Gluts Gluts Glorious Gluts! What do you plan to do with all your excess produce this

[Nikki Arnold]

Do you have any top tips for making the most of your surplus homegrown fruit and veggies, a favourite recipe for all those extra courgettes or a cunning plan to avoid a glut entirely this year? Share them here!





*please note your answers may be edited and printed in the August issue of Grow Your Own magazine 2012

[VirginVegGrower]

Tomato Passata - I make loads and freeze in bags.

Halve your toms, place in the bottom of an ovenproof dish/bowl. Sprinkle over good sea salt (I use fleur de sel), crack some black pepper over too. I sprinkle a mixed dried Italian herb mix, a good glugging of olive oil poured over all - don't drown them though. Smash two cloves of peeled garlic with the flat of a knife, drop them in and roast on about 165° to 175°F until softened and slightly caramelised. Leave to cool. Blitz in a blender and bag in strong freezer bags (the kind used for soups/liquids). These are easy to reheat as a sauce for pasta with added cheese. I have used grated mozzarella and/or Parmigiano Reggiano.

[chris]

I did the same as VVG for the majority of my toms - and in the end as we were overrun with so many of them, I ended p just putting them in a pan and simmering them, to reduce them down. Worked just as well. I froze them in baby-food trays, which are basically large ice cube trays yet flexible.

This year, for my courgettes (I've a lot of plants on the go) I'll be pickling them as per the recipe on the vine!

Edit: forgot to add, we're going to be buying a dehydrator at some point in the future, so will attempt fruit leathers, and dried fruit/veg.

[Thelma Sanders]

Lots of tomato sauce like VVG and also passata where you boil them down til the passata goes thick, it takes up a lot less space then
Ratatouille with toms and courgettes.
Freeze chocolate courgette cake and pumpkin cake.
and I'm growing spagna bianca beans for drying, for the first time this year and marrow-fat peas to dry for mushy peas
Peas beans get blanched and frozen!
Raspberries make a good jam.

[binley100]

I like a good glut.......it means that I have plenty to freeze,pickle or jam to enjoy in the leaner months...

Grate and freeze courgettes in cake sized portions ready for baking, dry courgettes along with carrots, celery, onions, herbs and crumble down for use as a veggie stock .
Tomatoes get cooked into passata then frozen.

[arpoet]

The way things are looking following loosing most of the early veg, i doubt if there will be much of a glut this year.
Roger

[Alison]

I grow lots of varieties of lots of veggies. Some will always fail and some will always do better than expected. By spreading what I grow this means that the gluts I get are more manageable (think courgettes last year and cucumbers the year before) and the gaps are less too. That's the plan at least

[gardenpassion]

Pickle the gerkins and small cucumbers. or .put extra chillis into olive oil, delicious and can be used for lovely small gifts too.

[gardenpassion]

Or... make lots of people happy and just give it away. I took loads of courgettes into work last year, friends loved it, oh, and I swapped a big bag of show vege for babysitting!!!

[SarzWix]

I purposely grow masses of tomatoes in order to have a glut. We eat so many of them as a family through the winter in soups, pasta sauces, casseroles etc, that I try to bottle/jar/can as many as possible. I also try hard to get a glut of french beans and peas in order to freeze some for winter use.

Some things are impossible to do anything with other than give them away when you have too many, like hearting lettuces. Every single year I have a glut of lettuces, and every year I attempt successional sowing, and every year they all come ready at the same time anyway

[Bigmallly]

Every single year I have a glut of lettuces, and every year I attempt successional sowing, and every year they all come ready at the same time anyway

You have no idea how good that makes me feel.........

[donnakebab]

I don't count my chickens until they are hatched.

[Hans Mum]

Chutneys....i make all sorts of combinations the best one I ever made (& got asked for the recipie loads of times) was at then end of the season with the courgettes I missed had turned into marrows and the last of the beans and whatever else was there, made a huge batch labelled it 'Allotment Chutney' it was delicious. Beetroot relish is a favourite with my daughter (she always takes a jar back to uni when she comes home) and picallilli is brilliant cause you can make it with more juice.

[Two_Sheds]

My friend has made the mistake of telling me she "loves courgettes" ...!

[Alison]

Will she still be your friend by the autumn or will she be hiding behind her curtains every time you come by?