Tomato Growing 2025

Glut incoming!

 

Well, my self- seeded orange vittoria ( they might have another non orange name) are ripening. Sweet and the skins aren't too tough.Now what? I don't need any more passata - still some left over from last year.
What can I do with them?

 

The weather is due to turn cooler so maybe soup? That's what I did with a lot of mine last year, including some fresh oregano from the garden.

 

Slice up a quantity and put into a bowl, add a clove or more of garlic, plenty of basil, olive oil and black pepper stir well and leave to stand for a few hours. Cook a pan full of pasta,drain, onto plate add tomato mix, stir well and add grated Parmesan if desired.

 

Sometimes I wish I liked pasta.
I could put that on toast.

 

On toast? A lifetime ago I remember a neighbour used to warm up tinned tomatoes to put with toast. A Welsh bruschetta?
Seriously, that mix is delicious on bread - but it needs to be thick to cope with the liquid sogginess.

 

As a lad sometimes had that as a quick meal in the evening.

 

I'm not overly keen on pasta either @pete, but a good tomato sauce works wonders for it. I tend to have more sauce than pasta, and some cheese on top, so that helps to hide the texture of the pasta! I prefer a pasta bake or lasagne for that reason as I can use less pasta and more sauce

By this time of year I'm usually doing bruschetta quite often with whatever red variety I have [ I don't use the Sungolds for that] but the toms have been slower, despite the heat. However, I've grown a new one to me this year- Garnet, and it's producing a good crop, but I kept thinking it was still needing to ripen as the top was still quite green compared to the rest of it. I decided to pick one a couple of days ago, as they seemed to have stalled, and it was really soft, and I ate it, so I presume it's just the way they are, and it wasn't terribly visible on the photos I'd seen. D'oh!
I picked a few yesterday and ate them - lovely, so I might be picking a load today for snacks

 

I remember that as a kid,I think it was considered a good tea for the kids,not much different from beans on toast.

 

Tinned plum tomatoes are still widely used up here for cooked breakfasts, especially further north in tourist areas. Easier for them than trying to rely on fresh toms being brought in, especially on the islands. I don't know if that happens elsewhere since I don't eat them [fried breakfasts] but I'm sure my Mum used them when I was a child. It's hard to remember. She certainly used them for bolognese - very exotic back then!

 

My OH likes tinned tomatoes on toast. In fact he likes tinned tomatoes full stop. One time, many years ago, we'd got a quiche from the supermarket for a quick tea and I asked him if he wanted salad with his. He said "I'll have tomatoes" so I put sliced fresh tomatoes on his plate and salad on mine. His face fell when he saw it - he'd meant tinned tomatoes, which had never even crossed my mind as a possibility.

 

Wash and dry them then throw them in the feezer, in a plastic bag, to be used in soup,casseroles, stews etc. I do not bother to wash mine or skin them as I know they have nothing sprayed on them, I remove the stalks and freeze, no blanching.As the first of this years crop has just been frozen I have used the last of last years crop to make a pot of soup.

 

I remember school dinner cheese and egg pie with tinned tomatoes. Not as good as anything with chips but OK.

 

Pomodoro pilati italiano.
Who says I don't do languages, I read that somewhere many years ago.