Tomatoes

Those ideas for using up the last tomatoes sound really tasty. I must give them a try.

I wonder absent if you live in America or Australia maybe? Your world seems to be the opposite of mine. It was the buffalo grass that set me wondering. I must go out and get some yoghurt pots! Cannot wait for Christmas to be over so I can get planting again.

Which are the most reliable, sweet tasting tomatoes? Anyone have any favourites?

Some of the tomatoes put in the conservatory are definitely going redder. I might save half of them at least hopefully.

Good to hear that Gransnetters have had – mostly – good crops of tomatoes. Here it is the second month of Spring and I have sown tomato, pepper and courgette seeds in yogurt pots with the intention of planting them out next month, assuming Mr absent gets on with his designated job of digging over the vegetable patch. (Yes, for all you pedants – including me – I am aware that all the vegetables I am planning to plant are technically fruits.)

I have spent seven hours today and about five yesterday pulling up weeds and buffalo grass and planting some new flowering plants in other parts of the garden. I feel very satisfied but ache a bit around the back, the knees and the right hand!

I grow cherry tomatoes. Pick them as they ripen then any at the end of the sunny season I bring in to see if they will ripen indoors. I like to roast them whole in Olive oil and garlic, then freeze them.
They make a lovely topping for pasta/

The rest of the roasted tomatoes went into soup with roasted red peppers and some good stock.
Lovely!

Thanks all for your ideas and comments. I have stripped the vine and left green tomatoes on the table in the conservatory to ripen. If that fails then maybe I will fry some in oil and make chutney with the rest. Great ideas!

Roasting the semi-ripe ones with a drizzle of olive oil made them sweeter.
Lovely tonight with sausage and mash.

yorkshiregel I had six "gardeners delight" plants in pots until the weather got cold. They had fruited well since August.

I now have moved two plants into the enclosed porch and four in my wendy house. Still loads of green ones. I don't think they will get sweet now without it being warmer. Chutney coming up I think.
Liz46 Thanks I hadn't thought of the very ripe banana trick.

Thank you for all your replies. I think I will pick them now as there is no sign of them ripening where they are. Thank you also for the recipe for chutney, I will give it a whirl. I was a bit worried that some were going grey so will burn the offending ones along with the vine. Many thanks again.

Mine are ripening off well in the conservatory. I check them every day and throw away any that start to look a little grey. Putting a banana nearby may help them to ripen.

I think your tomatoes may have Late Blight. Best to carefully destroy the lot so it doesn't spread to anything else. Have a look at some pictures on Google.

I was just thinking about what to do wuth a sudden glut of tomatoes but was putting it off idly glancing through GN first.

Ours are in the windowsill, I hope they are ripening off. There are still a lot in the greenhouse too, not sure if they will ripen.

Ditch any looking grey, they may have a fungus.

I have made spicy tomato chutney in previous years, using bothigreen and red tomatoes together and it keeps well. However, I can't do that at the moment so I'm thinking of roasting them and roasting red peppers too, then making them into soup.

I hope yours ripen off in a sunny windowsill yorkshiregel, you can freeze them for use later.
If not, here's a recipe from Nigel Slater:

www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2009/oct/04/nigel-slater-green-tomato-recipes

I think one year DH pulled up the plants with tomatoes on and hung them upside down in the shed window, can't remember if they went ripe ir not!

I agree with chutney, although I understand that if you cile them thinly & cover with sugar & cinnamon you can make a pie a bit like apple pie.

we have a grand total of 4 tomatoes, not bad as we didn't plant any. the gander chucked some that had been badly bruised on the garden & they self seeded

I would pick them and put them on a sunny windowsill, they may ripen. If they don't, use them to make some green tomato chutney.