Best Tomatoes to Grow

The heatwave has given differing results for tomatoes this year. The little Rosada F1 plum tomatoes in the greenhouse have done really well and are deliciously sweet. 

The heritage Marmande in the polytunnel haven’t done so well and have suffered with greenback which happens when conditions are too hot and sunny leading to uneven ripening. The top starts by staying green and then just doesn’t ripen properly, in this case remaining yellow. The bottom of the tomato is still edible and this batch is going into some soup for winter. 

Our unpredictable weather means that growing the heritage varieties in the polytunnel will be a bit hit and miss. Maybe next year I’ll try them in the greenhouse. 

Learnings:

• Unpredictable weather = unpredictable crops.

Spicy Tomato Soup

Try my delicious recipe for #tomatosoup. It’s quite spicy but you can choose how much chilli or cayenne to add.

Fill a large pan with tomatoes and just cover them with water - I use a 7 litre pan for my soup. I always cut the tops and bottoms off the tomatoes and then score the remaining skin top to bottom. You’ll see why later!

Cook the tomatoes until when stirred the skins have become detached and start to separate from the flesh, then you can just fish out the skins with tongs and discard them. Let the pan cool a bit and then put the whole lot through a sieve to get rid of the pips (taking the skins out first makes this part a whole lot easier!).

While this cooking is going on you can set off another pan with your flavourings:

3 or 4 onions

1 to 4 chillies chopped finely (depending on size and the heat you want)

5 or so garlic cloves crushed

1 or 2 small/medium carrots chopped finely

Cook all these through with a glug of olive oil till they are soft, then whiz them up in a blender with a couple of ladles of the soup base.

Now put everything back to the pan, warm it through and add some seasoning:

3 or 4 stock cubes/bouillon equivalent

2 teaspoons of brown sugar if things taste a bit sharp

2 or 3 tablespoons of oregano

Perfect for a warming lunch or supper with chunks of crusty bread!

Learnings:

* Wise words from Mother-in-Law “a soup boiled is a soup spoiled” – don’t boil out all the taste and goodness!

* Make sure you have enough freezer boxes before you start

Weddings and Weedings

Lord Lambourne dessert apple

Gosh. After a fabulous family wedding in Dorset, lots of visitors plus looking after the craft section at the Cricklade Show, the house seems rather empty. Or rather it’s the calm before the “now let’s catch up on outside jobs” storm…! Wandering out to the veg plot to see what’s going on found a glut of tomatoes and courgettes plus a humongous number of weeds. Can’t even see the leeks properly for chickweed! Hangs head in shame. Apples are doing well though, ready for picking in a couple of weeks. As for the garden, well it seems to have survived fairly well for complete lack of attention – planting mixed borders and letting the shrubs and perennials do their thing has really made a difference to the weeding workload. However, nothing like putting on the gardening gear, rolling up the sleeves and getting to it. A couple of days solid on the job and we’re back on track. Tomato soup though – there are only so many ways of making it #needmorerecipes 

Learnings: Sow fewer tomato seeds next year!