I recently interviewed my good friend, Robin Wyll, about her website that shows you how to grow organic tomatoes that you can turn into tomato sauce. She is a wealth of information. Now if I can just get her to send me some samples to stock my pantry…
What is your business?
I guess what you’d call it is an “e-business.” I’m new to this concept–I hadn’t really considered it a business. I have published an information-based website to turn my tomato sauce gardening passion into tips, ideas and information from which others may benefit. I also hope to generate income through google adsense and some affiliate links to products that I use in my garden and kitchen. In addition, I may offer products in the future such as sauce tomato seedlings.
What got you into this business?
A friend told me about her success with a website she created through “Site Build-It (SBI).” SBI provides information, tools, guidance and more to make it simple to create a website around your passion and successfully generate income. Since writing is something that I enjoy, I saw this as a great way to communicate my gardening knowledge to others that have a similar interest. The possibility of generating passive income at the same time was very appealing to me as a stay-at-home, homeschooling mom. Site Build-It walked me through the entire process of building a website that I am proud of, without my having to learn HTML. Site- Build-It is an incredible resource for anyone with a passion they want to share. Here’s the website for more information, testimonials, a free trial and more: http://magic.sitesell.com/Robin456.html.
What does your garden look like now?
I have about 40 sauce tomato plants divided among five beds. Most of the plants range from 5 to 8-feet tall. They are loaded with green tomatoes although we just started harvesting a few ripe sauce tomatoes from a couple of the plants. With the cooler weather and rain we are getting now, I am keeping all of the tomato beds covered using a structure upon which I can attach clear plastic. This will keep the plants warm and dry so the fruit can continue to ripen in spite of the weather.
How many tomato plants do you need to grow per a jar of sauce?
That is difficult to estimate due to different qualities of the types of tomatoes grown, environmental factors, pruning techniques and more. Additionally, the amount of sauce you get depends on how long you roast the tomatoes and how meaty vs. watery they are. Using the methods on my website, we get about 1 cup of sauce per pound of tomatoes.
Are you an organic gardener? How do you tend your plants? Pest and weed control, etc.?
Growing organically is one of the best reasons to grow food. Organic, homegrown food has a higher nutritional content, better taste and is free of chemicals that can affect your health, not to mention the flora and fauna around you. Gardening organically is being a good steward of the earth. Plus organic gardening is less costly and time consuming than using conventional methods. The most successful way to control pests and weeds for me has been composting directly in the beds all winter and then applying compost tea directly to plants and soil on a regular basis during the growing season. These are my keys to developing strong plants that resist disease and pests. I have more tips on this on my website.
What is your current step in making tomato sauce?
Currently we are in harvest-mode. That involves picking the ripe fruit, roasting it in the oven and freezing the puree. Since they don’t all ripen at once, it’s very easy to process the tomatoes a bit at a time without it becoming overwhelming. This will go on through the month of October and possibly into November, depending on weather.
What will be your next step?
Once all of the fruit has been harvested, roasted and frozen, I will snip each tomato plant at the soil level leaving the roots intact and toss the plant material into my compost bin. Then I will top dress each bed with a layer of coffee grounds and a layer of leaves (after running over them with a lawn mower). This will feed and encourage the worms to work the soil all winter long.
What should someone do to get started?
If you would like to make tomato sauce now–you can look for locally-grown, organic tomatoes in specialty grocery stores, farmer’s markets or a neighbor’s backyard garden. Get sauce or roma tomatoes if you can, but even regular slicing tomatoes will work. Follow the steps on my website. If you wish to grow your own sauce next year, start now by assessing your growing space: check out your soil, maybe have it tested; build raised beds and top dress them with coffee grounds and leaves for the winter. Sign up to recieve free catalogues from tomato seed companies. I have a list of my favorites on my website.
What if a person lives in an apartment? Can you still grow tomato sauce if you don’t have a huge garden area?
I just read an article about a man who consistently grows thousands of tomatoes every year in a very small yard in California. You do not need a lot of space and you can grow sauce tomatoes if you live in an apartment. For example, I have information and photos on attractively growing a 6-foot tall sauce tomato plant in a wine barrel.
What else should people know about growing tomato sauce?
Just give it a try! It’s fun and rewarding in so many ways. Plus, in addition to great taste and nutrition, tomato sauce has been shown to contain effective cancer-fighting properties.
Where can people get more information?
Visit my website at www.Grow-Tomato-Sauce.com! While there, you can sign up for my free ezine to have monthly tomato sauce garden tips delivered right to your e-mail box to keep your garden on track.
