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sorry I must be tired ... this should work ...

Looks like a good reason. I think you're short on lettuce though ;)

I hope you were fixing those four sandwiches for someone in addition to yourself! Even though it's six in the morning here in Vermont, I would gladly eat three of them to help you out.

Is that cheese with the toasted tomato? If so what kind?
Gosh that looks good. I swear I can smell it by just looking at the picture.
KennyP

Yummy!What kind of tomato? Looks good!

Yes, I did end up needing a few more lettuce leaves ;-) and yes I did have someone to share them with - the world's best garden assistant a girl could have ;-) that is miracle whip on the toast , not cheese ;-) but I would vote for provolone if cheese were included on my BLTs ... the really red tomato is an Aunt Ginny's Purple and the darker red is a Cherokee Purple Spudakee ... truly delicious ! This is one of our favorite summertime dinners ... fast , easy and yummy !

~Iris

BLTs and tomato sandwiches are a summertime favorite of mine too. Convenience is good.

I've graduated from making tomato sandwiches to making my own salsa for the first year ever... MAN that's good stuff!

Although it's hard to say which is better -- the salsa or a BLT with Vorlon on homemade, fresh baked bread.... *drool*

--Alison

My favorite sandwich in the world too! I may have to go make some for lunch today now! I like pepperjack cheese on mine, yum. Like torquill, the salsa is right up there with it, I could make gallons of it and it won't last all year!

You sadist!

You taunt and torment us with BACON!

OMG that looks so good. Now I know what I'm having for lunch! I like to add a little bit of avocado to mine. Yum!!

I do partake in a little avocado or cheese or bacon and lettuce - but my fav is a tomato fresh from the garden (warm) with mayo, salt and pepper (between two slices of bread). YUM!!!

Oh crap I drooled all over your bacon. How embarrassing. I'm so ashamed. Here, let me eat that for you. :)

LOL I knew that fellow gardeners would appreciate my BLT photo ;-) despite eating BLTs and tomato sandwiches several times this past week I have a counter FULL of tomatoes in various stages of ripeness ... its time to get the jars out and can some spaghetti sauce ;-) I didn't make enough last summer to last all winter long so I better get busy ;-)

BLTs are just the first tasting of the toms for us - yours looked wonderful. I'm roasting the first round of toms for sauce/soup base tomorrow. I freeze mine - had the last of last years sauce tonight.

Gardenvt, if you don't mind, I would love your recipe for how you freeze your tomatoes and also how you roast them before freezing, that sounds awesome !

Ah, this is a simple one. Take a large roasting pan - the one you cook your turkey in (get another whole season out of it)- put a sheet of foil in it for easy clean up.

Then, take all of your tomatoes that are ripe and give them a quick bath. Cut out any spots or stitching that you don't like or want. Put a fine strainer over a bowl and take the seeds out of the tomato - the juice will drip into the bowl and you can use this later.

Once you have done this, put the tomatoes in the roasting pan and coat/spritz/toss with some EVOO - extra virgin olive oil. Place the pan in a preheated oven - 400-425 for 30-45 minutes for a quick roast or 350 for an hour or so. The point is to carmelize the tomatoes.

Once this is done, you can easily remove the skin. Of, if you have one of those wonderful hand blenders, puree them with the skin on - my cuisinart ($29) doesn't leave any visible skin. I freeze the sauce in square plastic containers in the fridge/freezer. Then, I use the FoodSaver to package them up for the deep freeze.

To make your sauce extra special, roast some onions and garlic when you are ready to use the sauce (garlic gets bitter when frozen for very long so save this step for when you are ready to use the sauce). Add that to the sauce and give it a swirl with the hand held blender.

Once you taste roasted tomatoes - especially heirlooms - you will not want another tomato or sauce from the grocery store.

What I do with the juice is freeze it and when I want that tomato taste, I add that to whatever it is that I am cooking (soups, etc). Again, I use plastic containers to do the initial freeze and then use the FoodSaver for final freezing. You can't use the FoodSaver with moisture - it ruins them so pre-freeze then package for the long term. It is a small investment with a huge return. Walmart carries several models. My biggest tip with the Food Saver is to use a little more packaging than you think you need - because experience will tell that you do need it.

Happy Roasting.

