On 08/08/2013 22:58, Bob Hobden wrote:
"sacha" wrote

I've just been down to the big greenhouse and picked about 30
tomatoes. What a joy to be able to do this and the smell of a ripe
tomato is fabulous.

We picked the first from our hanging basket "Tumblers" over a week ago,
and now, quite quickly, have built up a worrying stock of them in the
fridge.

I now understand why they are called tumblers because one nearly did
onto the ground when it broke it's stem. Luckily I saw it whilst it
still had a small bit of bark/skin attached and staked it so it couldn't
fall and break completely. Having cut off all the large leaves to reduce
transpiration it's now ripening it's little tomatoes quickly.

The ones out on the allotment are also beginning to produce ripe toms.
Lesotto, a blight resistant bush tomato which produces small fruit, has
also started to produce ripe fruit in the last week but they have soft
skins and split very easily. The larger fruited ones, Ferline, Fantasio
and Black Russian have fruit that is certainly beginning to change
colour but will take probably another week to start yielding ripe fruit.

I have no doubt I will have better luck offering them to the neighbours
than I've had with the excess runner beans. :-)
Have you ever frozen them?
I used to just drop them into a chest freezer, then use them later
instead of tinned tomatoes.