The Red Fruit

I’m happy that we’ve started to get our first crop of tomatoes.  We’ve had the odd one or two but now we are starting to get a kilo or so every couple of days!  So far I’ve made half a litre of roasted tomato and garlic puree and a quiche with lovely fresh cherry tomatoes bobbing on the surface.  Yummy.  *I would have photographed the quiche but it was eaten up too quickly!*

Although I know that we will never quite match the epic crop of last year (though 60 plants was a tad excessive), we should get some good produce this year.  I am determined to use every tiny red (and green) globe; none will be wasted!  We only recently ran out of the purees we made last year, used in lasagnes, bolognaises, on pizzas, in chilli’s, fajita’s…the list goes on!  Of course we still have some of our own ketchup, but not enough to see us through so another batch needs to be made.  I think I might have to buy some extra tomatoes for that but we’ll have to see how our own crop comes along.

Last year we weren’t able to use all of our tomatoes and gave many away, I think I’ll be hoarding them all this year!  We’ve discovered so many ways to make use of them and none of the fruits we processed last year were wasted.  I particularly enjoyed learning to can last year and I fervently hope that our crop of plum tomatoes will be sufficient to allow me to have another try.  There was something deeply satisfying about the process of scalding, peeling, packing and boiling.  The jars of tomatoes were our prized possessions, used only after great deliberation!  In keeping with last year (does that make it a tradition?) we will be saving a jar of precious plum tomatoes for Christmas day to have with our morning fry up.  The sweet perfection of homegrown tomatoes in the middle of winter is not to be rivaled.

In the meantime I will spend these remaining summer’s days watching out for the ruby glow in amongst the green stems in our garden,  savouring each and every glimmering fruit. I’m not in a rush for the season of cold toes, but when it comes there will be many treats to see us through; as we dream of next summer.