My tomatoes were nothing to brag about. My coal slag/clay infested soil just doesn’t do well and all the rain last Spring and then a drought really made my garden pittiful other than the peppers. I still had fruit 2 weeks after the first frost. I spent weeks dehydrating them and making Chilli powder to send out at Christmas with Pear butter as gifts.
My Pastor’s son-in-law has gone through three quarts of the red Savinas I canned. I just use a few in chilli and to make hot sauce, but he eats them on everything! I’m almost out, so I’m switching him over to Habaneros for the next jar! Those oughta last him til Spring - they are mega hot. Next year if the good Lord allows, I’ll have him a jar of Trinidad Scorpians and those should cure him of his taste for peppers, lol.
Had to pick them green to keep the frost from getting them.
You could make 1 raised bed for maters...so you could control the soil.
I think about your incendiary canning experience often.