$3.99 a pound.

[Nyboy]

Had a craving for a BLT,went to local supermart. Tomatoes where $3.99 a pound and tasted like cardboard!! What a waste.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Unless I am eating out and they come in the salad or on the burger, the only tomatoes I eat are from my garden. The only canned tomato products I use are the ones I canned. I really don't feel like I'm sacrificing when fresh homegrown tomatoes are out of season.

It's somewhat like having once drunk a Guinness draft properly pulled in Dublin, I'll never drink another Guinness from a bottle. (Ok maybe I had more than one when I was in Ireland.)

 

[The Mama Chicken]

Wow! All the more reason to garden. I know what's on the list of crops to grow when we start our organic farm.

 

[ducks4you]

I have used my canned tomatoes that are even 5 yo and they still smell like fresh when I open the lids. I try to can a bunch with whole tomatoes so I can use them in the winter for recipes like tacos, even though the texture isn't as firm. DH and I have dedicated 3 beds to tomatoes this year: Northmost-Beefsteak, next south-Romas, and the skinny N-S, 12 ft long will have Cherries. I'm buying him a "Garden ATV" kinda like this one~
http://www.nextag.com/Rolling-Work-Seat-652917828/prices-html
so that he can sit and help me harvest. THAT will help me a lot.

 

[vfem]

This is why I so sundried tomatoes! I refuse to eat the so called 'fresh' ones this time of year from the store. If I need tomatoes, they have to be canned or dried for me to want to do anything with them.

Soaking these in oil is great to top sandwiches.

 

[ducks4you]

Since YOU recommend it, vfem, I'll need to try this with my dehydrator. The sundried tomatoes I've bought and tasted weren't that good, but then, again, they might be from tomatoes "stripmined in TX in the winter." lol

 

[Ridgerunner]

Vfem, when you put a dried tomato in your mouth do you get a burst of overwhelmingly sweet flavor that is hard to describe? I use my dehydrator and can't imagine how sundried could be any better.

 

[hoodat]

It's more than being out of season that makes store tomatos tasteless. Commercial varieties are bred for how well they ship, not how they taste.

 

[skeeter9]

That's exactly right, Hoodat. Those store-bought things have to withstand a good amount of shipping and handling, so they are bred for that far more than for taste. They are pretty gross. During the off-season months, we pretty much stick to buying the containers of cherry tomatoes or grape tomatoes. At least those are halfway decent.

I understand about the craving for a good BLT, though. My mouth has been watering for one of those for the last few weeks, but I've been telling myself to just wait until the tomatoes from our garden are ready. Nothing like a good BLT!!!!!

 

[Nyboy]

ok how do you sundry a tomatoe?