what to do with tomatoes that are ripening @ diffrent times if i want to make a sauce?

Question

im in miami, and i have 8 six foot tomatoe plants. i have atleast 30, but there turning red and ready before the others. is there anything i can do to save them until the rest are done? i have 3 now, probably 2 tomorrow.is there any sugestions? any way 2 store untill the rest are done? thanx...derrick cooper.

Answer 1

Under the circumstances, you should start to pick some when they first start to "blush". Store them in a dark cool, but not refrigerated place. This will slow down their ripening and allow others to catch up. When you have what will make a batch, put a ripe apple in with them to hasten the ripening. Then prepare. A few that are past "peak" are fine for sauce.
If you are really going to do a major canning production, go to the farmer's market and buy a bushel.
If they are 6' tall, you must have an indeterminate variety and their strength is to produce over time for fresh eating. that is the best stratagy if you only have room for 8 plants. For canning gardens with room for more, a determinate variety will give a heavier production of fruit in a shorter time span for a shorter time so the canning can be over with.
Hope this helps. Later in the season, you may have enough ripe at once for small batches.

Answer 2

If you are looking to make a sauce, you can refrigerate the ripe ones for awhile while waiting for the others. I have heard and read that putting banana peels in the soil around the plants will encourage tomatoes to ripen faster. You can also pick the unripe tomatoes and put in a bag with banana peels. I have heard that works too. Now I have done this when I wanted sauce right away. Grudgingly I bought some filler tomatoes from the grocery but used mainly my own tomatoes for the flavor of those great homegrowns. A few grocery tomatoe dont kill the flavor. I also made small servings of sauce which I froze in a freezer bag. When tomatoes hit the peak season I no longer had to wait for others to get ripe...had plenty and could make bigger batchs of sauce. Now if you are in to gardening, plant some new tomato plants that have a shorter growing time and longer growing time. You need variety in your garden and tomato plants have many different varities...early 60 days to fruit, late 90 days to fruit. Check the variety and have tomatoes coming at different times. Good luck.

Answer 3

Freeze them. Just wash and dry them, cut out the stem section and place on a cookie sheet in the freezer. When they are frozen, transfer the to a freezer bag. I've heard that if you run them under cold water when you take them out they will skin easily. Never tried it myself. You might want to skin them before you freeze them.