Getting Down To It

I just took our last gallon of diced tomatoes out of the freezer to make Penne all'Arrabiata.
The tomato purchasing fate that awaits us for the next five months is a little sad.  On the other hand, getting to mid-February on home grown tomatoes is pretty darn good.  Especially if you are Italian.  And you make a lot of tomato sauce.
Last year was very successful for our tomato harvest, but there were things that we'll do differently this year.  For starters, we planted about 14 tomato plants in the garden, and they were fairly close together. The result was that some tomatoes went bad because we simply didn't see them in the tomato jungle.  We also experimented with leaving some plants in 5 gallon containers in the greenhouse, and on our deck.  That was pretty much a bust.  Each plant only gave us a few tomatoes.
This year the plan is to have about 16 tomatoes in the garden, with more space in between.  We'll see how far that crop gets us into 2011.
What else is left from the 2009 backyard bounty? One frozen pureed butternut squash, garlic, elephant garlic, and chili flakes. And a box of purple potatoes that are full of shoots and trying to grow right out of my basement.  We also have spinach and mache that was seeded in November.  And I seeded some lettuce in the greenhouse a few days ago.
Can we make it a whole year and have something home grown on hand to eat at all times?  I think so.