Fruit, Veg, Flowers and Slugs

I have pulled a number of the  Carrot Eskimo  this week and will be blanching and freezing a couple of batches at least as I have far more than required for now. Most are  lovely long thick straight  roots but there are naturally a few slightly wonky ones, one that is three for the price of one and naturally one with a willy, there is always one  with a willy for the annual rude carrot picture on social media see below.  Carrot Eskimo were new to me this year and they have grown and cropped well, and I am happy to report those that I have eaten so far have been very tasty. There are a number of ways you can store Carrots, the most basic being keeping in the ground until needed; as the name suggests this particular  variety apparently resists splitting and retains its flavour throughout the autumn and winter if left in the ground according to the marketing blurb - I will be testing that by leaving a few where they are.  Blan ching and Freezing...

With such a glut of Tomatoes coming from the Greenhouse at the moment and the  Buffalo Steak  variety fruits averaging just shy of a pound in weight each, the biggest so far just over the pound at 530 grams, I have decided it's that time of year again to start making Tomato Ketchup.  I really do need to do something as the outdoor plants haven't begun ripening yet but the  Yellow Pear  plants are ladened with little pear-shaped fruits and the two American Heritage variety Pink  Brandywine   plants both have a number of fruits on as well, see pictures below. It's a nice problem to have! My recipe for Tomato Ketchup is pretty standard but if you are interested it can be found below; Jamie Oliver I aint:  3.5kg tomatoes roughly chopped 1 onion roughly sliced and diced 1 head of garlic peeled and chopped/crushed  110g salt 1kg light brown soft sugar 600ml red wine vinegar 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce 4/5 whole cloves Few turns...

I am currently enjoying a bit of a glut on the Tomato front, no bad thing, and find myself experimenting with a number of recipes; that said an oven baked Beefsteak Tomato is still one of my favourite guilty pleasures. The   Buffalo Steak Tomatoes  from the Greenhouse have been a roaring success, baked, fried, in a salad, on a burger or in a sandwich I have used them in multiple ways for breakfast, lunch and dinner recently and these will definitely be grown again in the future - absolutely brilliant. The  Gigantomo  variety are also cropping strongly with a number of large fruits on the plants I have allowed them to grow on. I have a couple of very large fruits on one plant I deliberately left only a few tomatoes on but no world record breaker.  The Tomato varieties I am growing outside on the veg patch following the disaster that was the Limoncito and Black Cherry seedlings failing on me are now of course the  Yellow Pear  and  Pink  Brandy...