Date: 3 February 2011 Tomatoes I am sure your tomato plants, like mine and the farmers, have been ripening at a great pace? The heat has ripened all the local tomatoes at once, so there is abundance in our local farmers markets. Talking to the Farmers they are sending plenty of beautiful tomatoes to the markets and not getting great money for them, so I don’t know why they have been expensive in the shops?
I tried some really sweet yellow grape cherry tomatoes Saturday. We also got some boxes of Ripe Roma Tomatoes and have made our tomato sauce for the winter. After we skin the tomato & remove the seeds we blend the flesh and sit in a cloth over night. The puree we boil and jar for our sauce and the clear liquid we get from straining we use as a tomato consommé with fresh basil as a starter.
Turn your excess tomatoes (including cherry) into semi dried, cut them in half and place on a tray lined with rock salt, cut side up. Sprinkle with sugar and cracked pepper. Place into an oven at 100oC between 1 -4 hours depending on type, the dryer you make them the longer they will last. You want them to reduce by at least ¼ in size, then marinate in olive oil, garlic and herbs. Store in the refrigerator.
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