Tomato time!

It's that time again, folks!  

gutted tomaters, waiting to be roasted

Time to pile up so many tomatoes you forgot you had a kitchen counter.  

This year, my tomatoes clearly got a fungal infection (that I think I diagnosed as fusilarium wilt).   It means that many of the leaves turn brown on one side, and the plant gets sick.   This happened to my roma tomatoes out back.  I have been willy-nilly sharing soil between potted potatoes, compost and tomatoes, but no more.   I'm going to try to do a small crop rotation and leave that area tomato-free for a few years (sad!   it's pretty much the only totally sunny area in the back yard!) and see if it can heal.   Bugs and pests I can deal with (mostly), but diseases that persist in the soil are tough.


But, I'm still harvesting a fair amount  of Romas (if not the gargantuan quantities of other years.)  And some odd green-purple ones from out front.

Observe...

I cut them in half, lay them face-down on parchment paper and "slow roast" in the oven for 1/2 an hour.
Then it's easy to remove the skins and freeze them.

This year, to prevent disease, I'm throwing all tomato parts (guts, seeds, core, peels) in the trash