By Meara Hayden, Penn State Extension Intern
While I love a good, ripe salad
tomato, there is nothing better than having homegrown, homemade salsa or tomato
sauce late in the winter. Tomatoes are high-acid foods, which makes them easy
to can and keep for the dead of winter, when you’re just dying for something
with flavor. But before you can start canning, you’ll have to grow healthy,
happy tomatoes.
When purchasing your plants, ask
for a determinant variety if you have canning in mind. That means that the
tomatoes will get ripe all at once, instead of having a season-long crop,
making processing and canning all the fruit easy. Make sure they’re planted in
full sun, and far away from any source of weed killer, from your lawn or your
neighbors. When you’re planting, strip all the blossoms off the plant and don’t
put fertilizer directly in the planting hole, it will fry the roots. Make sure
your stakes are in before the plant goes in, you don’t want to hurt their growing
root system. It’s also a good idea to continue to strip the blossoms until the
plant has enough foliage to support fruit.
Remember, there is no cure for late
blight, only prevention. A fungicide containing copper should be applied early
and often, and if one of your plants is infected, destroy it immediately. Late
blight spreads very quickly.
Once you have buckets of ripe
fruit, you’ll want to know how to can it. If you’re new to it all, check out
Canning 101: a workshop with master gardeners, June 26, from 6-9pm, at Cedar
Crest College. The workshop covers hot water bath canning, no pressure canner
required. Learn to can high-acid foods like tomatoes, pickles, and other fruit.
Register here: http://www.cvent.com/events/canning-101-water-bath-canning/event-summary-9532edc36c43400786e691dccacc23ff.aspx
Happy Canning!
