Compared to last year, the tomato harvest is both delayed and pitiful. Last year, I harvested 25 kg overall. This year, it will probably be significantly less.
© Charly, all rights reserved. Click for full size.
Last week, I started to harvest them, a week later than in 2024. You can see the first ca 500 g in the picture. I added approximately the same amount every two days until I had about 2,5 kg, which was finally enough to fill the pot and make sauce.
We still did not eat all the ready-to-eat sauce from last year, so I was not making that yet – I made a tomato concentrate.
© Charly, all rights reserved. Click for full size.
The recipe for this is very easy:
Cut the tomatoes into quarters and boil them in as little water as possible until they dissolve. Strain them through a sieve with eyes small enough to catch most of the seeds, but not so fine that they get clogged up by the mashed mass. If a suitable strainer is not available, it is also possible to cross-cut the potatoes, blanch them, and then peel them before proceeding with making the paste with the pulp, including the seeds. But straining the paste through a strainer is less work and less mess.
Put the strained juice into a weighed pot and slowly simmer while stirring until most of the water is evaporated and the remaining paste is so thick that it takes a moment for it to close behind the stirring spatula/spoon. Then weigh it and add 35 g of sugar and 30 g of salt per 1000 g of paste (I have an Open Office Calc template that calculates the sugar and salt based on the weight of my pot).
The paste can be frozen, but I prefer canning it. I put it into small glasses with twist-on lids, then I put the glasses in boiling water for 10 minutes, and I open and close the lids while they are hot. Once they cool down to room temperature, they form a vacuum seal, and they last for at least a year in the cellar. I am putting it into small jars because it is very concentrated, and it also tends to spoil quickly once the jar is opened. This way I can guarantee that once the jar is opened, it gets used up quickly.
It is a very good base for pizza, and one glass is enough for two 25 cm pies. It can also be directly eaten as a ketchup, although it is definitely not as sweet as store-bought one. It can also be used as a base for tomato sauce or tomato soup. And since it is concentrated, it takes up very little storage space.
My tomatoes are steadfastly refusing to turn red. I’ll give them two more weeks, then it’s green tomato chutney. Again.
My tomatoes outdoors do not want to turn red either. The culprit is, of course, the cold July; everything warm-loving is delayed two to three weeks around here. I do not want to risk eating unripe tomatoes; everything that does not turn red is waste.