Thursday 29 September 2011

Ripening tomatoes

The after work gardener, Thursday 29 September


At last, after weeks of worrying, the forest of rampaging tomatoes has finally begun to listen to my prayers and turn red. No more fears of endless jars of green tomato chutney.

3 key factors have helped in this change of colour fortune.  Firstly, I tried the trick of picking the green tomatoes and putting them in a bag with one red one, and hoping that the redness would rub off (a bit more scientific than that, apparently it's temperature and ethylene that makes them redden).  This worked to some degree, but unfortunately to the detriment of the sweet taste you get when picked ripe straight off the vine.

The next method I tried was stressing the tomato plants by pulling off lots of the stalks and leaves that weren't laden with fruits (which made me feel a little sad) which definitely had an impact at shocking the plants into action and started producing a handful of red fruits.  However, if I was a professional tomato gardener, I should have been pinching out tops and side-shoots much earlier in the season to channel all growing energies into ripening, rather than letting the plants rampage around the veggie plot, overshadowing my aubergines, and growing completely out of control.  In fact, it was only due to sheer luck that the plants weren't all snapped in two by high winds as until they reached waist height, they remained pretty  much un-staked.  All top tips for next year.

Thirdly, and probably most importantly, the factor that has kick-started ripening the most, has been the glorious Indian summer that has suddenly overtaken us here in London - this last burst of sun and hot weather has speeded up the reddening massively.  In fact, last evening, all my tomato dreams came true, and I returned to such a glut  that I finally had a chance to create my own oven-dried tomatoes.  Delicious. My fridge now looks like a professional delicatessen, I'm very impressed.

PS. Thankfully I didn't have to rely on 'Fourthly', which would have been to pull the plants up before the first frost and hang them upside down to encourage a bit of colour.

Monday 12 September 2011

Pumpkin cooked and eaten

The after work gardener, Monday 12 September

Pumpkin Risotto
Pumpkin bake-off
For those following my blog and the journey from pumpkin seed to beautiful fruit - it's a relief to report that I've finally eaten all my pumpkin.  Phew. 

Only one fruit and it has kept me in food for an entire week.  There was me being disappointed that the plant hadn't produced more...but I've no idea how I would have managed unless I was feeding a family of four. Plus there was the final four rhubarb stalks which I cunningly transformed into a delicious crumble, that also lasted me a week.  Sorry runner beans and French beans, I'm back to you, boiled and drizzled with butter for the week ahead.

My first worry with the pumpkin was that its scaly outer shell was an indication of it being rotten inside, but thankfully no - fleshy, orange, sweet and perfect.  I'm not the greatest of cooks (although I am realising more and more that vegetable growing and cooking actually go hand in hand), but I did manage a great pumpkin soup, roasted pumpkin, and a vat of pumpkin risotto. It was delicious.  Thank goodness I've kept my old margarine containers, as I clearly hadn't enough Tupperware to go around.

Note to self that roasted pumpkin is extremely easy - slice, drizzle with oil, season and roast for 40 mins, done.  However, I did have a mishap with the pepper mill and ended up tipping the entire unmilled contents into the roasting tin by mistake.  It added a great amount of flavour, but was a little bit overkill on taste, and rather difficult to digest!  I also never knew that roasted pepper could be such a great added topper to salads, mixed with couscous and even on a cracker.

Anyway, pumpkin is now all gone, as is the rhubarb crumble.  So now I am focusing all my thoughts on willing the tomatoes to turn red (all ideas welcome).  I have now had my first three - which were delicious - but I'm keen that the other hundred or so, languishing in bunches on my army of plants, ripen up before the first frost.

With my burgeoning cooking skills I want to try my hand at oven-dried tomatoes in olive oil.