Get Bottling & Preserving

Hi

Tomato Time

We have had Zucchini, Scallopini and Courgettes coming out of our ears! All of a sudden though, there has been a heap of tomatoes suddenly ripening.  I just adore fresh home grown beefsteak tomatoes on hot Vogels toast, but if you got too many then something has to be done.  Last evening we chopped a mass of onions and bacon and saute'd them down, added all those excess tomatoes chopped up. Throw in a good amount of finely diced courgette, topped off with plenty of Basil, salt and pepper, then cooked the whole lot up into a wholesome sauce which was duly bottled.  Now I always thought that bottling was a difficult thing to do but its really 'damn' easy and there is nothing better than reaching for a bottle of home made sauce for your favourite pasta dish or throwing in a slow cooked casserole. I had just been out for a walk and Harry had bottled up the next batch of good ole Toms with more Zucchini and olives and zinged them up with basil, rosemary and flat parsley. Got to say it tasted and looked delicious.

Plums

Its not only been about Tomatoes here but plums, over the last  few weeks, Harry has been down checking the orchard and coming back with boxes of plums. Some we just eat esp the favourites like Elephant heart, others like Billington we bottled cause we had to do something with them fast. Then there were the green looking Greengage which we froze. Well the other night we had to take out a dessert to a tennis party. Those Greengages came out of the freezer, into a pot with some sugar and a hint of water and cooked down until they were thick and tasty, cooled off and stones removed. We cheated and grabbed some short pastry from the supermarket and rolled out into a pie dish and baked it without any filling. When the pastry was cooled we covered it with the plum mix, then Tony carefully and precisely added the pastry criss cross top and the pie was baked again. I have to say that when I went for dessert there was none left. Luckily we had left a  small pie behind and was it ever YUM.

While I'm on about plums we have been buying some Luisa plums and they are awesome, yellow with some red blush, freestone and tasty. We have a tree in our orchard but its not old enough to have fruit hence we have been buying the fruit. Coes Golden drop is another goodie and it goes with Greengage and there are plants available for planting this Autumn. Actually there are few different plum varieties here and they are all still $10.00 off the normal retail price.

If you planning the orchard for the Winter then you may want to order some new seasons stock especially those popular plums Like Luisa, Black Doris or the juicy Haweras. For those that want to save space then a double grafted one is the way to go. Two varieties on the one tree. Choose from combination Black Doris / Billington,     Hawera / Burbank,    Omega / Santa Rosa.

Cheers Lloyd and Harry

Make it a Wairere weekend