Trouble with tomatoes

Top tip: never give up on plants. It's in their interest to survive and they will try hard to recover.



Before going on holiday I took great trouble (well great-ish for a lazy person) to keep my tomato plants safe. I grouped them together in the shade and watered them thoroughly. A week of sunshine and holiday later and I was delighted to see they survived.

This next bit is where I went wrong. You are supposed to plant them in the evening to reduce stress and water evaporation. In a hurry to get them planted and growing I took them down to the allotment in the morning in a bit of a rush. I decided that evening would be perfect to plant them. Unfortunately life got in the way and I left those helpless plants in the sun unattended till the weekend. A VERY BAD THING. When I blithely turned up they were crispy and pretty dead. Do what I say not what I do.

Anyway in a despite attempt to rescue the situation I dunked them in water and hoped for the best. The rain helped and miraculously they have survived. They are now planted and hopefully no worse for their early setback.

Incidentally the sundried tomatoes from last year are amazing with the passing of time. Full of flavour and oil.

Dealing with a deluge of tomatoes

With over 6 kilos of tomatoes that have come off the plot in the last fortnight I have been investigating new ways of dealing with them.

As the majority of them are the 'Garden Pearl' variety that I have found a little watery and flavourless I was particularly keen to try out recipes that enhance the flavour.

A great one was to create 'sun-dried' tomatoes. Given there isn't an Italian level of sun around I used the oven instead.

Slice tomatoes into thirds (depending on size), scatter a little salt over them and place into an oven preheated to around 100 degrees C.  Keep an eye on them if your oven, like mine, has hotter patches than others. It's wise to use a silicone baking sheet to save on washing up as the juices caramelise and make it a pain to clean. When they look dried (but not burnt) then pop them in a jar and cover with oil. Scatter them in salads or in pasta and enjoy the taste of summer tomatoes well into the Autumn.

The tomatoes when ready for potting up.

I also slow cooked some cherry tomatoes, garlic, red onions and red peppers and blended it together for a healthy chilled soup.

When I get more flavoursome tomatoes off the plot then I might create great vats of pasta sauce but it's not worth it when the tomatoes aren't already bursting with flavour.