Best canning tomato

We usually can about 80 quarts of tomatoes a year. At present our favorite is 'Amish Paste'. Anyone else have a favorite that is productive as well as good tasting? I am interested in hearing about them.

80qts!! I wanna be like you when I grow up. I like Amish Paste and will be growing it for the 2nd time this year. So far my favorites for canning are the ones that (as you say), taste good and are productive. So, Rutgers, Martinos Roma, Cherokee Purple and Pruden's Purple all produced big crops here in the desert. I don't have a clue how they'd produce back east.

Chris

I'm sure going to be watching this thread! We'd sure like to put up some tomatoes this summer, something we've never done before. It's hard to decide which variety to grow for that purpose. They all look so good.

Pete2

Chris: I know it sounds like a lot but we usually do put up that many. We use them in soups, spaghetti sauce, chili and use a lot just as "stewed tomatoes" for snacks. Last year I didn't spend as much time in the garden as I should have, had a poor crop, and only was able to can 40 quarts (some of which came from my Mother's garden). We have only 8 quarts left and store bought tomatoes just don't cut it! I am going to try 'Cherokee Purple' this year to see how they do in this area.

Pete2: If I can be of any help, let me know. For starters, get a 'Ball Bluebook' canning guide. It's full of information and recipes for canning and perserving. Don't know if you have 'Agway' farm stores in your area but most of them here carry all the canning supplies you will need. Get them early though, they'll be gone come harvest time!

Big Red

I have tried about 30 varieties, Amish Paste is still my #1 fav. With Rutgers Select as #2

At one time Rutgers was used in 70% of the US processed tomatos. AKA Campbell Soups.

FYI In our area, it was the second coldest summer in weather history, bad year for tomatoes and peppers.

Byron

Byron, I agree on your first choice, I haven't tried Rutgers yet. I have been planting 'Amish Paste' for five years now. I'll probably get an argument on this but I think it's the best all around tomato going (at least for the ones I've tried). Thanks neighbor!

I'm trying to get my hands on some of those "amish paste" seeds so I can try them this summer. So many people have said they're so good that I just have to find out for myself! I have a question tho....this year I want to plant only heirloom, so I can save the seeds. Could any of you tell me, are Amish paste heirloom? Also, what exactly are they good for? (as in: sauce, salsa, stewed tomatoes or ??) I'm looking for different kinds of heirloom tomatoes because I like to can salsa, stewed tomatoes (Just chunks of tomatoes with onions & celery in it), plus we like to eat a lot of fresh tomatoes. Which kinds of heirlooms would you suggest for making each of these? I also need to can about 90 pints of stewed tomatoes and about 60 pints of salsa. Since I'm not familiar with heirloom tomatoes, could you give me an idea on how many plants I'd have to plant to get this much? Sorry for so many questions!!! Hope you can help me! Thanks a heap!

Hi AuntyB! Yes, 'Amish Paste' are heirlooms, apparently originated from the Amish farms of Wisconsin. I have been saving seeds for the last five years. I wish I had extra to trade, but didn't save enough last year so I can't help you out, next year I'll save extra to trade. These tomatoes have excellent 'old time' taste and are very productive. Fruit averages about 8 ounces, acorn shaped and meaty with very few seeds. I usually set out about 5 dozen plants (along with 2 or 3 other varities that are new to me) each year. Most years I have enough to give some away. I would say you would need about the same amount to realize the number of pints you need.

Got to go now, my wife just took homemade bread out of the oven! That's why they call me Big Red!

Have'nt tried Amish paste, am still hung up on the good ol' Roma (not the Roma hybrids). AuntyB, the Amish paste are available at Rhshumway.com a company I've dealt with for nearly 6 yrs now...mostly heirlooms altho they started selling hybrids here and there a few yrs back. Hmmmm...with all this talk about Amish paste I reckon I'm gonn hafta order me some. Ain't life grand!?

Aunty B,

I have some amish paste you are welcome to for an SASE. Contact me off-list for details.

Amish paste is, as the name suggests, a paste tomato. Heavy fleshed, with little seed mass, and thick skinned. It's shape is what is known as ox-heart.

Frankly, I don't think it's the best of the paste tomatoes in terms of taste. But it's very prolific and seems to be fairly disease resistent. They can be used for anything you'd use a paste tomato for (sauce, salsa, canning, etc.), and are fair to middling as a slicer. My wife uses them as her basic luncheon salad tomato.

In terms of your basic questions, there are upwards of 6,000 varities of heirloom and open pollinated tomatoes. So, whatever you are looking for in taste, size, shape, and color is available.

I would suggest as a starting point you get a copy of Carolyn Males "100 Heirllom Tomatoes for the American Garden." It will answer most of your question, plus profile 100 heirloom tomatoes.

PS:

We have an heirlooms forum right here at Dave's, and lot's of the posts deal with tomatoes. I'm sure if you review some of those threads you'll get most of your questions answered.

Thanks Big_Red! I appreciate that! I'll get a copy of that book. We did buy all the supplies for canning last summer but we never got around to actually canning. We've got cases and cases of the jars stacked to the ceiling!

I've grown Rutgers before and I really like the taste. I've never grown Amish Paste. So far, I've got 30 different varieties of tomato marked to order seeds for. What the heck? I'll add Amish Paste and Cherokee Purple to the list. Is there such a disease as a "tomatoaholic"(sp?)??? LOL It seems like I read somewhere that a canning tomato should have a fair amount of acid. Is that true?

