This, my friends, is a naked tomato. Cellulite, varicose veins and all, it’s naked, in all it’s glory.

Question is how did these tomatoes get talked out of their clothes?

The answer is simple (like everything else around here). I have discovered a streaking tomato ring. Disturbing isn’t it?

First the tomatoes are brought in against their will, brainwashed and thrown into some boiling water…until they crack.

Yes, my friends it’s the old ’leaned on until they crack’ routine.

 Then they are pulled out of the water…

 and thrown into freezing cold water…

 Oh, the horror!

Finally, they are removed of their clothes. And exploited…

Good guys…

Bad guys…

A naked tomato recovery effort is underway. So far all the naked tomatoes recovered have been made into salsa. They have found peace and safety in canning jars in my cellar, where they will live out the rest of their days until eaten some time this winter. God bless them. Recipe to follow.

Reporting live on the scene,

Sandhill Sis

Tomaato, Tomoto, Tow-mater, ‘mater…no matter what you call them, they’re good and a dad-gum must in my garden.  I just love to make salsa, spaghetti sauce, chili sauce, ‘mater juice, well just about anything that has to do with tomatoes. So I grow them. Keep in mind, my good friends, I’m no expert. I just do what I do in my garden to support my tomato habit and I’ll share what little I know.

Tomatoes are a vine from the deadly nightshade family. (Kin to potatoes.) That name, deadly nightshade, should be enough to scare anyone from knawing on the leaves. At least I hope so anyway, they are poisonous. So don’t be getting a hankering for a tomato leaf salad while your out in the garden.

Whether you buy your plants or start them in the house, when you plant them in your garden, plant them deep. Remember, they are vines, so they can start roots about anywhere on their vine. I plant mine up to the first set of leaves. Planting that deep will turn all that steam into some good strong roots.

After I plant mine, I like to put tomato cages around them, build a fence for support or just let them crawl. It’s up to you. I like to keep mine off the ground so I made my cages out of some old wire we pulled out of some weeds. Silly Ben was going to haul it to the dump. But free stuff is my favorite stuff, so we reused the wire for this.

Now for the hot growing tip from my mom…who got it from somebody at work..who got it from…Lord only knows where…

After you get your gold into the ground, take some epsom salt and sprinkle 1 tablespoon of epsom salt for every foot  the plant is tall. In other words: if your plant is one foot tall, is gets one tablespoon (1′=1T, 2′=2, 3′=3T etc…) Here’s an example.

Or…if you measure like me…

I don’t care how you measure. Don’t have an OCD moment, like I do sometimes.  This is supposed to be fun.

Sprinkle at the bottom of the plant.

Peat. And Repeat. ( I love that joke.) Until your ‘maters look like this.

I’ll do this throughout the summer as the tomatoes grow and the salt disappears.

Okay, I showed you mine. It’s your turn to show yours. Do you have any gardening secrets to share?

What are you waiting for? Leave me a comment and tell all.

Happy growing.

Sandhill Sis

PS   …”There’s only two things money can’t buy…that’s true love and homegrown tomatoes….” I love this song.