Preserving Oven Roasted Tomotoes

Felt like kicking my heels together today...the tomatoes are here and RIPE! This is by far my favourite time of year. A couple of years ago when suffering from a serious glut of tomatoes, I came up with the idea to oven roast them and preserve to keep for the year. Too be honest there are no hard and fast rules, I just tend to guide myself by quantity of fruit and what herbs I have going.  I will admit you don't get that much bang for your buck, but it is all worth it when you crack open that jar in a month or few!

Cut your tomatoes either in half or to a size which suits.
Put them into a bowl, add dried oregano, finely chopped basil and season well.
Mix gently to avoid mushing tomatoes add a splash of Balsamic or Sherry vinegar.

Set your trays out with cake racks on top. ( You can just use baking paper directly onto tray if you like).
Place tomatoes onto rack evenly spread, and place into oven for roasting.

Roast at around 180 degrees, just keeping an eye out that they don't burn. Usually in my oven about 15 to 20 minutes.

While tomatoes in the oven put clean jars and the lids into boiling water to sterilise. Once jars have been boiling for a few minutes carefully remove from water being sure not to touch or contaminate lid or inside of jar.

When choosing jars ensure they are clean reasonably new and don't have plastic rings. You are looking for jars that have the dent in the lid that makes the 'pop' when you open the seal.

Once tomatoes are ready spoon into jars ensuring there are no pockets of air. Just tap jar lightly on the bench to push down the fruit. When jar full pour some good olive oil over the top. You should only need a small amount if jar filled, pop the lid on tightly.

Now for preserving, we have a 'fowlers unit', but this is not essential. A boiling pot of water will do the same trick. Place the jars into the pot or unit so that the water is almost at the top but not covering the lid, bring to the boil.  Special note, this is not about cooking the fruit but sealing the jar so 5 minutes or so is usually enough at boiling point.

When you're done carefully remove from water and allow to cool. After a month or so the tomatoes will have marinated and be ready for eating. These tomatoes are great on sandwiches, salads or on a cheese platter with some tzatziki and crackers.
Store in cool dark place and enjoy.

Collecting for the winter

The days are finally starting to warm up here in the mountains and we are looking forward to those long evenings on the deck sipping whatever takes my fancy. But this weather also signals that it is gardening time. This year I feel like we are standing at the starting line, the hooter sounds and we are off, with a very fast commentary behind us.

Now don’t get me wrong I love the garden, but with such short seasons the race is on to grow as much as fast as we can. Then turn all that lovely produce into preserved wonders for the coming winter months a little like squirrels and nuts you might say...

image courtesy of Sonic wu

Self sustainability is one of the reasons for moving to the farm. The idea of creating an environment in which we lived garden to table has been an exciting adventure so far.  I am a mad keen cook, and get so much pleasure from ducking to the garden to see what we have in stock!

This is our strawberry patch. Last year we were having problems with birds so Nick netted a roof and sides to keep them safe and sound. It works a treat resulting in a bumper crop this year with which I'm hoping to have enough to even make Jam. Here's a yummy Strawberry jam to have a go at http://ridgeorganics.blogspot.com/2012/01/homemade-strawberry-jam.html

I grew up giving coleslaw a wide berth! It always looked and tasted like it had come out of a tin. Until one day, a friend of mine brought in a fresh, tasty dish of red cabbage coleslaw. It was delicious! Nothing like I had ever seen or tasted. Now converted, I have planted our first red cabbage patch, you can see the heads just starting to form. Try this out with your red cabbage. http://ridgeorganics.blogspot.com/2012/01/red-cabbage-coleslaw.html

Preserving is close to my heart. I grew up spending hours with my grandmother in the kitchen. Nan is your typical 'farmers wife' of that era, she made everything: butter, cream, jams and preserved everything from her garden peaches, to nectarines and quinces. Waste not want not! I was fortunate enough that Nan gave me her 'fowler' jars and preserving tools so that I could take over the tradition. I must say it is harder than I thought and there have been many failures. Luckily the chook's will eat anything! This year we have loads of carrots and have decided to try and preserve some in mustard seeds, which we thought would be great for winter curries and casseroles. They look good, but the taste is in the pudding, so only time will tell.

Early season taste, will keep you posted on how we get on.