These are splitting while still on the vine. My understanding is that this is a sign of too much rain. They still taste good, though. 
djm
Yep. As I write, Iām baking some; the stack of zook on the counter seems to be self-renewing, but as chas says, you can grate or shred it and it freezes beautifully. Hereās a pretty darn good zook bread recipe (from the Kennebec Inn, Bath, Maine). I bake this in triple batches because my neighbor clamors for it every year; Iāve hinted that Iāll be happy to give her the recipe, but the hints are selectively ignored.
Ingredients
3 eggs, room temperature (or substitute 6 egg whites)
2 cups sugar (you can reduce this amount if you wish)
2 cups raw zucchini, grated
1 cup oil
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 Tablespoons cocoa
1 Tablespoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 cup coarsely chopped walnuts or pecans
Set oven to 350 degrees. Mix all dry ingredients together; set aside. In a large bowl beat eggs; add sugar, oil, and zucchini. Add all dry ingredients and mix well. Add vanilla and nuts. Pour into 2 well-greased and floured loaf pans or 1 Bundt pan. Bake in the preheated oven for 45 minutes or until done. Place on a rack for 10 minutes before turning out of pans.
Makes: 2 loaves or 1 Bundt cake.
I saw a Martha Stewart episode about jarring(canning) tomatoes a while back..sounds like a good option.
Mom makes salsa and then cans it. Depending on how many tomatoes you have (and whether you like chips and salsa) you might do that, or make a small batch of fresh salsa.
Mmmmā¦fresh salsa.
Iāve tried canning it, and Iāve tried freezing it. When you can it, itāof necessityāmust be cooked some; that takes the edge off the fresh taste and color. When you freeze it and later thaw it, it goes all watery. Iād love to be able to make it in big batches and preserve that lovely fresh flavor, but thus far, no joy. Anyone know a way around either of these problems?
Pressure cooker. People swear by them and at them, but to bring out the flavour of frozen foods thereās nothing like it. My uncle was especially good with corn still on the cob. He could thaw and cook the stuff and it would come out full of crunch and flavour.
djm
They do that even if you water carefully (mine are under glass as Cornwall is not endowed with ideal tomato-growing conditions). They are ripe before they look it, thatās the problem. The green should only just be off them before picking. If you let them go too deep orange they will always split (and promptly rot).
Pressure cookers make me nervous. There is a weighted pressure control stopper that is suppose to jiggle to release the building pressure inside the pot while the contents are cooking. However, if it stops jiggling, it means that the pressure inside the pot is constant or is no longer being released (exhaust port stopped up) . In most cooking situations, if the pressure is no longer being released, that means that it is increasing. Donāt worry, though, as there is a safety plug on the top of the pot that is designed to blow the contents of the pot all over the ceiling when the pressure inside the pot reaches an unsafe level. That thought is going through my mind whenever I use a pressure cooker.
I remember canning tomatoes in my motherās kitchen when I was a child. We didnāt have air-conditioning, and with all the pots on the stove a-boiling away, it got really hot and humid in the kitchen during those late summer days. Thatās when you wanted to get out of the house with a glass of ice tea with lemon. Our labor paid off, though, as we started the winter with the cabinets full of canned produce from the garden. My parents are both deceased now, and one of the things that I had to do is to remove the old home-canned jars full of produce from the cabinets. Some of the cans had dates from over twenty years ago, with the kind of glass-domed lids that are now selling as antiques.
I am in the process of moving to a house in a new city, where this Spring (I take my time with moving) I also planted tomatoes in the flower beds around the house. The house is in a university neighborhood, and five male college students rent the house next door. As they were gathered together behind their house, I went over with a large bag of fresh tomatoes. They gave me a strange look and politely told me that they didnāt want the tomatoes. I thought to myself, āHow is it possible that they donāt want a bag of tomatoes?ā. When I went to the grocery store yesterday, I noticed that tomatoes were selling for $2.99/pound, and the hothouse tomatoes are a poor substitue for the taste of home-grown tomatoes.
As an aside with regard to the economy of canning tomatoes, there are many canning factories in Indiana, and during the Winter months the supermarkets will have sales on canned goods, where canned tomatoes can be purchased for 5 cans for a dollar. I know that it is a lazy thought, but it seems easier to buy the canned tomatoes from the store and not have to worry about the process of caning the tomatoes, that is, unless you have plenty of time and enjoy the process.
August/september are usually insanley busy months for me, and Iāve never taken the time to learn to can. If youāre after something faster and simpler, Iāve had pretty good luck freezing tomatoes whole in ziplocs. When you want them, you just take them out, thaw them for a couple minutes in the microwave, then throw them peel and all in the blender with some garlic, salt, pepper, whatever else, and cook up the resulting bright red mess into some great fresh-tomato pasta sauce.