The yellow tomatoes are ripening - I picked a big mixing bowl full yesterday, along with a few red ones and a few cherry tomatoes from our grow bags in the garden. Yum. Now I have to decide what to do with them. I'm thinking about making some tomato sauces to freeze and maybe some chutneys too - the local shop is selling sacks of onions at a ridiculously low price (I'm not so bothered about our lack of onion success this year now, seeing as how they're so cheap to buy down the road!) so some tomato and onion chutney could be just the thing. And it'd be nicely matured by Christmas.
Did lots of weeding yesterday, tackled the four worst beds which had the biggest weeds on. What's the phrase? 'One year's weeds, seven year's seeds'? In that case, we're doomed... we're going to be weeding forever.
Adam's away this week so I took it nice and easy, had the radio on, and stopped for an egg mayo sandwich and a cuppa for lunch in the sunshine.
Peggy Sue's managed to find a way of escaping the chicken coop. We saw her jump up onto the top of the cage door, so we put some bamboo canes across the top to stop her begin able to flap and flutter up there, but she's still found a way to get out into the garden. Hmm, I'll have to keep an eye on her...
5 comments:
Make the most of those fresh tomatoes.
I agree with you about the onions, I have decided not to bother growing them next year either, as they are pretty cheap to buy.
The tomaotes look amazing! Do yellow tomoatoes ripen before red ones? I know Sungold which are orange always ripen before myGardener's delight which are red but I don't kow if that is just due to the different varieties rather than the colour.
The chutney sounds good, share the recipe if it turns out to be a goodun.
I have a bastardised version of the Jamie At Home ketchup recipe that is more similar to shop-bought ketchup, if you are interested... I used toms from the Sungolds you traded with us for the Black Cherry plants, and now have pale orange ketchup in the fridge!
Yep, will do mangocheeks, I'm going to pile them on bruschetta tomorrow with tatsy roast peppers and olives... yum!
Our yellow toms have ripened before our red ones - but after our cherry tomatoes! Will get around to chutney this weekend hopefully, will pass on the recipe if it turns out ok Amy!
And Sian - bonsoir mes amie! Yes, would be interested in the ketchup formula!
sarah :)
Reeling as I am from the car-crash that was Alesha "oo, didn't you look nervous, love" Dixon, I shall now distract myself from the horror by sharing with you my recipe for tomato ketchup. The quantities below will make one very small jar (but I only had a small amount of yellow toms at the time). So, without further ado:
500g tomatoes
3 shallots
1 thumb-sized piece of ginger cut into 3 - 4 fat slices
1 tsp coriander powder
half tsp cinnamon
1 large clove of garlic
2 cloves
50 g caster sugar
75 ml cider vinegar
Salt & pepper
METHOD
1) Fry ginger in olive oil with garlic & shallots until shallots are soft.
2) Add cloves, coriander powder & cinnamon and fry for a couple more minutes.
3) Chop toms. Add to pan and grind over some salt & pepper (!). Add 150ml cold water.
4)Bring to boil & simmer until toms are soft and mixture is reduced by about half.
5)Remove ginger slices. Whizz the rest in a blender.
6) This bit you really need to do to get the ketchup consistency - either press through a jelly bag or a sieve twice to make the saue smooth. Discard the bits of seed & skin left over.
7) Add sugar and vinegar with care. All toms are different, so tis better to err on the side of caution!
8) Reduce until the mixture looks like ketchup, then pour into sterilised jars.
9) Bask in a feeling of smugness.
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