JUST LIKE MIL MADE

It’s absolutely years since I made tomato relish – sounds so old fashioned these days of ‘ready made supermarket fare’ but since my tomato plants have been producing heaps of fruit I decided to drag out the old recipe book. The measurements were in pounds and ounces – and that was superseded by decimal here around the mid 1960’s so it took a bit of working out how much of what I needed.

I had been skinning and freezing the excess fruit for a little while so part of the recipe was technically not going to be correct but I decided to try out ‘my’ version anyway and see how it turned out.

Tomatoes and onions, sugar, vinegar, mustard, curry powder and plain flour are really all there is to it. Boiled for 30 minutes then put into sterilized jars. It tasted good to me and was pretty much like my mother in law made so long ago when every good housewife made her own sauces and preserved fruit and vegetables to stand the family in good stead throughout the long winter months when the fresh stuff wouldn’t be available.

Gave a couple of jars each to my K35 and C41 for their families to try. K35 was amazed after trying it and proceeded to consume nearly half a jar spread on bread and margarine. Boy, have I let myself in for something here? Although store purchased stuff is OK, the home made variety certainly beats it hands down!