Bumper Crop of Tomatoes!

[fine wine]

After having been away in Canada for the last 15 days, we have arrived home to find a bumper crop of Tomatoes. I have lots of green as well as red tomatoes. I don't have any problem using up the red tomatoes but wondered if anyone had any recipe suggestions for the green tomatoes? My wife is producing a green chutney this evening but there is only so much of that we can eat! I usually find that when the first frosts comes in late October, we have lots of green tomatoes that end up rotting. Any suggestions will be kindly appreciated. I will put up our green chutney recipe tomorrow

[Shiny_Bottom_1]

One suggestion is chop them up, and make them into a passata sauce. Then freeze in portions. Lovely for a quick pasta meal

[flagpole]

http://southernfood.about.com/od/tomatoes/...en_tomatoes.htm

http://www.sweetbabymedia.com/recipes/spec...eentomato.shtml

[fine wine]

Thanks very much, I'll try that tomorrow. Flagpole, there are so many recipes on there. I reort back which are nicest.

PS. Anyone know why I can't uload the photos of the tomatoes up to this?

[senior ridge]

Here's a recipe for sun dried tomatoes. May need to cheat a bit about leaving in sun to dry

http://homecooking.about.com/od/howtocookv...driedrecipe.htm

Add extra virgin olive oil, sea salt, oregano and a bay leaf. Buon Appetito as my parents would say.

[flagpole]

PS. Anyone know why I can't uload the photos of the tomatoes up to this?

How are you trying to do it?

You can upload images from your computer as an attachment or you can use and Image host such as Photobucket and link them from there

[Hairy Celt]

i made a load of red tomato chutney cos we couldn't eat them all raw. glutsville. the old hmso guide on home preserving has some good recipes. 'er indoors made a whole load of what we call tomato 'splot', which is the basis for any number of tomato-based sauces to go on pasta - this can be frozen.

[fine wine]

After having been away in Canada for the last 15 days, we have arrived home to find a bumper crop of Tomatoes. I have lots of green as well as red tomatoes. I don't have any problem using up the red tomatoes but wondered if anyone had any recipe suggestions for the green tomatoes? My wife is producing a green chutney this evening but there is only so much of that we can eat! I usually find that when the first frosts comes in late October, we have lots of green tomatoes that end up rotting. Any suggestions will be kindly appreciated. I will put up our green chutney recipe tomorrow

I have managed to upload some of the photos by replying to the topic

[Great Plum]

Anyway of getting tomatoes to ripen?

[fine wine]

I find it best to leave the tomatoes on the plants to ripen naturally untill it really starts to cool down, which is about mid-october here in the SE. Most people tend to start bringing then earlier than this because they are splitting - this is due to irregular watering, rather than over-watering.

During the warm summer months, people don't think twice about watering their tomatoes every day but this regime soon stops during the cooler autumn months of September and October. If it doesn't rain every day, this has the effect of allowing the water levels (turgidity) to fall and rise sharply inbetween rain. The effect of this is to swell the tomatoe so much that the skin doesn't have time to stretch/grow and therefore it splits. If you water a little every day during the autumn, you don't get this problem because you maintain constant turgidity within the plant / fruit.

With regards to ripening unripe tomatoes, try popping a ripe tomatoe or banana in a draw with the unripe ones. Ethylene is released by the rip fruits which in turn induces ripening in the others (this is what banana importers do to rippen their green fruits which come in to the UK)

[Great Plum]

Thanks for your suggestions - I'll give that a go!

[*Stormforce~beka*]

Thank you for all the tomato help! I have just had crop this year which more abundant than last year. This is my second year of harvesting tomatoes and im so pleased with them. I did wonder why some had splt and not I know its because of the watering thing. I think must have been where we were on holiday for 10days so obviously didnt get watered.

The ripening suggestion will be handy for when the end of season comes. Thank you again!

[fine wine]

Happy to help! The wonderful late summer weather has really helped with the ripening of the tomatoes - still plenty of green ones though but we have untill the first frosts before thats a problem. In the next couple of days we are going to be making sun-dried Tomatoes so I'll post some photos and the recipe.

[*Stormforce~beka*]

Any tomatoe updates? I have a few stray green ones on my plant ... a fair few of those split ones (Thats this years lesson!) Can we still use the split ones or are they best to be binned? As for the green ones I imagine leaving them out til this time next week will be ok as its going to be warm, or do you think they should be brought in? Will I end up with even more green ones coming after this weeks nice weather? When the tomatoes are all done, will the plant reflower and refruit next year or do I need to compost it and plant new seeds out next year? Sorry for the ton of questions this is only my second year tomatoe growing and last years was a disaster! I didnt realise that i only had to plant 1 seed and I put the whole pack in and was trying to get rid of all the plants LOL. I ended up keeping 6 plants and only getting about hmmm 10 tomotoes tops!! Hope everyone else has had a sucessful year also. I've so far had 100 - 150 maybe more. Although they are little ones and from 3 plants. So i'm very pleased

[parmenides3]

Any tomatoe updates? I have a few stray green ones on my plant ... a fair few of those split ones (Thats this years lesson!) Can we still use the split ones or are they best to be binned? As for the green ones I imagine leaving them out til this time next week will be ok as its going to be warm, or do you think they should be brought in? Will I end up with even more green ones coming after this weeks nice weather? When the tomatoes are all done, will the plant reflower and refruit next year or do I need to compost it and plant new seeds out next year? Sorry for the ton of questions this is only my second year tomatoe growing and last years was a disaster! I didnt realise that i only had to plant 1 seed and I put the whole pack in and was trying to get rid of all the plants LOL. I ended up keeping 6 plants and only getting about hmmm 10 tomotoes tops!! Hope everyone else has had a sucessful year also. I've so far had 100 - 150 maybe more. Although they are little ones and from 3 plants. So i'm very pleased

Hi, and hello from Chili Pepper, too (Mrs. P3). Just been into the garden & picked the last of this year's crop. So far from the seven 'Marmonde' plants we have had around 50 lbs (23 Kilos) of tomatoes. At the moment, the grand jamjar hunt is on, so that the green tomato chutney - often given as a 'visiting gift' at Xmas - can be processed. 7 more kilos to go...

I wouldn't worry too much about the split toms; just bang them into the chutney/sauce along with the rest; nobody else will ever know. (but don't forget to peel the red ones). Find somewhere sunny (preferably dry/away from slugs) to put the green ones; some of them might ripen a bit if you get enough sunlight hours.

Throw the plants away, chopped up a bit, into the compost; they'll go dry, rot & die back otherwise. Spend £2.00 on a fresh packet of seeds next spring & start again.

Fun. isn't it. Next year, we might try something else besides toms. We have hope for our young greengage tree. Our miniature runners were in the wrong place, but still gave us two decent crops; perhaps some big runners next year.

Bear in mind, all this is a patch of garden so small it barely counts; anything is possible.

Enjoy your produce,

Hope this helps,

:)P

[Somerset Squall]

I'm still picking tomatoes of my plants, though they are a little smaller than the ones earlier on. Amazing to still be producing tomatoes mid-october, and they aren't even in a greenhouse! Plenty more ripening right now aswell.