"Jill Bell" wrote in message
...
On 05/08/2010 11:55, Roger Tonkin wrote:
In , says...
I just throw them on the compost heap as soon as I find them, in fact I
check the young fruit for defects and dispose of any that have
blemishes. We
always grow too many anyway.
Years ago I remember my bother bottling tomatos in Kilner Jars.
A few years back we had such a glut, I dug out an ancient cook book and
found how to do it.
We now bottle all our surplace in 0.5 litre jars and use them through
the year instead of tined tomatos. I don't even bother to skin them (as
recommended) as usually they go into casseroles and the like, so get
plenty of cooking.
If you're going to use them in casseroles then an even easier way to deal
with them is to put them in a polybag in the freezer - no need to blanch
or anything.
This assumes a large amount of space in the freezer!
Just looked up the price and they are £29.99 for 12 * 1 litre jars at
Lakeland.
Chest freezer at Comet is £139.99 for 3.8 cubic feet or 107.6 litres.
Conveniently, 12 * 9 = 108.
So 9 "12 packs" of Kilner jars hold roughly the same as an entry level chest
freezer from Comet and cost £270 from Lakeland.
Even counting the annual running cost, it looks cheaper to buy another
freezer if you have a lot of produce to store.
Ifyou have over 50 litres of produce, I guess.
Tins come rated in grams not litres, so a comparison is not simple, but if
you produce enough tomatoes to fill the jars or freezer and you expect to
use on average a litre of cooked tomatoes a week then a freezer seems the
way to go.
Nowoff to get a life!
Cheers
Dave R
Helmuth von Moltke the Elder