Racing Jack Frost

I canned four quarts of tomatoes yesterday, which seems a pittance. I have another big bowl of partially ripened tomatoes, which I will can once they are ready. I’ve given up — at least for this year — on making salsa and spaghetti sauce. They are too much work for too little results.

I now understand why those products are so expensive in the store. The tomatoes cook down to almost nothing, so making a jar of salsa requires lots and lots of tomatoes.

We have lots and lots of green tomatoes still on the vine. Our lows have hovered around freezing the last few days, so I’ve been covering them with blankets nightly. Supposedly, temps are supposed to stay above the 40s through Tuesday, then drop into the 20s. I’m not bothering to cover them when the temps fall into the 20s. By that time, I figure that whatever we’ve harvested is what we’re going to get.

I just hope we have enough light and warmth to ripen more tomatoes. Jack Frost, stay away!