As the seasons change so does the Domestic Executive routine.  Nightly chores include putting the chickens to bed, watering the vegetables and tucking up the tomatoes for the night in the greenhouse.  New habits take a while to stick but if I want to keep my greenhouse cargo safe from evening chills then diligence must become my middle name.

We are on the homeward stretch for the summer growing season and in their usual triumphant style the tomatoes are strutting their stuff.  We’re being rewarded after the early promise for the season with bucket loads of tomatoes coming off the vine each week.  The tomato sauce production line is up and running and I might try a spot of no sugar chutney and sauce making over the Easter weekend.

The southern hemisphere food blogosphere is humming with tomato harvests.  I’ve been particularly admiring of Sue over at Couscous and Consciousness who has been up to her eyes is in making tomato sauce and an intriguing yellow tomato and ginger conserve.  Also, a fellow Backyard Pantry Gardner Sue at Five Course Garden who has found her blogging inspiration again over a bowl of  tomatoes.

Looking back over my own blogging archive it seems I have something of a love hate relationships with tomatoes but it is one I would rather have than not. Even when the red harvest failed me I made the most of the green tomato glut. Nowadays the tomato sauce production is a simple and speedy operation after investing in a moulis for grinding roasted tomatoes.  I’m still as romantic as ever about tomatoes being the culinary equivalent of sunshine although this year we don’t have any shortage of the real thing. But without a greenhouse I’m sure I’d still be struggling along taking to daily prayer to bring in a crop.

In the past I have been diligent in my tomato sauce making but now I take the simplest route to home-made tomato sauce.  Pick, wash, halve, roast with lashings of olive oil, salt and pepper for about an hour, grind the roasted tomatoes in the moulis, freeze.  Couldn’t be simpler and quicker.

When the time comes to use the tomato sauce that’s when you can get all imaginative by adding butter, garlic, herbs, spices or a touch of chilli to warm it up. I’m researching nutmeg for my course at the moment so might throw caution to the wind and add a touch of the mystical spice to bring a little psychedelic aphrodisiac to the table. No kidding!

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