RE: Midweek Harvest - Here's Some Homegrown Happenings This Week w/ @Grow-Pro
Yes, @sufficientliving! Hot salsa coming soon We have harvested tomatoes since early July, but the peppers took a bit longer. Pepper growing this year: purple tiger, cayenne, cubanelle, Anaheim, California wonder, emerald green, and banana. I also started a few Birdseye peppers but gave them away to friends.
We are pulling tomatoes on a daily basis, but mostly 2-3 times per week heavily (40 or more pounds) and sometimes have to pull them early due to harsh storms recently. We have pulled over a thousand pounds of food so far this season 🙏 Very thankful that nature cooperated (for the most part anyhow). We still have a few months left for the indeterminates here, so looking to feed n weed this weekend and get ready to pick again Saturday! I'd say we pick anywhere from 40-100 lbs per pull of tomatoes. Our corn is finally finished, but we did manage a freezer load! We have about 15 pounds of peppers already in the freezer and they are slowing down now. We have maybe another dozen peppers ripening, but that'll probably be the last. Temps dropping to 50s at night this week. The tomato strains I grow don't flinch at cool weather, they love it!
I just sold 58 lbs of cull tomatoes that were fine, but imperfect. The lady that bought them made over 5 gallons of tomato sauce!! I was blown away..lol something that would have otherwise been given away or thrown out - sold & sauced. Turns out the ugly tomatoes taste better 😋🍅
Wow!! A thousand pounds, thats a lot of tomatoes. We have pulled around 300- 400 lbs and that has been more than we can make salsa and pasta sauce with. A lot of our tomatoes, cucumbers, and squash we couldnt use in time we gave to a church to give away.
How do the Anaheim peppers compare in heat to a jalapeno or habanero? We grow those two varieties most years canning the jalapenos and drying most of the habaneros we dont use in salsa and making habanero powder seasoning.
Its great that you can sell the imperfect tomatoes to someone who can put them to use. It is a good thing that salsa and sauces don't care what the tomatoes look like.
The rain has been bad in my area too. Monday we got around 7 inches, this is the most rain i can remember in years inthe last month and a half we have had around 21 inches of rain. The temps here have been hitting the upper 50's at night slowing down a lot of my plants.
I'm glad to see you having such success I hope it continues.
These are the Purple Tiger peppers, @sufficientliving
Yes!! Our goal is to hit 2,000 pounds this season on 104 tomato plants. We have about 85-90 still doing their thang, so we might still get close. We haven't had rain like you, wow! I'm not positive, but I think 21" might be what we've gotten all year so far. Our battle here is wind & weight - heavier tomato varieties, beefsteaks, have gravity & wind trying to take them out..lol
The Anaheim chili is much milder than jalapeño and nowhere near habanero hot. The closest thing I have to habanero is the purple tiger and that's a small fraction of the heat of habanero. 🔥😋 hot enough for me..haha!
We sell tomatoes locally, give them to friends and family, and also donate some to local food pantries and organizations that provide meals. It's a beautifully rewarding endeavor & one I hope to help others to find equally rewarding for themselves. We all eat! Let's grow something 😉
We are getting ready to pick again tomorrow morning. Still in full bloom here 🙏
Cherry tomatoes are a daily pick - my kids love to pluck them!