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Make the Most of the Glut

By late August, most smallholders are eyeing the courgette bed with a mixture of pride and mild dread. Tomatoes are collapsing the greenhouse shelves, and neighbours have started locking their doors when they see you coming with a carrier bag. This is the moment to stop giving produce away and start putting it by. A few hours of work now means roasted tomato sauce in February, courgette chutney with cold ham at Christmas, and a larder that looks properly well-stocked instead of faintly desperate.

The good news is that courgettes and tomatoes are among the easiest crops to preserve. They freeze beautifully, they bottle well with a little care, and they both take kindly to being cooked down into something richer than their raw selves. You do not need a preserving pan the size of a wheelbarrow or a spare pantry. A decent oven, a freezer with some space, and a handful of jars will do.

Roasting: The Easiest Route

If you only do one thing with a glut, roast it. Roasting concentrates flavour, drives off water, and turns a mountain of vegetables into a manageable volume you can store. It is also forgiving: quantities are approximate, and nothing needs weighing.

Halve your tomatoes, tuck in a few unpeeled garlic cloves and a sprig or two of thyme, trickle over a generous glug of olive oil and a good pinch of salt, then roast at around 150°C fan for two to three hours until collapsed and slightly caramelised at the edges. Courgettes want a shorter, hotter treatment: cut into thick coins or batons, toss with oil, and roast at 200°C fan for 25 to 30 minutes until browned at the tips.

• For a freezer sauce: blitz the roasted tomatoes and garlic, skins and all, then cool and portion.
• For antipasti: layer roasted courgettes with roasted peppers in a jar, cover with olive oil, and keep in the fridge for a fortnight.
• For a quick supper: fold roasted vegetables through hot pasta with a little of the cooking oil and a grating of hard cheese.

Freezing Without Turning Everything to Mush

Courgettes are about 95 per cent water, which is why simply chopping and freezing them produces sad, limp slices. The trick is to deal with that water first. Grate the courgettes coarsely, toss with a teaspoon of salt per kilo, leave in a colander for half an hour, then squeeze hard in a clean tea towel. You will be astonished how much liquid comes out. Pack the squeezed gratings in 250g portions — roughly one courgette's worth — and freeze flat.

Tomatoes freeze well with almost no preparation. Small cherry types can go in whole and unpeeled; larger ones are best halved or roughly chopped. Spread them on a tray first so they freeze individually, then bag them up. When they thaw, the skins slip off easily, which saves fiddly blanching later.

• Label everything with the contents and the month. A marker pen is the cheapest kitchen investment you will make all year.
• Freeze flat in thin bags or tubs so they stack like books and thaw in minutes.
• Use ice cube trays for concentrated tomato purée, roasted garlic paste or chopped herbs in oil.

Bottling Tomatoes and Passata

Bottling feels like proper smallholder territory, and it is genuinely satisfying to see rows of ruby jars on a shelf. The rules matter, though, because tomatoes have become less acidic over the years and that affects safety.

Sterilise your jars by washing them in hot soapy water, rinsing, and heating in a low oven at 120°C for 15 minutes. Keep them hot. Make your passata by simmering chopped tomatoes for 30 to 40 minutes, then pushing through a sieve or food mill to remove skins and seeds. Return to the pan and simmer until it coats a spoon.

To each 500ml jar of sauce, add two tablespoons of bottled lemon juice or half a teaspoon of citric acid before filling. This brings the acidity back to a safe level. Fill to within 1cm of the rim, wipe the threads, seal, and process in a deep pan of boiling water with the jars covered by 2 to 3cm for 40 minutes. Cool, check the seals, and store somewhere dark and cool. Any jar that has not sealed should go in the fridge and be used within a week. If you are at all unsure about the process, freeze instead — it is a perfectly respectable choice.

Chutneys, Ketchups and Relishes

When the freezer is full, turn to the preserving pan. Chutney is the classic answer to a courgette mountain and improves enormously with a few months in the jar. Roughly: 1kg diced courgettes, 500g chopped onions, 250g soft brown sugar, 500ml cider vinegar, a tablespoon of mustard seeds, a teaspoon of ground ginger and a good pinch of chilli. Simmer uncovered for an hour to ninety minutes, stirring often, until a wooden spoon drawn through leaves a clear channel. Pot into hot jars and leave for six weeks before opening.

Tomato ketchup follows the same principle but smoother: cook down with onion, garlic, vinegar, sugar and a spice bag of cloves, allspice and peppercorns, then blitz and sieve. It keeps for months unopened and vanishes alarmingly fast once it is.

A Few Habits Worth Keeping

Preserving goes far better when you deal with small amounts often rather than one heroic marathon. Ten minutes with a roasting tray on a Tuesday is easier than a whole Sunday of steam and sticky pans. Keep a basket by the door for anything past its best, and remember that slightly soft produce is ideal for sauce, chutney and ketchup — it is flavour, not flaw.

Finally, work with what you actually eat. There is little point making forty jars of something nobody in the house likes. A freezer full of roasted tomato sauce, a shelf of chutney and a few bags of squeezed courgette will carry you comfortably through to next spring — and make you quietly pleased with yourself every time you open the door.