A couple of gardening questions

**my4littlebuffaloes** · 08-02-2010, 09:50 PM

My 2 gardens are doing well and finally starting to produce some red tomatoes. One of my questions is about those. I want can tomato sauce but am only getting one or two tomatoes a day. Is there some way I can freeze these without processing them until I get enough to cook a batch?

My second question is about broccoli. At my community garden plot my pumpkins are totally done at this point! The vines have died and the pumpkins are orange. This is so early. I am thinking about pulling everything up and starting broccoli from see there. Is it too late for that now? The garden gets sun all day long and our first frost date is usually mid October. Thanks for any help you can give me.
Jennifer

**Trentt** · 08-03-2010, 08:47 AM

Set a large pot of water to boil. Meanwhile, cut the stem ends out of your tomatoes and prepare an ice bath in a large bowl (water with lots of ice cubes). With a slotted spoon, place a few tomatoes into the boiling water, blanch briefly (30 - 60 seconds), remove with slotted spoon and immediately put them in the ice bath.

After being chilled, the skins will be easy to remove from the tomatoes. Put the skinned tomatoes into a freezer container, plastic bag, whatever you have on hand, and freeze.

As for the second harvest broccoli, I'd give it a go. Check the days to maturity information on the seed packet. If it's in the 60 - 70 day range, you've got a good chance at a broccoli harvest. Broccoli is a cold crop that can withstand light frost anyway, and in fact tastes better when harvested in cold weather.

**Contrary Housewife** · 08-03-2010, 10:43 AM

I would just enjoy the fresh tomatoes for now. In a few weeks they will start coming in by the armload and then you can make sauce. You need a lot because they cook down to nothing. I did 8 large tomatoes yesterday and got 1/2 cup of sauce out of it.

**DixieBell** · 08-07-2010, 06:32 PM

Originally Posted by my4littlebuffaloes

My 2 gardens are doing well and finally starting to produce some red tomatoes. One of my questions is about those. I want can tomato sauce but am only getting one or two tomatoes a day. Is there some way I can freeze these without processing them until I get enough to cook a batch?

My second question is about broccoli. At my community garden plot my pumpkins are totally done at this point! The vines have died and the pumpkins are orange. This is so early. I am thinking about pulling everything up and starting broccoli from see there. Is it too late for that now? The garden gets sun all day long and our first frost date is usually mid October. Thanks for any help you can give me.
Jennifer

If you want a bumper crop of toms - cut off all suckers at the base of the plant and most of the leaves (leave about 6)