Preserving tomatoes

 I can't get over just how lovely and warm it's been today. Usually by now the temperature is much lower and my garden is starting to look tired. It hasn't happened yet and I'm still picking tomatoes and courgettes by the kilo. We had friends over for a meal last night and I was able to give them plenty of produce from the garden to take home.  This morning I picked a load more tomatoes so I've set them off fermenting. They'll last several months in the fridge and will be lovely on some crusty bread or crackers. Tomorrow, after I've been for a walk with my friends, we're driving over to Northallerton to stock up on coal briquettes for the fire. We'll only be using the stove if we're entertaining as it's far cheaper to leave the heating on low. Tony and I can't stand to be too warm and rarely have the heating higher than 17 degrees in the middle of winter. It keeps the house just comfortable and we set it to 15 through the night. We're big believers in putting an extra layer on if we're a bit cool.

I roasted a big tray of tomatoes then simmered them to remove some of the water.  When they'd reduced down to a thick puree I put them into my silicon tray and dehydrated them till they reduced by half. I froze them then bagged them ready to use as stock cubes.  I've got another batch freezing overnight then I'll add them to the bag.  

And yesterday I pickled a few more jars of the cherry tomatoes.  We had a jar of my previous batch the other day and they were really tasty.