Soul Food
“Gardening is cheaper than therapy, and you get tomatoes.”
I’ve always loved this quote. I would never want to diminish the importance and power of therapy, and heck knows I’ve had my share of it. But gardening is absolutely the best companion treatment to therapy. And if you spend enough time in your garden, it can help lessen the need for therapy in the first place.
Spending time amongst the plants, pulling out the problematic weeds, inspecting for bugs, chatting to the chickens who are hanging around hoping for a caterpillar or two. All the while, breathing fresh air, getting some healthy soil microbes under your nails, and filling a basket with some fresh produce for your next meal is a sure fire recipe for enhanced well being.
There’s a reason why that quote highlights the friendly tomato. The most forgiving of plants, the humble pomodoro will grow and give you fruit no matter how much you neglect the plant. All it needs is water and sun and it takes care of the rest. Give them a good feed, plenty of water and a nice bit of structure to grow tall and you’ll reap buckets.
This year the tomatoes are so abundant thanks to the amazing rain we’ve had. They have been eaten fresh but also turned into passata, relish, chutney and ketchup.
Preserving the joy of growing tomatoes to be enjoyed throughout the winter months is one of my favourite mental health habits. Scooping a spoon of rich roast tomato relish onto crunchy roasted winter potatoes is one of my life’s greatest satisfactions. Knowing that I grew it all myself, and one day soon it will be warm enough to get outside and grow it all again is the best glimmer of hope I know.
If you’re in the southern hemisphere like me it’s probably too late to be planting tomatoes. But it’s certainly not too late to be preserving some. Get out to your local farmers market or independent green grocer and pick up a couple of kilos and make yourself something delicious. I promise you won’t regret it.
For those of you new to the preserving game, here’s one of my favourite recipes:
Roast tomato relish
2 kilos of tomatoes halved lengthwise
1 red onion finely chopped
2 gloves of garlic finely chopped
150ml balsamic vinegar
80g raw sugar
20g brown sugar
olive oil
salt and pepper
1 Tbsp freshly chopped culinary herbs eg parsley, sage, oregano, thyme, rosemary — use what you have, I usually use at least 3 herbs in my mix.
1. Preheat oven to 180C
2. Place tomatoes in oven baking dish face up, sprinkle onion, garlic, herbs over the top, season with salt and pepper and spoon over a generous amount of olive oil.
3. Roast for 35–40 minutes
4. Add all other ingredient to a large pot and gently heat stirring until sugars have dissolved. Transfer tomato mixture and mix in.
5. Cook over a medium heat for another 10–15 minutes until mixture thickens.
6. Transfer to sterile jars and seal.
My pro tip for sealing jars: Use jars that have a seal button on them. Wash jars clean in hot soapy water, rinse off soap. Place jars sideway and lids face up on a baking tray and place in oven on 150C for 10–15 minutes until dry. Putting them in after you take the tomatoes out of the oven is normally good timing. Spoon ingredients into jars, seal tightly and then turn the jars upside down and leave to cool. Once cool, turn the jars back the right way up again and the button seal will pull down with the small vacuum created by the cooled contents. Bloody magic.