I roasted some of those wonderful heirlooms today and decided that they were so beautiful that they should just go on top of the pasta rather than being pulverized. OMG they were so good! I roasted some onion slices and garlic and it was pasta heaven.

Of course, we couldn't eat all of those tomatoes so I put some of them in the freezer in the form they came from the oven. I can't wait to take those out in the middle of winter.

Oh my lord, why would you do that to us LOL. I am totally drooling right now :)

Gardenvt, thanks so much for the great info ! I am going to put away some tomatoes this weekend ... I canned many jars of homemade spaghetti sauce last year and ran out before winter was over so I am going to freeze twice as much as I think I might need ;-) that might be enough LOL

Gardenvt:

Ditto, I'm going to try this as well. I purchased a vacuum sealer a few weeks ago and have been putting away beans, summer squash and other veggies for the winter. Now we are moving into the part of the year when our tomatoes are in over supply.

Gardenvt,
Where the heck in Vermont are you located? I planted some tomatoes in Earthboxes back in March so we've been eating tomatoes from those plants since June 1st but my in-ground plants are just now beginning to ripen. I have 45 plants and always put up a couple of hundred jars of relish, salsa, chili and whole tomatoes but I'm still at least two weeks away from having enough to do that this year. I'm in the Burlington area and the weather has been terrific but obviously not as terrific as yours.

Vermontkingdom, I thought you were literally up in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont. LOL

I'm in Burlington and grow in containers due to limited space. I have a great SW location. I didn't transplant to final containers until the end of May. Plants have grown like crazy this year. The fruiting is pretty good for OP/heirlooms. Amazing crop of peppers (4' tall) and eggplants. Cukes are so so. Herbs are wonderful, too.

My neighbor has raised garden beds and his toms are about 3 feet tall with a few tomatoes on them. He doesn't start from seed. Everyone made fun of my containers which get a bit bigger every year. I get good results and it works for me.

You really should try roasting some of those tomatoes with all of those plants. If you have never done that, give it a try. You won't have any regrets - promise.

Vermont Kingdom I am curious about how you grew your tomatoes transplanting in march and eating them June 1st. Do you have a hot house?

I used Earthboxes this year for the first time. I planted several types of tomatoes in six of them. Four of the boxes were set up in our house (all with window exposure) with one in the living room, two in the dining room, and one in the sun room (my wife was out of the country for an extended period this spring otherwise that scenario would not have played out.) I also have two Earthboxes in an unheated greenhouse (bushmasters) and they have produced more than 40 tomatoes each. Green peppers have also done extremely well in those things. I'm absolutely sold on using them every year now.

I'll give your recipe a go this year. Thanks.
(I grew up in st. j. and therefor the Vermontkingdom link.)

Wow. Those are some tasty looking tomatoes. Looks like tomorrow I'm having one of these! :)

I'd like to know more about the earth boxes (different than the earthtainers) as well as the greenhouse (type & size) you use.

I think I will start a new thread about that.

BTW - hubby and I are going to stj sometime this week. I am probably the only native vermonter who hasn't been to the museum/planetarium. Also, lake willoughby is so beautiful and the weather is to be so nice this week - two for one with an overnight! Isn't that the most amazing lake?

Indeed, lake willoughby is lovely but also a bit chilly.

You should definitely check out Earthboxes. You can go to their website for information and they too have an extensive number of gardeners who share their gardening experience using those containers. Until July 31, they have a sale on them by waving shipping costs. I plan to buy another four.

My greenhouse ($1800) was purchased from Farmtek. It's 11' x 13'. Of course, I wish I had a bigger greenhouse now.

My wife and I have been married for 40 years and she is a wonderful life mate. Over the last 15 years or so, our anniversary presents to each other have been gardening items (rototiller, chipper, greenhouse, etc.) Not many avid gardeners are so lucky as to have a partner who is so supportive.

Have a safe and enjoyable trip to the Kingdom.

Kingdom, I will definitely look into that.

It is wonderful to have a supportive life mate when it comes to gardening/life. I wreck the house every year growing all of my veggies and flowers from seed. Then it is cleaning everything up, the planting, the watering, the tending , etc. He is a great help and always admires the results.

Just this morning, he helped me out in the garden, this first day of vacation and then we roasted and put away another round of tomatoes.

