Tomatoes not ripening? Here are the four main reasons why your tomatoes aren't turning red, and what you can do (if anything) to help ripen your tomatoes.
[Read more…] about 4 Reasons Your Tomatoes Are Not Ripening – And What You Can Do To Help
Spaghetti Sauce for Canning Made with Fresh Tomatoes
A good spaghetti sauce recipe for canning is a must in our house, because many commercial spaghetti sauces use ingredients like genetically modified high fructose corn syrup and soybean oil – not things we normally eat.
My husband came in from outside the first time I was canning spaghetti sauce, smiled and said the house smelled like an Italian restaurant – a good Italian restaurant. I had to agree. It takes a while to cook, but the end result is delicious! I start a batch in the morning, and slow cook while I'm working on other things in the kitchen, like prepping the rest of the ingredients and canning equipment. Paste tomatoes will yield a thicker sauce with less cooking, but you can use any tomatoes that you have available.
You can also cut this spaghetti sauce recipe in half or to a fourth. Just keep the processing time the same, or freeze the spaghetti sauce instead of canning.
[Read more…] about Spaghetti Sauce for Canning Made with Fresh Tomatoes
Home Canned Salsa Recipe – Plus 10 Tips for Canning Salsa Safely
This home canned salsa recipe rates an “Awesome!” from friends and family alike. To make it a salsa recipe for canning, it contains a higher proportion of tomatoes than most fresh salsa recipes, plus added vinegar to lower the pH. (More on Canning Salsa Safely at the end of the post.)
The taste and texture of this salsa recipe is similar to a popular commercial brand we used to use, but canning salsa with your fresh local produce at the peak of ripeness really makes the flavors sing.
[Read more…] about Home Canned Salsa Recipe – Plus 10 Tips for Canning Salsa Safely
Tomato Flowers But No Fruit, or No Tomato Flowers – 9 Troubleshooting Tips
It's very frustrating when you have tomato flowers but no fruit, or big, beautiful tomato plants but no tomato flowers at all. Thankfully, most of the time you can get your tomatoes producing with a little extra TLC. In this post, we'll look at two tomato flower problems – no flowers at all, and tomato flowers but no fruit.
[Read more…] about Tomato Flowers But No Fruit, or No Tomato Flowers – 9 Troubleshooting Tips
Pickled Cherry Tomatoes for Canning, Plus More Cherry Tomato Ideas
This recipe for pickled cherry tomatoes came about as a way of preserving the huge harvest of cherry tomatoes we had last year. The cherry tomatoes and an assortment of vegetables are cold packed and covered in hot brine. Vinegar lowers the pH, making it safe for water bath canning. Added salt and sugar tie up free water, inhibiting bacteria growth. Our neighbor (who loves pickled foods) can eat a whole jar in one sitting. Below the pickled cherry tomato recipe, you'll find more ideas for what to do with cherry tomatoes
. [Read more…] about Pickled Cherry Tomatoes for Canning, Plus More Cherry Tomato Ideas
