This year was a bumper crop of tomatoes for me!

Both smaller yellow pear and large red heirlooms. I find it’s so much easier to grow cherry tomatoes and the smaller varieties than the larger fruit, but this year was my year for both! There are so many varieties experimenting is fun! Particularly if you have a few different colors and types in a salad, pasta, soup or preserve.

I love the smell of tomato plants as I walk past or when I’m working in the garden. It really takes me back to my childhood playing in the mud as mum worked on the vegie garden. Tomatoes are a summer fruit that require plenty of sun and plenty of water, with a bed that has been prepared with plenty of compost and manure a few weeks before planting. Try to water the soil not the tomato plant leaves to avoid fungal disease.

A little tip, don’t refrigerate tomatoes as they will lose some of their taste. Store them inside away from direct light, unless you’re trying to ripen green fruit, then a windowsill will be perfect.

Check out the Organic Ways to Control Insects and Pests post for a natural garlic spray recipe to deter aphids, white fly etc.

Home Made Tomato Soup with Sour Dough

2 kg roughly chopped ripe tomatoes
olive oil
3 sliced garlic cloves
1 1/2 cups home made stock
2 teaspoons sugar
salt and pepper
basil leaves or parsley
some sour dough – can be a couple of days old

Drizzle – olive oil in pan and place garlic cloves in and cook a a min or so
Place – tomatoes into pan and cook until tomatoes loosen and start to release a little moisture
Stir – in sugar
Add – stock and a pinch of salt
Bring – up to boil, then lower to simmer for about 30 mins. The tomatoes should have broken down and soup be thickening a little
Break – up a slice of bread per bowl (or however much you like) and rip up a couple of basil leaves per bowl and place into bowls
Ladle – soup into bowls (sometimes I like to serve the soup in a pretty dish and serve into the bowls at the table)

Yum. Yum. Yum.

If you make heaps, you can freeze the soup without the bread or basil leaves and just add them later when you re-heat.