[viettaclark]

Thought I'd start a new thread on this much discussed subject to assure all you green tomato growers that THERE IS HOPE!
I brought in the masses of green fruit from 50+ plants (the Tumbling Toms are still out in their baskets doing well) because I thought I had blight (black stems) on one Tigerella plant. What a disappointment after all that work sowing, transplanting, tying up, pinching out, feeding etc. Full time job!
Whipped them all inside sharpish and hung them up on the vines from butcher's hooks all around the house from curtain poles, shelves, on window sills.
I can't keep up with the ripening!  :ohmy:They're going so fast I'm freezing 5lbs a day and drying the same in the oven to preserve in olive oil.
Also the wooliness and sourness have gone and they're juicy and much sweeter although they're softish (which is ok for preserving) There are enough firm ones to have fresh every day too.
I have an inner glow of satisfaction.
So don't give up!

[Trillium]

It's all part of gardening. Some years are good, some aren't regardless of experience. You just have to keep trying.

Like the old saying goes, if life gives you lemons, make lemonade 

[Growster...]

Drying sounds a damn good idea Vietta, we've never tried that!

The freezer's pretty full at the moment too...

Any tips please, as we have at least forty pounds left to ripen...?

[shokkyy]

Drying sounds a damn good idea Vietta, we've never tried that!

The freezer's pretty full at the monet too...

Any tips please, as we have at least forty pounds left to ripen...?

I don't have this problem this year, thanks to the total disaster that was my tomato crop. But last year I had a huge crop and I made loads of passata, kept me in pasta sauce for months. I didn't freeze it, I sealed it in jam jars and stuffed it at the back of the larder, so it didn't take any freezer space at all. It was nice too, tasted really fresh.

[Growster...]

Sounds like what we'll have to do Shokky!

We've already made eight jars of chutney...

I'm sorry you had a disaster this year - what went wrong?

[JayG]

I have oven dried some of my toms as I only have so much freezer space for frozen tomato sauces.

Cut large toms into chunks and put on an enamalled (not bare metal) tray in the oven at its lowest setting and wait (for several hours, checking at intervals) until they have dried to a "chewy" crisp. They will shrink to almost nothing so take up much less room in the freezer (they can then be preserved in oil but I suggest you read up about avoiding the risk of botulism, although this shouldn't be as much of an issue with oven-dried toms as it is with fresh.)

[viettaclark]

I made some oven racks from some left over fine gauge chicken wire because the cherry toms shrink so much! This method is my own born from trial and error!
Just cut beefsteaks into 4/6, medium ones crossways in half and cherries in half. Arrange on your grille, sprinkle with salt (I use celery salt) and pop in a cool oven overnight (100C or less for 4+ hours) Keep an eye because the cherries dry quickly but the bigger ones take ages! Remove when ready or they go too crisp. The plum toms seem best for drying.
They should be flexible with no liquid although I don't worry if there's a bit. Cover with good olive oil. Don't know what the storage time is but oil is a good medium. OR you can just freeze them dry which takes up less space in your freezer! Play around a bit and you'll develop your own method.
I've made 8 jars so far and 2 have been eaten already!!
You'll use up your toms no bother.....each jar takes 2/3lbs.
Nice for Crimbo?
Tomato, anyone?  Don't mind if I do......

[plum crumble]

  sniff
haven't got any
sniff
20 plants, all decimated by blight;
sniff
had to burn the lot

 
well, I suppose its payback for my smugness at last year's gorgeous passata batches..

[compostqueen]

I've cooked up a panful of toms of all shapes and sizes and froze the resulting pulpy juice (strained of pips and skin) in batches. I used the first batch to make a pasta sauce. Lovely jubbly

The best ones at the moment are Roma 

[shokkyy]

Sounds like what we'll have to do Shokky!

We've already made eight jars of chutney...

I'm sorry you had a disaster this year - what went wrong?

Mostly the awful weather, really. I had 3 Gartenperle in baskets, which have given me a good trickle of cherry toms for eating, though nowhere near as many as they did last year. I also had 5 cordon toms in pots on the patio, and those have given me some crop which is ripening now, though a lot less than I would have hoped. And then I had 15 bush plants out in a bed, which is my cooking toms, and they've been a complete failure. The plants are looking very sad now and although there's a fair few toms on them they're not ripening much at all. I have picked some and put them on the windowsill, but a lot are not really big enough to ripen well indoors. They were just much too slow and late, because of the weather. It's quite a sheltered bed too, but it's just been too cold for them.

It's odd, because I've seen so many posts from people saying their tom crop was good this year, and I am in the sunny southwest and do have a very sheltered garden, but for some reason none of the tender stuff wanted to grow in my garden this year.

[viettaclark]

Oh Plum, I feel for you!
I threw pounds and pounds away last year because blight hit so fast in my garden. I did manage to save some though.
This year I whipped them all out when I saw one black stem and I was lucky that most were a decent size.
That said I still don't know if it WAS blight. I left the tumblers in the baskets and they're still fine!
Better safe than sorry I suppose and they've definitely ripened quicker in the warmth indoors.
Weather here is wet and windy tonight and no sun on the horizon....

[BabbyAnn]

It's odd, because I've seen so many posts from people saying their tom crop was good this year, and I am in the sunny southwest and do have a very sheltered garden, but for some reason none of the tender stuff wanted to grow in my garden this year.

Here in the midlands blight has not been an issue, watering has - it has been so dry.  And that might explain a lot - weather fronts from the Atlantic have swept up from the south west and missed the midlands, and even the storms from the continent swept in from the east and missed us!  So without the dark cloud cover, the light levels have probably been slightly better although I recall there was a month which was dull generally.  As a result, fruit set outdoors has been exceptionally good, the downside is as mentioned the lack of water.