Too many Tomatoes !


The Kitchen Garden has been prolific to say the least this year.  We’ve harvested the Tomatoes twice for bottling now and there’s probably a third batch (as well as Patrice’s Green Tomato Jam) still to do! Fully exposed to the intense Tuscan Summer sun – phew! hot work! – but what a lot of glorious produce…

Out of the Kitchen Garden and into the house, and the place was truly overrun, it was a special feeling ! Italian Tomatoes are always great of course, but when they’re just picked from your own garden, untreated (100% natural) at their peak of ripeness and still warm from the sun they’re surely at their absolute best.

My dad would love them ! but who wouldn’t ?

This year there are so many it seems that the house guests aren’t even making a dent in the crop.  It’s a glut and there’s no mistaking. Malvin decides it’s time to intervene; he never does anything by half…

Ten hours of washing, chopping, bringing to the boil and bottling (it’s a labour of love) and we end up with a good supply of bottled sunshine – about 60 litres, And a classic Italian Tomato dish for lunch, of course.

Image of a bowl of just picked Heritage Tomatoes placed on a table at Siena House, Tuscany.

Image of Amanda Helen Atkins picking Cherry Tomatoes from the garden at Siena House, Tuscany.

Image of large amount of fresh picked Tomatoes strewn around the wash up area in the kitchen at Siena House, Tuscany. Beef heart, plum, Heritage, cherry, ripe organic garden produce

image of freshly picked Cherry Tomatoes

cropped image of a woman holding a bowl of fresh picked Tomatoes standing in a vegetable garden wearing a blue polo shirtImage of Date Tomatoes on the vine in July at Siena House, Tuscany.

 

Wide angle image showing the principle area of the much admired Siena House kitchen - long black islands with steel tops and the painting of Amanda Helen Atkins on the wall next to the knife rack. The whole of the top of the vast work surface is covered with Tomatoes and Tomato products in various stages of elaboration and cooking.

The kitchen at Siena House, huge as it is, overrun with Tomatoes grown in the garden. All types in various stages of preparation for bottling for our Winter dishes

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