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Well, my lovingly nutured tomatoes have somehow managed to contract what I think is blight! They were looking so promising as well. My dad tells me that his outdoor tomatoes have gone the same way - my friend Ben’s on the other hand seem to be doing really well in his greenhouse (although he is significantly more green fingered than i could ever claim to be!).

So this is what they look like - pretty nasty stuff this blight:

All six plants (Marmande, Pixie, Sungold, Olivade, Red Alert and Sweet Million) are all now showing signs of this stuff… Anyway, all is not lost as I’ve turned all the fruit that doesn’t look like it’s going to ripen (before the plants succumb to the blight) into Green Tomato Chutney:

450g of apples (grated)
2 onions peeled and grated
1.5kg green tomatoes (thinly sliced)
225g sultanas
225g sugar
2tsp salt
450ml malt vinegar
4 small pieces of ginger
Half teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 tsp mustard powder

Shove it all in a pan, bring slowly to the boil and leave for a couple of hours. Remove the ginger before you put it all in some sterilised jars. Leave it to mature for a couple of months. Voila.. some chutney for the autumn and a house that smells like a vinegar factory.