Growing Tomatoes and Using Gluts

I can’t get enough tomatoes. I grow them at home, and now we’re planting out some generously donated seedlings on the allotment too. There is no such thing as a tomato glut as far as I’m concerned!

These are the ways I deal with ‘too many tomatoes’:

Freezing – using a big pasta pot and water at a rolling boil, I cut a small cross in the non-blossom end of each fruit, drop a dozen into the water and scoop them out as soon as the cuts begin to curl back. I drop in another dozen while I’m shucking the skins from the first lot wearing thick rubber gloves and by the time I’ve done one dozen, the next are ready to come out. Chuck them all in a big bowl and when you’ve removed all the skins, chop them roughly by hand – instant chopped tomatoes! Just bag them and freeze them.

Drying – using washed, ripe and firm tomatoes. Half or quarter plum-type tomatoes and cut cherry tomatoes in half or leave really small ones whole. Slice other types 1/2- to 1/4-inch thick, depending on your preference. A kilo yields only a couple of ounces of dried tomatoes! Oven-drying takes 6 to 12 hours, depending on the moisture content of the fruit. It's important to remove as much moisture as possible without allowing the fruits to dry completely, because the lower the moisture content, the longer the tomatoes can be stored safely. Dried fruits should be leathery and pliable but not either sticky or burnt or desiccated. Preheat the oven to 140° to 145°F and place the tomatoes with their skin side against plastic-mesh screen (if you only have metal, line it with greaseproof or it will taint the tomato taste), or on a baking sheet lined with greaseproof paper or a flexible baking mat. Prop the oven door open slightly to allow the moist, hot air to escape. Check the tomatoes regularly, and rotate the baking sheet if necessary. Stored in airtight bags they keep until the first of the next year’s fresh tomatoes.

Next time - tomato problems!

Labels: allotment-crops, allotment-glut, allotment-tomatoes

Allotment skills - using stuff up

This is one of the rare bones of contention in our allotment life. I mentioned it in my last post, and it’s the horrible fact of the glut. There’s nothing you can do about a glut – try as you might to avoid one, if you have seven kilos of courgettes to use up, you can bet that there are another seven waiting in the wings, and that your neighbours will be moaning about the tendency of the average courgette to hide under the leaves and turn itself into a thin-skinned marrow, regardless of your desire to never see another marrow or courgette again.

Marrow jam, courgette bake, marrow rum, courgette chutney, stuffed marrow, stuffed courgette, marrow bread, courgette flower fritters (a brilliant idea, stops the plants growing any more courgettes, for one thing!), marrow stew … it just goes on and on and life can become insufferable when tomatoes, or strawberries, or rhubarb or whatever suddenly go into glut production. And that’s why I rely on Grow Organic, Cook Organic to kick-start my kitchen creativity. I found it useful when last year’s rhubarb glut overwhelmed me – the recipe for Rhubarb and Ginger Ice-cream was a revelation because ‘the boy’ who has never knowingly eaten rhubarb, actually consumed gallons of the stuff and brought home his teenage friends to consume it too! Some of the recipes might seem a bit high-falutin’ such as Red Onion and Mushroom Tartlets with Goat’s Cheese, but it’s worth giving them a try because they really are designed to work with home grown fruit and veg.

Labels: allotment-cooking, allotment-fruit, allotment-glut