Green tomato chutney

As Autumn hits the UK, there comes the possibility of frosts. When growing Mediterranean fruits and vegetables, such as tomatoes, they aren't used to such cold temperatures and will die off at this time of year.

If you still have lots of unripened fruit on your tomato vines when a frost is due, then you can either pick them green and try to ripen them indoors (you can place them by ripe tomatoes, or by bananas to achieve this) or you can do what I do and make delicious green tomato chutney. :)

Green tomatoes chopped and ready to become chutney

When cooking I don't tend to follow recipes, but go largely on memory and following instincts, so although I've written it as a recipe, you can take it as guidelines and adjust to suit tastes or fit what ingredients you have around you.
I had enough green tomatoes to produce about 4 jars (or in my case, 2 large jars) of chutney, so that's how much this recipe will make. If you have more tomatoes, just multiply up the other ingredients accordingly.

Ingredients

• 1 tsp sunflower oil
• 500g green tomatoes
• 250g white onion (2 medium sixed onions)
• 250ml white wine vinegar
• Handful raisins
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp mustard seeds
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp ground coriander seeds
• 1/2 tsp cardamon

Tomatoes, onion, raisins and spices simmering in vinegar and sugar

Method

1. Finely chop the onion and lightly fry in the oil in a large pan, finely chop the tomatoes whilst this turns transparent.
2. Add the tomatoes to the onion along with the vinegar and simmer on a low heat. Add the sugar and stir until it's dissolved to avoid it burning on the bottom of the pan.
3. Add the raisins and the spices, give a good stir and pop a lid on the pan to let it simmer away for about an hour, or until it looks like the ingredients have all softened and it's become thicker.
4. Whilst the chutney is cooking, wash and sterilise a few jars, always prepare more than you think you'll need in case there's more than you think, or in case of breakages. I sterilise the jars in a low oven and poor freshly boiled water over the lids in a bowl. You could use chemicals if you prefer, but I always worry it might affect the taste of the produce. If using chemicals, rinse thoroughly.
5. Once the chutney is cooked, carefully fill the jars to the brim whilst it's still hot and seal them. The chutney will be best eaten if you wait  a month for the flavours to infuse. Although if you're impatient, like me, it can be eaten straight away!

Green tomato Chutney

Tips

As the mixture cools, the volume of the air will decrease inside the jars, creating a tight seal. If any lids 'pop up' it means they weren't tightened properly, or the mixture was cool when the jars were filled. Eat these soon, as they won't keep. The properly sealed ones will keep for months or even years as long as they were sterilised properly.

Autumn

This month has been mostly catching up on jobs which got out of hand during the Summer, especially weeding... I feel like I've been pretty much non-stop weeding! It's been quite nice to not have any big projects to do, so the smaller jobs can finally get a bit of attention that they deserve.

The vegetables have still been doing very well, so we're largely eating home grown veg. We still have crazy courgettes, although they're starting to slow to a pace where we can eat them all! We have runner beans still, although they're also slowing down. I've just harvested the last of the tomatoes and beetroot...must plant more of those next year. Lettuce and chard are still producing more than we can eat, so they're making their way into a lot of our meals! We still have loads of carrots and some turnips, and nasturtiums along with a few radish pods, so our diet is staying nice and varied.

Lettuce still going strong and some of the last tiny tomatoes

There were a few tomatoes which hadn't ripened yet, but I picked them in case frosts come, as I do love a bit of green tomato chutney. I'll put an extra post with a recipe for this when I get around to making it. :)

Unripe tomatoes to be used for chutney

One new veg which is taking over on the crazy front is butternut squash. I ventured into the mad tangle of vines to see how they were getting on and was over the moon to find 6 ridiculously massive fruits and a few normal sized ones, and many more which are close to being ready as well as lots and lots of babies... Looks like we'll be feasting on squash for a good few months now! Yumyumyum...

Butternut Squash and beautiful Dahlias from Ruth!

This month I've also been doing a thorough check on our trees. Through the Summer I'd done the odd bit of looking to see how they were getting on, but never felt I was getting round to them all, so it's been nice to go around and weed round each tree to give them less competition and to see just how well they're taking. Some have died off, as to be expected (it would be a minor miracle if 800 trees all survived!). But the vast majority are still alive, and many are thriving and so tall already! I've even been given a few extra trees from my Dad which he accidentally grew in his garden, so hopefully we'll end up with a similar amount to what we planted anyway.

Rowan tree growing big and strong in our field

I will miss the long days of sunshine, but Autumn is one of my favourite seasons with the gorgeous sunrises and sunsets (which often are too early and late to enjoy during the Summer!) and the beautiful, colour-changing foliage everywhere. It's hard not to be happy when living in a place like this. :)

Gorgeous sunrise over our main field