!
FYI – I have a lot of recipes for canning tomatoes and other vegetables. If you would like to see any of them, let me know and I will post here on my blog.
Yeah, that would be awesome. I’d love to pickup some recipes!
I’ll be sure to post pics as we go. We’re starting to build the raised beds. In my zone 5, last frost is April 17. I’m hoping the caterpillar tunnels help us get into the soil be mid March, but I’ll keep you posted.