Thanks for the info.

Gardenvt, I roasted LOTS of tomatoes Sunday ! The whole house smelled divine ;-) they were so beautiful coming out of the oven I had to take a photo ! thank you so much for the roasting info ;-)

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Rane Grow, I knew you would love them and it is so easy. If you want to roast some large tomatoes - you can take the seeds out and you will get a drier and more carmelized version.

I think this makes them much more versatile than just making sauce. I can do that when I take them out of the freezer or leave them in halves to put into soup or over pasta. If you get swamped with cherry tomatoes, you can do the same thing or roast them in a skillet and put them over pasta.

I've made a few frittatas this week with sweet peppers, eggplant & cherry toms (halved) from the garden. I cook the veggies in the skillet then add the egg mix over the top and cover with a lid. Delicious breakfast.

I'm glad you like this cooking method. It will sure bring summer back in the middle of the winter.

I just discovered roasted tomatoes myself this summer! So easy to do, and a lot faster for making sauce/chili than if you cook them down on the stovetop. I tucked garlic cloves in before roasting and they gave it a wonderful nutty-garlicky flavor, very mellow and rich.

Those BLTs look scrumptious... how had I forgotten about BLTs?? I have tons of swiss chard I could use instead of lettuce... sounds like dinner later this week!

I made myself a Happy Waitress the other day--grilled cheese with tomato slices and bacon. That's another easy one!

Thanks! I've been dreaming about my first tomato sandwich. I skip the miracle whip for good old fashioned Hellmans. I like a few leaves of basil as well.

I preserve as much juice and tomato water as I can during the canning process. Come Christmas Eve I break out a couple of jars of tomato water and make my now famous Tomato Water Tinis for the whole family to enjoy. They are beautiful and bring the taste of summer to the impending winter season.

"Tomato Water Tinis"??! :)

BTW, today is my FIL's 90th birthday. We all did a lunch "eat out" thing. Here it is going on 5:00pm and I'm STILL *not* hungry,...LOL!

viking, if you are going to freeze, leave out the garlic as it gets bitter after awhile (same in pesto). You can roast the garlic and some onions to add to it when you are ready to use - really makes for a lovely sauce or dish.

simplifly, there is nothing better than hellman's though I do try to be good and use the canola variety. I save the good stuff for BLTs/tomato sandwiches.

As for Tomato Water Tinis, we will have to try that. I've been freezing it for soup,etc but I think I will save some for tinis. Sounds delightful as the tomato water has such a delicate flavor. Thanks for the great idea.

Quick question what is the advantage of roasting over canning? I normaly can salsa with the extra tomatoes, but would not mind trying something new this year. Do the tomatoes taste better(retain their flavor), have better texture, just easier then canning, or something else?

mrtudball, once you have roasted tomatoes, you will understand. they are delicious. I use foodSaver vac bags for the deep freeze. We recently finished off last year's roasted tomato harvest and they were just as good as when they came out of the oven last summer.

I roasted some this morning and it just fills the house with wonderful aromas.

Try it. I promise you will love it. Promise.

Cryptid, gardenvt,

Tomato Water Tini

6 oz Tomato Water
1.5 oz fine Vodka (I splurge)
Ice
Martini Glass
Sprig of Basil

Mix tomato water, vodka and ice in a cocktail shaker. Shake very well. Strain into Martini glass. Garnish with a broken sprig of basil.
Optional: salt rim of glass with celery salt.

I salt and throw a few sprigs of basil in my tomato water prior to canning. If you don't do the same you may want to add some salt and basil to the cocktail shaker.

GardenVt, I am all for a little summer bliss in the winter. Do you use these in pasta dishes, just salt and eat, or something else, would love to hear more. Have a counter full of tomatoes, and even with four of us eating thru them, we can't keep up.

You can use them with pasta, soup, turn it into a sauce - serve as a side dish - so versatile.

If you are going to use it right away, roast up some onion and garlic in a separate pan as they roast much quicker. You just can't go wrong with this dish. And the more varieties of tomatoes you have, the more interesting it looks and tastes.

I don't use salt and you might want to taste the roasted toms before you add any. Really. Try it as it comes out of the oven. You will be amazed by its richness.