Pete2

Pete,

All tomatoes are high acid vegetables. References to low acid is a relative term, and usually applies only to certain hybrids.

You can safely can all tomatoes in a water bath.

Boy, I'll bet you thought I was a real dope when you read THAT question! Let me explain. I was reading my Tomato Growers catalog and ran across something I'd never seen before. It was a description of the tomato "Jet Star VF Hybrid". It said that it was not recommended for canning because it was low in acid. Knowing that all tomatoes are acidic, I thought that all tomatoes would taste just fine. I was surprised to see otherwise.

Pete2

My county extension agent also says that hybrids (or at least a lot of them) aren't acidic enough to use and to be careful with them. That's all I know about it tho.

All in all, just one more reason to shy away from hybrids.

Hmmmmmm. That's interesting, AuntyB. I guess it must just depend on the tomato. I'll ask my agent about this, too. I'm curious about acidity and how it affects canning. I'll let you know what I find out.

Pete2

Amen, Brook.

Pete2

Has anybody planted "Quick Pick" for canning? I've tried the roma tomatoes in the past, and had varying degrees of success (all depends on the weather and my perseverance when the weather gets hot)....I hadn't heard of Amish Paste until after I ordered my seeds this year; by then I'd already received my packet of Quick Pick from Parks.

EIGHTY quarts????? Yikes! I have a LOOOOONG way to go before I'm ready to run with you big dogs!!! As best I can recall, I put up maybe 20 pints a year when I was really into gardening (before I started working 10 years ago.) Now I've kissed the travel-intensive job goodbye, and my family and garden hello. But EIGHTY????? QUARTS????? I'm trying to think how many cans of tomatoes I've bought this year - I make my fair share of chili, spaghetti sauce, soup, etc.....Hmmmm. I think I'll pray for my definition of a "bumper crop" and hope I get enough to put up 20-40 PINTS. And maybe another 10 pints of wickedly hot salsa. (And yes, I'll go git on the porch - out of the way when the big dogs are runnin'......)

Doesn't anyone out there can this amount except me, or close to it? How many quarts/pints do you others put up?

I don't use pints when canning tomatoes, I have to wonder, what do you do with only one pint of tomatoes? Seems to me like it would make an awfully small chili!

just how many are you feeding at your house? A pint of tomatoes is just right for adding to a pot of soup or chili It makes enough for a meal with a bit left over for the next day.

As to using it in dips, ect. I would eat the quart of dip, but better stick to pints for health reasons.

I agree with Big Red. Putting tomatoes up in pints doesn't make a whole lot of sense.

But 80 quarts would be excessive for most families. Not unless you have a tomato-based something for super every night.

My chile uses a quart of tomatoes and a quart of tomato sauce (and that's the only ingredients I'll reveal, thank you very much). Let's figure, for the sake of discussion, that it takes four quarts of tomatoes to make a quart of sauce. So that would be five quarts total to make about a gallon and a half of chile. Even when the kids lived at home, that was several meals for us.

Now that we're just the two of us, I probably only make chile twice a year (we put it up in meal sized portions in the freezer). So, thats two quarts tomatoes and two of sauce.

Projecting out into pasta sauce, salsa, and other tomato based main meals, and I still can't imagine being able to use up 80 quarts.

To be fair, I put up more sauce than whole tomatoes, so maybe I really do use a lot more than I thought. If we go with that 4:1 ratio, then ten quarts of sauce represents 40 quarts of tomatoes.

Hey, you're right. 80 quarts ain't all that much after all!

There are 4 of us in my family, and I'm the only one who likes canned tomatoes. That's why I do mine in pints. Everyone else likes the salsa, sauce, and to eat them fresh, but that's it. So for chili, spaghetti, etc...a pint is as much as they'll tolerate in it.

What did I start?

mamakane; There are three of us in our family, my wife, myself and my father-in-law. My father-in-law and myself are both big eaters but not excessively so. How many in your family, doesn't seem like a very big pot of chili?

My wife uses two quarts of tomatoes in our chili and cooks it down, that's what makes it so good. We usually have this a couple of times a month, more in the summer when we go camping, it makes a great campfire meal. We also use a quart in our soups which we serve as a main meal, usually once a week. My father-in-law and I will also split a quart served as stewed tomatoes as a side dish with a little butter, salt & pepper, usually once a week or so.

Take away the 2 or 2 1/2 months that we eat garden fresh tomatoes in this area it only figures out to be only about two quarts' consumption a week, doesn't seem like a lot to me.

Oh, my wife is also Italian!

Red

IIRC from about the 60's into the mid 90's about 8 out of
10 years Amish Paste was voted best Paste tomato by Organic Gardening Mag.

Byron

Actually, I think I'm guilty of sidetracking us with my first posting on this topic. But I was trembling in awe at the mental image of 80 quarts of tomatoes!!! Flashbacks to grandma's house, where feeding seven kids and countless grandkids meant her cellar looked like a food warehouse each fall. My dad said they removed hundreds of empty canning jars from her basement after she died.....but I digress again.

My REAL question was about a particular variety of tomatoes, which was what this discussion was intended to address, I think.

So, has anyone raised/canned Quick Pick tomatoes? As the name implies, they are supposed to mature within a short time frame for canning. It was a shot in the dark when I was poring over the gardening catalogs, so I thought I'd see if anyone else has experience with them. And if it's a bad selection, it's not too late to get a package of something else to start this year. Calling all you experienced tomato gardeners out there!!!!