Not stupid questions at all! We all want to get the most out of all our gardening and canning work. Tomato juice and sauce - I never strain my tomato juice. I pre-cook the fruit just enough to soften, run them through my Victorio and can all the resulting juice. It makes for a much thicker, richer tomato juice. Sure it separates in the jar over time but that is easy to fix with just a light shake. When we make tomato sauce we do the same things except we first return all the juice to the pot and cook it down to sauce consistency. When we want flavored sauce we first cook all the tomatoes with onions, peppers, carrots, herbs, celery, etc. and then run it all through the Victorio and cook it down to sauce consistency for canning. We also can 70-80 jars of just plain Crushed Tomatoes. That way they can be used for making all sorts of things during the winter - spaghetti sauce, chili, soup, casseroles, etc. We also can dozens of jars of the BBB recipe for Stewed Tomatoes (contain onions, peppers, celery) for winter use. We pick varieties for flavor and production numbers. Color is only a secondary consideration. Seed numbers I ignore as the Victoric takes care of the seeds. Small fruit varieties and colored types can be used to make all of the above just like beefsteaks or oxhearts. We plant very few paste types as they are never noted for flavor, just bulk. Why sacrifice flavor just for bulk? The only paste-types we grow now are Viva Italia and San Marzano and they are primarily for drying. Your experience with San Marzano is unusual IME. Mealyness is an inconsistent soil moisture level issue, not a variety issue. But we never make our sauce/juice/canned tomatoes using paste-types only. Opalka is another excellent paste-type but its production numbers are low by comparison. Hope this helps. Dave

Thanks Jen Rick

Sharon, You're welcome. I've been so disappointed in both Black Krim and Cherokee Purple this year, but I don't think it is "their" fault.....the weather has been horrid for them. I know from experience that every variety has an off year now and then, so I usually give a variety that is "new" to me three growing seasons (not necessarily in consecutive years, though) to prove if it is worth growing here or not. One that IS in her third year of non-performance is Aunt Gertie's Gold. AGG has NEVER had a good year here, produces relatively few fruit per plant, has disease issues and does not taste good to me. A lot of people rave about it, but I haven't had the same results. One thing about tomatoes that is fascinating is how much they can vary from year to year, or even from plant to plant. You never really know "what" to expect, and it is never dull. Dawn

Hi Frances, Glad some of the tomatoes are working out for you. It has been a tasting adventure over here as I eagerly await those that have been ripe enough to sample. As for the food processor, mine also has a hand crank, I just pulled off the top green at the end of the stem and quartered the larger ones, so they would fit through the processor. Popped the cherries through whole. We did use the Villaware outdoors, which turned out to be beneficial to my kitchen walls and floors. Just pop those washed tomatoes in the hopper and push down gently with a small mallet type tool. The beautiful juice and pulp come out on one side and the skins, cores, seeds push out through another tube. Seems it would be a good idea to clean that part out about half way through processing if it seems to be stopping up. It is recommended that any fruits that are not perfectly ripe should be parboiled before running them through the food mill, which I failed to do, thus the waste was cramming up a bit. I love not having to remove the peels and squashing the tomatoes through a sieve for juice, soup or sauce. It cuts the work time down considerably. You would not believe the number of questions that I voiced on the Harvest Forum last year about processors before buying the least expensive one I could find. Same product was $79. and $69. Got mine from Amazon.com for $39. Adding hardware to process berries took some searching though. Hope your mater's and roses are surviving well. Jan_Hobbs, it took 18 to 24 hours in the crockpots to reduce to a thick enough sauce, so not certain it is the best method. I just didn't want to keep having to stir it frequently for hours. I have heard people say they reduce theirs in a low oven setting. I added fresh garlic and lots of lemon basil in a cheesecloth sack. I'm considering cheating and buying a can of store bought tomato paste to see if that won't improve the thickening next time. Big_Orange_Vol, will have to try the Golden Queen. This wasn't a great crop and though we got them prepared and froze quickly, I fear they were actually picked the day before...drats. Of the 10 dozen, three ended up being waste. Is this a bad year for corn?? We have too many racoons to try and grow it ourselves without erecting another huge fence. Actually, we used new garden space this year that wasn't worked up as well and improved as much as it should have been. Not getting the best production out of that acre. Lots needs to be done. Remodeling? Ouch! That's worse than building. Hi Regina, Yes, I would believe that the plants that came up as volunteers in your compost pile and pleased that they proved true to the original. Yum on those little bitty "coyote" yellow tomatoes, indeed a surprise. All of my plants are doing something different it seems. Some are dying, others simply yellowing leaves and some are turning gray. This is true of the heirlooms as well as the determinate hybrids. The Rideau, I think is pear shaped and the other cherry is round, the round ones coming on first over here. I am in tomato heaven. One of the Box Car Willies was ripe enough to take up to my Mom's last week. It is full bodied and tasty with a little tang to it. To be honest, we both decided that her Better Boy actually tasted better. Glad you and I are both receiving an education on heirloom vegetables. Was that purple cherokee that I got from you, do you recall? Thanks. Pat