i planted several roma tomato plants last year in anticipation of preserving my own tomatoes this year but all of my tomatoes, including the romas, failed to produce a decent crop..next spring i am going to plant them in a southerly position where they will receive plenty of eastern and western sunshine but where they'll be protected from the dry, harsh northernly wind and sun..hopefully i will then be harvesting tomatoes again..my northerly garden seems to produce great winter vegetables but it's just far too hot for many summer vegetables..
so, because i haven't had my own and since i've wanted to do some preserving, i've bought tomatoes for that purpose..32 kilos to be exact..and i've made three styles of preserved tomatoes..
1.
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| 16 bottles of fowler's vacola tomato puree preserves-i wanted to do more today but it's predicted to be 38 deg c here today and so i will do more next week when it's cooler |
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| dehydrating tomatoes |
2.
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| semi dried tomatoes with garlic slivers, parsley, olive oil and salt-these tomatoes require refrigeration and will only last a week |
3.
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fully dehydrated tomatoes with added home grown chilli flakes
and covered in extra virgin olive oil-no refrigeration required |
i'm doing another batch of fully dried tomatoes today and so because they take at least 18 hours to dry i'd better get going..
happy weekend everyone..x
These all look delicious and will be great to have on hand in the pantry/fridge. Good luck for future tomato crops! Happy weekend to you too my friend...and thanks for adding me to your blog list :)
ReplyDeletethanks jane..i love your blog so i had to add it..:)
DeleteJane, you've been so productive! 32 kilos of tomatoes! They all look wonderful, and will definitely see you through winter.. :)
ReplyDeletei didn't make quite enough puree last year so i'm correcting that error this year..although maybe i've gone a bit overboard..that's not like me at all :D
DeleteThey all look gorgeous! I've just been sorting out seeds to plant for this summer so I think I'll pop in some extra tomato seeds so that I can get a bigger crop this year (& semi-dry some because your photo made me hungry!)
ReplyDeletethanks thrifty household..i'm looking forward to seeing your tomatoes growing..by then it will well and truly be winter here..
ReplyDeleteWow, you made soap and preserved tomatoes. Two things on my "learn to do for myself" list! They both look great! I have always wanted to can tomatoes but have been a little afraid of the process. How do you make sure that they are sealed properly?
ReplyDeletehi allison..neither soap making nor preserving tomatoes is difficult i promise..if you can bake you can make soap..it's just a matter of following a recipe..it's just that you're handling a caustic substance so caution in regard to that is required..as far as the tomatoes are concerned..i bottle mine using the fowler's bottling system (an australian product) which i referred to in my post which, if the instructions are followed, is very reliable with regard to the integrity of the seal..
DeleteThat is a lot of tomatoes to process, I am very impressed by all the hard work that has gone into those. Are you going to rest now or do you have other canning plans?
ReplyDeleteit is quite a lot of work jo mainly because i remove the seeds from each tomato when i make the puree..it's not really that economical but the home produced tomato has such a lovely fresh flavour i find the effort is well worth it..
Deleteand no..no more summer bottling but there are some lovely apples coming into season that are tempting me..but that's a much easier process..