Tomato glut

I always make lots of ratatouille. Goes well with many meals or I also like it on it's own hot or cold with some crusty bread. Lots of recipes online GrandmaH

Tomato sauce for pasta?

Oven-roasted tomato sauce. I put a recipe on the food pages at last a year ago. It is very concentrated, so you can freeze it in smallish amounts.

Stew up about a kg at a time, chopped coarsely, in a big pan. Reduce slowly to get rid of most of the moisture.
When cool put small amounts into plastic bags and freeze.
Use later in stews, sauces, soups, pizzas etc.
Works best with big beefy tomatoes.

I wash and freeze whole tomatoes on a clean tray in a drawer of the freezer, just as they are. Once they are frozen solid, I pop them into freezer bags. Can't remember where I got that tip from, but it works like a charm, and I use them in stews etc as needed.

OH makes tomato concasse for the freezer and I make ketchup.

What are black tomatos

Google them silverfish There are several varieties and some news items about them being healthier than the usual ones. They are not totally black, just darker than the standard varieties.

Black tomatoes have black skin & a sort of claret colour inside. I find they have a slight fennel sort of after taste- very nice in salads & look very pretty. I usually grow small plum tomatoes in various colours but all my black one have been larger
Never knew you could freeze whole but will try it. I make soup & chutney every year but will try all these ideas & then some!- many thanks

I just need to ensure they are watered while we are away in July but I have good neighbours & they can help themselves to as many as they want.

Grannyknot - don't you find when you freeze whole tomatoes that they're all watery when they defrost? I tried it once and they came out mushy, but good flavour.
Though maybe it doesn't matter if you're going to put them in a sauce etc anyway.

I decided not to grow tomatoes this year as I'll be away for the whole of August when they should be at their best. However, yesterday in Lidl's I found punnets of small plum tomatoes, red, black and yellow reduced to 64p. They have a good flavour and look pretty in a salad.

I dry them and put them in tarts throughout the winter, summer too, when you don't want soggy pastry. You can dry a tray of them whenever you have the oven on for something else, and store them in a jar. It saves space in the freezer. Just place sliced or halved for cherries (cut side upwards) salted and peppered on an oiled tray and slowly roast for an hour or two, keep checking. I have a dehydrator now so use that.

Tricia yes they are mushy but I think it's fine if you're going to add them to a stew. Also - they are really easy to peel when they're frozen, just immerse them in boiling water.

Mamie I'd like to learn how to make ketchup.

Jane what do you mean - sliced or halved for cherries ...

If I plant the seeds from an actual tomato, will they grow? I am not too savy about this and imagine people laughing at my question, but I do really want to start growing tomatoes and pees in my garden and was hoping to do it this way.

PS GrandmaH Hi there, your post asked for recipes that use tomatoes, we always spread loads of tomatoes on sour bread..also we make a tuna salad and spread the bread with tomatoes instead of butter, always try and use tomatoe instead of bread, so much better for you, also baked stuffed tomatoes are nice, you can make tomatoe soup and freeze it, you are lucky to have a good crop, it must be very satisfying.

sorry typing error..always try and use tomatoe instead of BUTTER.

Using seeds from an actual tomato MIGHT work, but is more likely not to, as a lot of the tomatoes you buy are from F1 plants which are not fertile. You would be better buying small plants in spring when they are in garden centres and supermarkets, they were only £1 in Tescos this year and are guaranteed to grow. Gardeners Delight is a good one, small tasty cherry tomato size fruits and a plant that does not suffer from diseases, but there are other good ones.

Thank you

I often have tomatoes on bread, or grilled on toast, for my supper.
With Marmite of course!

All mine except the black ones will be small sweet ones so not good for stuffing but I really like the idea of using them as a spread.
So far I only have about 12 green ones but by the look of all the flowers coming along I think I was right to think ahead. Cucumbers & chillies are doing far too well also.
I really do not know how I managed all this- it must be the weather.
I am still worried that after 2 weeks away in July they may all have come to grief but I will ask my neighbour very nicely to water them.
How long does ketchup last? I presume you can freeze it.

There are lots of ketchup recipes on line; I think my usual one is Delia and I quite often make her plum one too. I don't use too many different spices in mine, some of the recipes I looked at used loads and I don't think that is right. The Jamie one looked OK too.
I keep it for years in the fridge. As long as you reduce it down enough it should be fine. I put it in jars because it goes quite thick and is hard to get out of bottles.
My black tomatoes are looking good so I may try it with those this year.
Off topic slightly, but even here in an organic garden in the depths of the countryside, there seems to be a worrying shortage of bees this year. Has anyone else noticed this?

Yes we've noticed that here Mamie. But we're in the middle of a cereal growing area and put it down to all the spraying they do.
The exception was our flowering quince which was alive with bees in Feb/March.

Dairy pastures here and no spraying anywhere near. Normally the garden hums with insects, but not this year, despite the fine weather.
Very worrying.

There were very few in our garden in Portugal last year Mamie but there have been a lot more again this year thank goodness.