It is a male swallowtail, wings closed one could be a female I forgot, the pile of tomatoes made that 39qts, and my steamer canner

Just came in from picking tomatoes. Got 2 bushels, big Celebrity variety. Wife has canned enough sauce, paste,and salsa. Probably sell em on local internet flea market page.

They should sell good, I should sell mine instead of canning more, how much do people sell canned qts for?

I’ll sell tomatoes $ 22 bushel, $ 12 half bushel. I would like to sell home canned goods ( peppers, tomatoes, beets etc ),and the wife is an excellent canner, but there’s too much liability there. In today’s litigious society, someone claiming or feigning illness takes all the fun out it.

Ya you are right, it's same if loading bullets, load your own

If someone wants it I can probably find my Mom's tomato soup recipe that she would make in volume and freeze. Gotta warn you that it's a ton of work but so good you'll be trying every year to con a friend or relative into doing a big batch to mooch off of. My sister usually gets nominated. Every time I have some I think of how my work brickly mom would wade into gardening and canning every year. She's been with the Lord for ten years now but that soup is a special gift she left us.

My wife makes good tomato soup, Chile, and golash

Wow, 80 quarts. I thought I was doing good at 30 tomatoes, 14 dill pickles and froze some corn. Hats off to you. It takes me forever to boil water, pull skins and quarter them then boil for a half hour. I use a water bath canner.

)
How big do the Celebrity tomatoes get usually? I've never seen them at the Nursery I get my plants from. I would like to get a plant that produces nice big ones for canning. The Beefmaster's get big but don't like the way they grow. I planted Big Boy, Beefmaster, Better Boy and something girl, lol. The Better boy's were the best ones for being nice and round and good sized ones.

The celebrities have worked the best for me for the last 8 years. I have always planted others,mostly big boy, better boy etc. and they are okay but are less resistant to wilt, fungi, etc. than the celebrities are from my experience.
The tomato size is about average. What is that baseball to softball size, uniform and round,They are juicier than the Ramona types so the salsa is a bit more liquidity but that is what I want as most of my salsa is used as a salad dressing, in soups, chilis, on my omelets etc. I don't use the salsa at all for dipping chips. Will see how the next few weeks play out.

Bryce

IN-Determinate is better for home garden than determinate.
I've tried about all and Parks whopper improved works best here.
Other known as OG-50.
The heirlooms are romantic and all, but OG-50 hybrids blows them away.
I "only" did 32 qts so far, slacker lol.

Plants are getting expensive and difficult. Time again for hot beds.
I remember when seeds where a dime a pack. Not now.

I used to start my tomato plants, but 8 years ago I started going to this place that sets up outside a Farm and Home store and I by a flat, 36 celebrity tomato plants for $14!!! I am selling my growing lights and spending my extra time in the spring collecting sap. These plants are about 8 inches tall at the time I buy them in mid-May.

Bryce

Great pics Catch22!

Thanks Dux, but I can't take credit for those, just posted the pics that T20 sent to me to post for him. I agree, especially the butterfly pics, not sure what camera T20 is using but those pics are super sweet!

I. Worked on the 39 qts, from5 to 2 am I think, I wash, blanch, then cut, and each batch about an hour, 10-15 minutes building heat and 45 minutes to steam

I grow usually only celebrity tomatoes, this year I got one other, they got big.
Celebrity tomatoes because they have a good amount of meat, resist diseases the best, and only split open if too much rain falls
Oh the camera is in my Motorola Droid phone

If anyone wanted to try a Determinate tomato plant, I've had good luck with Rutgers. If you get a long growing season they might even have more tomatoes late, even though they are a determinate variety.

Rutgers used to be my go to.

A friend insists I try Black Russians, those be new to me.

Very niceTactical & Catch!
We have 20 qtrs. and most likely stop there. We do a lot of them in salsa also and use in salads, blts and just eat them. Lol We have been eating them since the 2nd week of July. I know some here that are just getting some rip ones. I'm not sure why ours matured so well this year and other have had a bad year that why here.

100 qts are more than I need, I guess I'll be ready for an emergency lol
I might do one more batch