Finger-licking tomatoes

After my previous experience with Olia Hercules' “Пальчики оближеш” I didn't bother trying to seal the jars on this batch at all. The last lot were extremely tasty when eaten at room temperature immediately after fermentation, and a great disappointment when broached later after several months' chilled storage -- they went woolly and tasteless. So these ones are destined to be eaten more or less right away.


I'm a bit puzzled by the fact that I seem to have a far smaller volume of tomatoes than last time -- I assume I simply haven't doubled the quantities, because the post refers to a two-quart jar whereas this time round I only filled a single medium jar plus one small one, instead of the two giant jars plus extras! Possibly it is because a proportion of the pound of fruit was comprised of my small towel-tomatoes, instead of giant beefsteak ones, and the former obviously pack down far more closely into the jars. I did seem to have a certain quantity of 'brine' left over after I'd filled my two jars, though I wouldn't have said there was an extra half...

Going Red

I think the first of my Demon Red chillies is just starting to go red -- hoorah, hoorah, hooray!

I have been terribly worried that they wouldn't ripen and that I hence wouldn't get any usable seed; ironically I actually acquired a ripe fruit from a dark-leafed dwarf chilli plant (possibly "Explosive Ember"?) this morning with the idea that I could use the seeds from that as a back-up if necessary. I may still keep those... although I don't want too many varieties hanging around if I want to save the seed, for fear that they may cross-fertilise and the pepper I save turns out to be some weird hybrid!
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