When Life Gives You Tomatoes

Reader Contribution by Blythe Pelham
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Last year was a very good tomato year. In fact, we still have unused salsa canned last season, not necessarily a bad thing since it is the number one item I use from what we grow. I went a little overboard hedging my bets and insuring another plentiful tomato year by making sure that I started plenty of seeds. I was still stinging from back-to-back bad years a few years ago.

I admit to feeling several questioning eyebrow raises from the wee voice in my head as I was starting so many seeds. But I forged ahead regardless with thoughts of sharing should I have trouble dealing with overflowing harvests. I put 58 plants in the ground in the Spring and several others around the garden volunteered.

One of the biggest things I’ve noticed this year (because one can hardly ignore pound after pound of tomatoes moving from the garden into the kitchen) is that the tomatoes are coming earlier and earlier. Once upon a time here in Ohio, I had to wait until late August to enjoy my first sun-ripened breakfast snack of a fresh tomato. Then I would twiddle my thumbs ever so patiently until early September for a large enough haul to preserve.

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