Tomatoes are most definitely one of my favourite fruit/vegetable. There is nothing quite says seasonal eating like a homegrown tomato! 2018 has been a strange year for anyone in primary food production - a non existing Spring, with that renowned 'Beast From the East' hitting us pretty late, record breaking freezing temperatures and snow that left us cut off in Allenheads for 4 days by 12 foot drifts, followed by an incredibly hot spell which started in May and lasted throughout July and saw us swimming in lochs in Scotland and wishing for air conditioning! This topped off by August which is ever increasingly becoming the start of Autumn, with a nip in the air and the trees beginning to turn!
The gardeners amongst us are all looking at our tomato plants, loaded with green fruit and hoping they might ripen before the weather really changes. For many years now I have successfully grown tomatoes outdoors at The Paddock with very little problems. This year is a little different though. Despite having a lot of fruit, and very regular watering throughout the dry spell, a lot of our fruit has been splitting, enabling little worms to get in and steal the fruit! There are many fruits which are unaffected, and I, like everyone else, am hoping they will ripen. In the meantime though, I am keeping a close watch on my plants and removing any of the green fruit which is showing signs of splitting, so that I can enjoy the fruits of my labour myself rather than leaving them for the insects!
All is not lost with a green tomato though, green tomato chutney is one of my favourites, packed with raisins, and there are loads of great online recipes out there. Recently, I've just been roasting my green tomatoes in the oven on a roasting tray, drizzled with balsamic vinegar and a little sprinkling of sea salt.
Today we have enjoyed our first soup of the season, Mam roasted up a batch of squishy tomatoes and made our favourite roasted tomato soup. The sweetness from the tomatoes when they are roasted is delicious.
The veg boxes are an array of colours this week with a mixture of heritage tomatoes, yellow tomatoes and orange tomatoes all grown locally at The Paddock, Tom and Joe's at Wylam or Low Spen Farm.
There are quite literally hundreds of ways to enjoy tomatoes, but during the Summer months, a lovely veggie kebab, or you could add halloumi, tofu or meat if you wish is a lovely meal to enjoy, skewered tomatoes and courgettes from the garden, griddled on the BBQ is the taste of Summer and many months hard work in the garden.
When it comes to growing your own food, there is a huge amount of satisfaction in a lot of the little things, and this goes hand in hand with a few disappointments along the way. A few years ago, the goats broke into the veggie plots and ate all of the tomato plants, I was devastated, especially as they are not the kind of thing you can just replant! Needless to say the goats were not bothered in the slightest, they were fine, despite tomatoes being poisonous for them and surprisingly the plants recovered a little to produce some fruit!
I think one of the most satisfying feelings when growing your own food is watching that little seed grow into a little plant, nurturing it through the several months it takes to produce a flower, followed by a fruit which you then watch ripen. Nature is a wonderful thing, and never ceases to amaze me. Something I've found to be really beneficial this year to the pollination of my tomato plants has been planting them in the vicinity of borage, which the bees love!
So, whether your tomatoes ripen or not, enjoy the wonderful feeling of having grown your own food and relish the experience of creating some delicious meals with them. We would love to know what your cooking so head over to our recipe page on Facebook to share your ideas https://www.facebook.com/groups/thepaddockvegbox/ or follow us on Instagram @the_paddock_kyo.
Happy cooking, Laura x