What are you canning now?

[journey11]

@journey11, you'll have to tell me where you are getting those cheap tomatoes, PLEASE!!! Your garden sounds like mine, so we are buying more than ever this year....we need peppers and maters the most and I used to buy some over in OH, across from Ravenswood, WV, many yrs ago but now I can't remember where and how to get there. Does that sound close to where you buy?

Yes, I have bought them in the past from that first tomato farm you see on the right directly after you cross the Ravenswood bridge, but have found they are much cheaper if you bear left after you come off the bridge and continue on down 338 and then onto 124 towards Racine, OH. There are farms all along there. My dad has bought peppers (and begged me to make him a case of hot pepper butter. LOL) on Ohio Rt. 7 coming back southward from St. Marys, WV too, but I'm not sure the exact spot. Lots of farms along that way. I am going to Moundsville, WV here in about a week, so I will go Rt. 7 from Marietta to St. Marys and keep my eyes peeled on the way through. Now's the time to go too.

 

[Beekissed]

I'll keep that in mind, thank you! Seems like I have bought from that same area, as I used to travel that way to school over in Nelsonville, OH. I'll take a little drive over there and do some exploring...I've bought both maters and peppers over that way.

 

[ninnymary]

I only canned 6 pints of salsa. That's not nearly enough but the San Marzano's that I was counting on have terrible blossom end rot. My other heirloom ones did ok but between eating them fresh and giving some away, there isn't enough. Next year I will have to plant 1 less plant. They are just too tightly planted. Prices out here to buy veggies for canning are not that great.

Mary

 

[MontyJ]

Moundsville is getting close to my neck of the woods Journey. I'll be in Pleasants County next week myself.

 

[Beekissed]

I only canned 6 pints of salsa. That's not nearly enough but the San Marzano's that I was counting on have terrible blossom end rot. My other heirloom ones did ok but between eating them fresh and giving some away, there isn't enough. Next year I will have to plant 1 less plant. They are just too tightly planted. Prices out here to buy veggies for canning are not that great.

Mary

A bushel of Roma tomatoes at the local farm stand runs $15 per bushel box here and that was cheaper than I found today at one of the actual farms...they wanted $25 per bushel and their tomatoes were half the size of the others and not even ripe. We did a lot of driving here today to scout out tomato and pepper prices right at the farms and found they were higher than the prices at this particular farm stand itself(different farms, BTW). I was surprised to find that most of the Romas I saw today were the same size as my stunted maters here. Must have been a bad year for everyone around here when it comes to maders.

How much are they where you live, Miss Mary?

 

[Beekissed]

Still making hot pepper butter right now, as I finally got some peppers today to round out my own crop and to finish out the batch I had started yesterday.

 

[ninnymary]

Bee, the farms are too far away. You can only get good tomatoes at the farmer's markets but there they sell them by the pound. Haven't been to them lately, so I couldn't tell you.

Mary

 

[Beekissed]

I've noticed today that the farm stand employees~all very young~ seemed a little nonplussed when I ask for a bushel of this or that(at three different farm stands, in fact)...by their reaction I have to conclude that not many folk around here are canning any longer. The fact that they didn't even have some of the typically canned items in large quantities seemed to support this conclusion. That's a sad thing. Hate to see such skills go by the wayside...pretty soon there will be no independent minded people left in this place.

 

[journey11]

A bushel of Roma tomatoes at the local farm stand runs $15 per bushel box here and that was cheaper than I found today at one of the actual farms...they wanted $25 per bushel and their tomatoes were half the size of the others and not even ripe. We did a lot of driving here today to scout out tomato and pepper prices right at the farms and found they were higher than the prices at this particular farm stand itself(different farms, BTW). I was surprised to find that most of the Romas I saw today were the same size as my stunted maters here. Must have been a bad year for everyone around here when it comes to maders.

This has been my fear...that the local farms have had as bad of a summer as I have. I imagine even still that they probably will be higher in price this year because of the increased demand. I have talked to a lot of my fellow gardeners around here and most have had a very poor garden this year. I've seen a couple of nice looking gardens here and there as I'm out driving, but most are sad, yellowed, weedy and puny. Those on slopes with good drainage seem to have fared better. I will bet too that the better priced tomatoes at the farm stands have been brought up from the south by truck, which is common; SC, GA, FL...

@MontyJ , we'll be coming right through there if we go Rt. 2. Small world. Well, small state, anyway.

 

[Beekissed]

This has been my fear...that the local farms have had as bad of a summer as I have. I imagine even still that they probably will be higher in price this year because of the increased demand. I have talked to a lot of my fellow gardeners around here and most have had a very poor garden this year. I've seen a couple of nice looking gardens here and there as I'm out driving, but most are sad, yellowed, weedy and puny. Those on slopes with good drainage seem to have fared better. I will bet too that the better priced tomatoes at the farm stands have been brought up from the south by truck, which is common; SC, GA, FL...

@MontyJ , we'll be coming right through there if we go Rt. 2. Small world. Well, small state, anyway.

Journey, that's what I noticed as I drove past all those farms down on 124 in OH...I used to travel that way for 2 yrs back in 2000-2001 and they were really farming maters like crazy down there, as far as the eye could see...those farms are now growing soybean instead.

The few small fields I saw with tomatoes were all weeds and the tomato crop small, blighted looking...even worse than I have in my own garden. Of course, for those types of tomatoes they are already harvested and just the end of the harvest is left for folks to do a U-pick, but even the ones you pick yourself were high dollar. I was surprised at the really scruffy looking veggies being sold right at the farms....high priced and low quality.

Finally bought from Witten Farms, which have farm stands in various places around Parkersburg and Marietta...they have quality produce at a fair price. That's where we buy all our corn and it's great...sweet, freshly picked at 2 am each morning, and a great price for the quality offered.