Getting to the sauce of tomato issue

These are more letters in response to an editorial by Julie Eley asking readers for ideas about what to do with excess produce. See last week’s issue for the winner of the six-month subscription to TV Guide.

I was sorry to hear that your editor Julie Eley was overwhelmed by the amount of plums and tomatoes that her garden was producing. Yes, there is only so much relish and jam and sauce that you can make. I was in a similar quandary when our four feijoa trees had a bumper crop about six years ago. Where I live, people either have their own feijoa trees or they just don’t like feijoas. So I couldn’t even give them away. We were all becoming sick of feijoa pies and crumble, chutney and jam etc. Then I had what I can only describe as a brilliant idea. Why not try to make feijoa wine. Mr Google was helpful in showing me recipes and methods of making wine. My local ‘Bin Inn’ seemed to have all the equipment and additives (i.e. wine yeast) that I would need. Friends and family happily emptied wine bottles so that I could use the bottles for my own brew. A few hiccups along the way – but six years later, I am still making wine. From the early days of just using feijoas, I have now made wine from many different fruits.

Pat McAllister (Kapiti Coast)

We recently bought a home that had a healthy organic orchard. Not being gardeners, we were keen to learn. What to do with surpluses? This year it’s Heritage apples (yummy). So the kids and I made a lot of toffee apples on sticks. Sold at our community market (with all profits and surplus apples going to our Community Food Bank). We took toffee apples into their school for classmates. A good result all round.

Fran Tamahau (Dunedin)

Any excess fruit and vegetables would be gratefully accepted by Food Rescue and Foodbank type agencies. You could also bag them and put out at the gate free of charge like we did during Covid lockdown.

Lois Slater (Tauranga)

My suggestion is to turn your extra tomatoes into sauce. The internet is full of recipes on how to do it and it will keep you in sauce for a long time.

Tom T. (Bay Of Plenty)

We find it hard to understand how you could possibly have excess produce. A better description would be ‘more than your family requires’. This beautiful country in which we live has charitable and church groups asking all the time for help in feeding the homeless and low income people who cannot afford to buy food and/or have nowhere to cook it. Shame on your family that they can afford to turn their noses up at bottled fruit and home-made products. There are people who would love to have that privilege and opportunity. We, as an elderly retired couple, share our fresh produce, homemade pickles, sauces, preserves, jam and baking with our family, neighbours, friends and local groups (who provide free meals to those who need them).

Raewyn and Graham Stiles (Invercargill)