The birds are pecking holes on mine as soon as they start showing any color at all. A few hide from the birds so blt's are a daily treat.

Mine succumbed to the blight, but we did get enough tomatoes to eat, cook, and freeze. Have you ever made tomato soup? That was a big hit here. I froze some in quarts last year and they lasted us through the winter.

And then you don't take up freezer space with the containers.

Tomatoes are acidic so are among the safer things to home can. I like the Ball website for canning recipes but their cookbook is great,too.

http://www.freshpreserving.com/recipes

If you select for water bath canning, you won't need special equipment, just the jars, lids and a big pot. Their Getting Started page has good instructions - http://www.freshpreserving.com/getting-started

I do have the Ball book and some others. Freezing is much quicker though, especially if you blanch in the microwave.

I'm going to try gazpacho next because I had a lot of cucumbers.

But I'm retired, so I have the time. I just can't garden anymore - the deer and other critters would get everything. I'd have to build a cage around the entire garden!

What I should be doing is going to the local Farmer's Markets, buying up fresh vegetables and processing my own stuff. Maybe next year. I'm tired of buying commercial stuff that is high in sugar and salt and is not as good as what I can put up.

I love Bread & Butter pickles with fresh cucumbers - or any kind of pickle. But there are some good recipes for small batches of Bread & Butter ones that make just enough to last a couple of weeks.

I will definitely be looking there for new ideas.

but a friend of mine had a visitor from England a week ago who made a tomato soup that, once it was cooked, you add some cream and stir in a raw egg. She said it was the best tomato soup she had ever tasted. I look forward to trying that soon.

They taste great but the skins are tough as leather. I'm guessing that's because we had 2 weeks over 100 degrees in June, which is NOT normal here. So, they all have to be peeled, which is a very messy endeavor.

Re tomato juice, one morning I took a big beefsteak tomato and put it in the blender. I had chopped it into big pieces. I added lemon juice and worcestershire sauce. Chopped some basil and put it and fresh ground black pepper on top. It was outrageous. I called it "lazy woman's tomato juice."

I have made my own tomato juice in the past, but I didn't want to do any work that particular morning.



Cher

I have 5 nice basil plants.

My juice tastes wonderful and was really great with beer.