The last tomatoes were literally rotting on the vines. So the kids and I gathered what was not rotten and ripped up the plants putting them in the bulging compost heap. All together we had 2.5 kg of green tomatoes. At this point I apologise to my late uncle Christopher Booker whose birthday it would have been on Monday. I am sorry but the scales here are metric.
The tomatoes were halved or quartered and added to a tablespoon of salt and two thinly sliced and chopped home grown onions (500g, sorry once ,more Uncle Chris) and left to soak overnight. They were then drained but not washed.
500g of dark brown sugar was stirred into 1.1 litre (sorry again Uncle Chris) of organic apple vinegar. After it dissolved I added in 500g each of sultanas and of finely chopped homed grown apples. and this was cooked gently until the apples were soft. I chucked in a couple of teaspoons of mustard seeds, diverging on that matter from Mary Berry’s recipe, and then added the tomatoes and the whole lot stewed for an hour until it was a dark brown pulp.
Half was canned right away. The other half was joined by a couple of home grown chillies (finely chopped) whiled I sterilised more jars. I am at the stage of the year where I am recycling Lloyd Grossman pasta sauce jars to use.
The end result 14 jars. One we opened today. The Mrs was critical, saying she does not like the sultanas. I thought it was superb chutney and will fob off a couple of jars at the village autumn fruit fare tomorrow while the rest stand ready as Christmas presents. I now have 60 or so jars of jams, pickles, jelly and chutney sitting in my larder.
Out in the garden I am still harvesting the last of the carrots, raspberries and spring onions which came in today as did one more chilli plant with big chillies already starting to turn yellow.
The tomatoes were halved or quartered and added to a tablespoon of salt and two thinly sliced and chopped home grown onions (500g, sorry once ,more Uncle Chris) and left to soak overnight. They were then drained but not washed.
500g of dark brown sugar was stirred into 1.1 litre (sorry again Uncle Chris) of organic apple vinegar. After it dissolved I added in 500g each of sultanas and of finely chopped homed grown apples. and this was cooked gently until the apples were soft. I chucked in a couple of teaspoons of mustard seeds, diverging on that matter from Mary Berry’s recipe, and then added the tomatoes and the whole lot stewed for an hour until it was a dark brown pulp.
Half was canned right away. The other half was joined by a couple of home grown chillies (finely chopped) whiled I sterilised more jars. I am at the stage of the year where I am recycling Lloyd Grossman pasta sauce jars to use.
The end result 14 jars. One we opened today. The Mrs was critical, saying she does not like the sultanas. I thought it was superb chutney and will fob off a couple of jars at the village autumn fruit fare tomorrow while the rest stand ready as Christmas presents. I now have 60 or so jars of jams, pickles, jelly and chutney sitting in my larder.
Out in the garden I am still harvesting the last of the carrots, raspberries and spring onions which came in today as did one more chilli plant with big chillies already starting to turn yellow.
By next weekend I hope the harvest is done and I can start on weeding space to plant winter garlic, shallots and onions. And then it is restructuring the strawberry beds, in part to allow for the growing of aa big patch of sweetcorn next year. I have always failed with sweetcorn but Joshua is adamant that we must try again.
