Simmery Summery tomatoes

A year ago I resolved to become entirely self-sufficient in bottled tomatoes.  Tomatoes feature a lot in my cooking, from pasta sauces to butter chicken.  The recycling bin seemed to fill up just with cans from whole peeled tomatoes, so I decided to grow and bottle enough to last me a whole year.  Fresh tomatoes ripened in my garden around Christmas and 55 jars were bottled by the end of March.  Tomatoes ripen gradually and keep well in a fruit-bowl so every week I could simply do five or ten jars at a time.  Each jar was about twice the volume of a tin so I hoped I would have enough. 

I didn’t calculate on how much I would enjoy eating them.  The summery goodness of homegrown tomatoes seemed to burst out of every jar when opened.  I started using two at a time to really get that flavour into everything.  As the first year was an experiment, I wanted to eat them naturally - so I could calculate the shortfall (which there inevitably was) from the time they ran out.

Well, I’m sorry to report that we ate the last jar before the end of October.  I have new tomato plants in the ground, seedlings ready for planting, plus tomato seeds still to sow.  I still have my hopes set on ‘Early Girl’ providing fruit soon because the first fresh tomato I get from my garden will be a milestone, marking the beginning of the new tomato season.

The astounding thing is that it didn’t really take that much space in my garden to grow them all.  Ten plants in a 2x2m square did most of the production.  A bit later in the season I created another garden 1x3m long that struggled with over-enthusiastic servings of fresh seaweed causing most to rot on the vines.  A third plot of 1x3m planted in January never ripened, but filled a pot with green tomatoes for chutney.

If all three plots had produced as well as the first I could have made it.  Based on harvesting tomatoes in December I’m just 8 jars short.

So understandably, when New Zealand Gardener magazine added a new book based entirely on tomatoes to their ‘Homegrown’ range of special collector’s editions I didn’t hesitate to buy it.  From planting to preserving, heirlooms and modern hybrids, indoors, outdoors, organics and more- it’s inspiring and affordable at $14.90 from www.nzgardener.co.nz.

I’ve already started following a bit of their more unusual advice and put milk powder in when planting.  Apparently the calcium will give me a bumper crop.  There’s a recipe for tomato paste which looks so easy that I think I’ll need to dedicate another 2x2m plot just for the Roma tomatoes needed.  Instead of bottling, tomato paste can be frozen in ice-cube trays or muffin tins.

Unfortunately in the quest for a few ideas to improve my crop I’ve been tempted with even more recipes that are making me eye up the lawn for more plots to grow in.  I’d rather eat tomatoes than mow the lawn anyway.