Wild Hope Homestead

Things have been a little quiet here on the blog in the last week. But not at home. In amongst celebrating our 9th wedding anniversary (woohoo!) and spending a marvelous long weekend at the beach at Matarangi with The Sisters, The Brother-in-laws and The Cutest Nephew, we have been making stuff with the piles of tomatoes that keep making their way into the kitchen.

I have to briefly mention my apricot chutney disaster of last week. Chutney is something you should not do when you’re tired and pushed for time. Especially if you haven’t made it before. Lets just say instructions were not read properly, things got burnt, houses got smoky and Twiglets got very disappointed. And we shall never speak of it again.

Technically, The Husband has to take the credit for the tomato stuff that has been made since then. I’ve been a little preserve-shy and otherwise engaged with general busyness that seems to take over at specific times. But he just makes it look so easy.

Bottled Tomatoes

First up were the bottled tomatoes. They were roughly chopped and squished tightly into 500ml jars. Then the jars were placed on a trivet substitute (an upside-down metal piece that goes with our rice cooker) inside a big pot. The pot was filled with cold water up to the shoulders of the jars, then heated on the stove and simmered for a while. The Husband did seven of these.

Tomato Soup

Last night The Husband whipped up some tomato soup, using Martin’s Tomato Soup recipe and whizzing it up with the stick blender. We have a few containers of soup in the freezer now, but one has been consumed already. Tasty!

Next on the preserves list is more tomato stuff, like tomato paste, tomato sauce and probably more tomato soup, plus sweet chilli sauce and, dare I say it, apricot chutney round two. I’m still shuddering at the thought of it, but I’m determined to make it. With the help of The Husband…