Tomatoes

The rains have come. First we had not enough, now we are bordering on too much.

I picked tomatoes this afternoon, decked out in my rubber boots and Rob's over-sized rain coat. 

It was hard to collect enough for any type of cooking purpose as many of them are suffering from blossom rot. The end of the tomato turns dark and starts to rot. My research indicates the cause was likely inadequate water when the fruit was setting. The plant has a calcium deficiency; without the water it can't pull the calcium out of the ground.

Too much nitrogen in the soil will also slow down the absorption of calcium. Given the fact the pigs were in the plot last summer, the nitrogen issue may also be a problem for me.

Next year I'll put bone meal in the planting bed and hopefully we'll have our water management system set up so if it is dry, I can water the plants with water we've collected and saved.

Not all is lost though. Some of the fruit is fine and I was able to pick enough to make a small pot of sauce on this rainy afternoon.

Homemade tomato sauce served over linguine and sprinkled with parmesan. Wagner photo

I grew San Marzano tomatoes this year. The seed is from Annapolis Seeds, a local company. The San Marzano is a paste tomato used by the Italians for sauce. I'm making a simple sauce - onions, garlic, olive oil and tomato.

Of course, being the first batch I'm making this year, I totally forgot to take the skins off the tomatoes. Now I'll either have to fish them out of the sauce or puree the whole batch. I'm leaning toward the second idea.

But the smell; well it's divine. I can't wait until supper.