Tomato glut? 12 ways to use, keep and share them

1. Freeze them whole

The fastest option of all. Wash, dry and freeze ripe tomatoes whole in bags. When you need them, run them under warm water and the skins slip off. Use them in any cooked dish.

2. Make passata

Simmer chopped tomatoes until soft, then push them through a sieve or food mill to remove skins and seeds. Cook down to the thickness you like and freeze in portions. It's the base for pizza, soup and pasta all winter.

3. Roast and freeze

Halve tomatoes, toss with oil, garlic and herbs, and roast slowly until they're sticky and concentrated. Freeze in flat bags. Roasting gets the most flavour out of watery or slightly split fruit.

4. Cook a big batch of sauce or soup

A simple tomato sauce with onion and garlic uses kilos of fruit and freezes well. Tomato soup does the same job.

5. Slow-dry cherry tomatoes

Halve them, sprinkle with salt, and dry on a rack in the oven at its lowest setting for several hours. Keep them in the fridge and use within a week, or freeze them. Don't store home-dried tomatoes in oil at room temperature, as that isn't safe.

6. Eat them fresh, every way

Panzanella, salsa, tomatoes on toast, a tomato and basil salad. Never refrigerate tomatoes you're about to eat raw, because the cold dulls the flavour.

7. Make chutney

Red tomato chutney and green tomato chutney both keep for months. Use a tested recipe and sterilised jars. These are for you and as gifts: preserves are processed food with extra rules, so Leaf Exchange doesn't list them.

8. Ripen the green ones indoors

At the end of the season, pick the remaining green fruit before the frost gets it. Put them in a drawer or paper bag with a ripe banana, which gives off ethylene and speeds ripening. Check every few days. Anything that won't ripen goes into green tomato chutney.

9. Share, swap or sell them locally

Home-grown tomatoes are what many people miss most when they don't grow their own, so a glut is easy to share. Tomatoes are on the countable list, so you have more options than with most crops:

• Each at a set price, which suits big beefsteak or heritage tomatoes.
• A bagful for free, as a swap, or pay what you think. This is best for cherry tomatoes. A bag can't have a set price without trade scales.
• A big box over 5 kg at a set price, ideal for someone making passata or sauce.
• Seconds (split or odd-shaped fruit) for free or pay what you think, clearly described.

Name the variety, as people love trying new ones. Neighbours reserve on Leaf Exchange and collect from you in person.

List your surplus

10. Donate them

Food banks, community fridges and food hubs often welcome fresh produce. Check what they accept, and bring firm, ripe tomatoes rather than soft ones. In Buckinghamshire, Grow to Give collects surplus from growers.

11. Save seed

Scoop the seeds from a ripe fruit of an open-pollinated variety, let them ferment in a little water for two or three days, rinse and dry. Seed from F1 hybrids won't come true, so stick to heritage or open-pollinated types.

12. Plan next year's crop

A healthy cordon tomato plant often gives around 2 to 4 kg of fruit, and cherry types give hundreds of small fruits. If you glutted this year, grow fewer plants but more varieties, with some early and some late, to spread the harvest.

How long tomatoes keep

See what's growing near you