AN ABUNDANCE OF TOMATOES

Although I grow organic tomatoes in my garden they are mostly for salad use. I find that the cherry tomatoes have less insect problems than the commercial varieties. My garden at Das Helwig Haus B&B on the Granite Belt of southern Queensland is surrounded by commercial fruit orchards and vegetable farms. The down side of this is that all the insect pests manage to find breeding spots every year, hence the need for farmers to use insecticides and those pests are happy to move on to my unprotected crops. The plus side is that the farmers will kindly give me their excess produce.

Cherry tomatoes and hot red chilies.

Last year I was allowed to pick tomatoes from fields that had been abandoned. It is commercial practice to only pick tomatoes while they are green. When the price drops, or the farmer thinks the plants are past their prime, the crop will be abandoned as uneconomical. When time permits the farmer will clear his land for a different crop in his rotation plan. Thus, each year I witness the waste of many vegetables as they rot in the field.

Sun ripened Roma tomatoes

The good thing is that as the crop was still green when the farmer abandoned it, these tomatoes had several weeks to ripen naturally in the sun, free of insecticides. .

This year, Dorothy, a friend who sells her jams and sauces at the Sunday Markets kindly offered to pick two boxes of tomatoes for me, as I give her my excess boysenberries, grapes and figs. My tomato sauce could probably be called Ketchup, not a word used in Australia.

• FAY’S TASTY TOMATO SAUCE
• 6kg (12 lb) ripe tomatoes
• 4 apples
• 4 onions, peeled
• 6 red chilies
• 12 cloves
• 4 cups white vinegar
• Slice the ripe tomatoes into a large pot. Add the apples, onions and chilies cut up roughly and the cloves. Add the vinegar and bring to a slow boil. Simmer for two hours until mushy and reduced in volume. Rub through a sieve and return to the pot.
• Add:
• 500g (1lb) white sugar.
• 250g (1/4 lb) salt
• 1 teaspoon ground mace
• 1 teaspoon curry powder
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• Return pot to the stove and bring the mixture to the boil. Simmer for 10 minutes. While hot pour into  jars or bottles and seal while hot.

Tomato sauce ingredients 2008

Last year I used the green-skinned Granny Smith apples, but this year I substituted red-skinned Delicious apples. Adding apples to the mixture aids in thickening the sauce.

Last year I did all the processing work, but this year I have an assistant, Tracey a Korean WWOOF worker.

I find many uses for this sauce. Yesterday I placed pork chops in the oven to dry bake in their own fat. I then drained off this excess oil, added 1 cup of finely sliced celery and poured two cups of the sauce over the meat and celery. I covered the dish and cooked for a further 30 minutes prior to serving. I served this with rice and a green salad.

Tracey chopping tomatoes