We have two types of delicious tomatoes—red slicing tomatoes or roma/paste tomatoes—available this week and next week for bulk ordering. It's a great time to store these away for making soups and chilli in the winter months. Whether you can them or freeze them, both our tomatoes or tomaatoes will work great. We processed both here this week by peeling the skins off after a quick hot water bath, separating some of the juice/seeds out, and bagging the tomatoes to put in the freezer. Here's how the two types compared using this processing method:
10 lbs of the big red slicing tomatoes yielded about 3 quart bags of tomatoes and 1 quart of juice. These are quickest and easiest to work with, and have the best flavor. They are also a little bit cheaper to purchase.
10 lbs of roma/paste tomatoes yielded 4 very full quart bags that we put in the freezer, and we didn't separate any juice. They have good flavor, and make great sauces. But they're not as flavorful as the slicing variety, and they are more expensive.
Old Plank crew member Sabrina, who did the tomato processing at our farm this year, suggested "Foolproof Preserving" as a book to look at if you are new to all of this.
If you want to order bulk tomatoes from us, please email your order to csa@oldplankfarm.com. If you are a CSA member, we can deliver them to your pick-up site next Tuesday Sept 15th (be sure to include in your email order which pick-up site you use!). If you are not a CSA member, you can still place an order to be picked up here at our farm stand. We'll try to pack your orders within 1 day of receiving your email, and we'll let you know when it's ready for pick-up.
We're taking orders from 10-50 lbs, just let us know what you'd like. Any questions, call me (Stephanie) at 920-917-8207.
Bulk tomato Prices:
Red Slicer Tomatoes
CSA member price: 75 cents a pound
Non-member price: $1 a pound
Roma Tomatoes
CSA member price: $1 per pound
Non-member price: $1.50 a pound
Our slicing tomatoes ready to freeze for the winter!