Practical Uses for Gluts

This year has been a fantastic year for certain things in the garden namely tomatoes (at last!!!), cucumbers and damsons.  Other vegetables didn't do so well but we don't talk about those in this post...perhaps later in the 'What I Won't Grow Next Year' post.

The tomatoes have been used for many things but the most successful and hopefully the most useful recipe has been Delicious Magazine's Ultimate Tomato Sauce. It has been fantastic and results in a rich, smooth sauce that would be fab with pasta, sausages, fish, beans, chicken...well pretty much anything and by requiring 5kg of tomatoes each time it certainly helps out with the tomato glut!

 Trying to squeeze this many tomatoes into two ovens proved difficult!

 Garlic, shallots (from the garden) and chillis (from the garden) will used to make an infused oil which was poured into the crushed, roasted tomatoes. The remaining bits formed part of an accidental smashed mess the first time round but didn't end up on the floor the second time and were delicious in a curry!

The final sauce was fabulous and was a different colour and quantity each time I made it...strange but true!

The cucmbers did amzingly well on the trellis Stan helped me make on the South side of the shed; it certainly proved to be a real sun trap and they thrived there in their tubs.  I will definitely be growing them again next year, perhaps a different variety in each tub.

The cucumber pickle recipe was a great success, or at least it smelt like a great success as it is still maturing behind the fridge.  The cukes were sliced finely using a mandolin as were plenty of onions. They were sprinkled liberally with salt, left to sit in a fridge for three hours and then rinsed and drained.  After being mixed with tumeric and various spices vinegar and sugar were added to make what looks like a relish as opposed to a pickle but i am certainly looking forward to eating it. Perhaps with some nice boiled ham at Christmas?

The damsons were plentiful; the tree was so laden with fruit that branches which were hanging at head height flew back up about five to six feet once the fruit was removed. Here was our first batch.

I made damson cheese using a recipe from Roast Figs, Sugar Snow a gorgeous recipe book which is defininitely more than just a recipe book. It is very much a bedside reading book too!  The damson cheese is lovely and so far has tasted very nice with blue cheese and I hope it will go well with some red meats, etc, as we go into winter.

The remaining damsons were sieved into puree, most of it unsweetened and frozen but some remained in the fridge so got used in things like Book Club cakes - rather proud I was too.  According to our members it would have won a WI prize - honour indeed!!!