AmateurInAwe's Garden

[worth1]

[mention]Amateurinawe[/mention]
What kind of canning equipment do y'all have in the UK?
Yes please try your hand at canning.
I can foods but haven't done so in awhile.

[Amateurinawe]

[mention]worth1[/mention] Canning is new to me, and I don't think it is as widespread here. Jam making, yes, but not canning, at least where I come from. I never really knew anything about it till TJ. However, I had lots of tomatoes last year, and this year there could be so much more. So I need to think what I can do if these all do well, hence thinking about canning.

[Amateurinawe]

I'll give you a clue,

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Do !

[worth1]

[mention]Amateurinawe[/mention]
I was asking what brand of pressure canners they have in the UK if any.
As far as hot water bath any big kettle will do.

[bower]

Alternative to canning is easy if you have a deep freeze.
1) Place surplus tomatoes into ziploc freezer bag.
2) Zip shut and label with the YEAR (in case they get lost down there)
3) Huck into the freezer.
On times when I have more ambition than freezer space, I may roast up some sauce, make bruschetta etc and freeze that instead.
Frozen tomatoes are great for all the same uses of canned.
The friends and relatives who happily accept the excess fresh tomatoes also quickly learn to use them frozen.

[worth1]

Watched a video personality called the Italian granny make spaghetti sauce
She used tomato puree just like I do.
Freezing tomatoes is sort of OK but not when you want a firm product..
They get too mushy for me.

[bower]

That sundried stuff looks amazing to me... we could never do that here. Unless I emptied all the plants out of the greenhouse and used it as a dryer instead.

[Amateurinawe]

[mention]worth1[/mention] Hi worth, not looked into it too deeply. There are roots and branches products, and my wife has informed me her familly of instant pots can do it. I like the freezer idea for some of the produce but i would like to try canning as i buy a lot of sauce pre-canned anyway. I do pickles and jams so why not canning, its just not a big thing in the uk at least where i live. now sundried, that sounds great as well, i have certainly looked at the dehydrators - plenty of those on amazon

i just don't think i can lay them out on the decking to sun-dry - not in this british weather unless i want soup

[Amateurinawe]

those little babies in the picture are as you guessed it, the clue-do. They are MSITK....

[MissS]

Canning is good if it's not too hot out. I hate to heat up my house canning. When it's hot, which is more often than not, I put the tomatoes in a blender, puree and then put in freezer bags and freeze them. It's easy and not very time consuming. The flavor is always nice and fresh.

[Amateurinawe]

The second cluster on the indigo rose cross, so this is confirming to me the cross.

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[Amateurinawe]

Crazy thought, the one at the bottom is quite ripe. Do you think I might be able to germinate and grow in the greenhouse before winter and get some f2 fruiting a single truss ?

[MissS]

Crazy thought, the one at the bottom is quite ripe. Do you think I might be able to germinate and grow in the greenhouse before winter and get some f2 fruiting a single truss ?

Yes, I think that you can get a few ripe fruit in 10 weeks if you tend the plant well.

[Amateurinawe]

Likes so two selected, the left more ripe but had a split. Slight anthocyanins expression on shoulders.

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Taste, nothing out of the ordinary, but that's not the aim. Seeds now extracted and being prepped for planting today. If I don't grow them to full size, I reckon I can get another 20 or so for F2 selection

[Amateurinawe]

Seeds extracted, cleaned and now planted in greenhouse, tick tock, tick tock.

But thanks to nico, some smfl on the way and some other exiting ones from espania. I still have some more from the mmmm I want to grow and some of Gary's creations. I think this is called planning for next year isn't it.

[Amateurinawe]

I think I've made my second newbie error. The first was not parenting the plants in such a way so that I could easily identify that a cross had taken. The second is the alleged indigo rose cross that looks different to the one above. Clearly the one above is a cross, the parents was black all over with lots of anthocyanins expression is the leaves. This cross has tamed that quite considerably and I hope some of the benefits of gardeners delight, a reliable and popular mainstay for uk gardeners is imparted, but time will tell.

I think the second mistake is that I've dumped all the cross seed in one packet irrespective of the parent plant, hence the difference. The dark green shoulders are showing anthocyanin traits as they mature on the other plant but in a different way and much more vigorous.

[Amateurinawe]

Probably didn't explain the error very well. Indigo rose x gardeners delight and gardeners delight x indigo rose, all in same packet

[Amateurinawe]

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This is cole, it sure is kicking out the flowers...

[Amateurinawe]

Some early galapagos, they are quite sweet..

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The sea thistle is just about to bloom with its lovely blue grey bloom...

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And hiding away, is my menorcan long red pepper ...

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[Amateurinawe]

Yay, first germination of the F2 seed from above has happened - grow baby grow.....Three more of the F1 now ripe - they tasted sweeter, seeds extracted and now fermenting.

Need to think about crossing others now since most plants are now flowering and some fruiting first or second truss.