If you’re lucky enough to be harvesting more tomatoes than you can eat from your Quadgrow or Vivigrow planter, why not try some of our Gardening Angels’ alternative uses for the terrific tomato!

Cleanse Your Skin

Ever thought you’d be rubbing tomatoes on your face? Well the acids in tomato juice are great for softening and cleaning skin, while the lycopene helps eliminate free radicals.

• For oily skin: Mix equal parts fresh tomato juice and aloe vera juice.
• For dry skin: Use a ratio of 1 part tomato juice to 2 parts aloe vera juice.

You won’t need more than a tablespoon when applying to your face. Rinse with warm water.

Tomato Juice

If you’ve had a bumper harvest from your planter, juicing is a great way to make use of too many tomatoes. Use the juice in soups, to add flavour to meat, to deodorise a smelly fridge, or to make a cheeky Bloody Mary.

Pickled Tomatoes

Preserve and savour the taste of cherry tomatoes by pickling them. Pack them into a jar with garlic, herbs and spices and a sweet and vinegary pickling liquid. Check out this recipe from BBC food.

Sunburn Relief

Rubbing a slice of tomato on recent sunburn can help lessen the redness, if it’s not blistering or peeling. According to this BBC article tomatoes can help increase skin protection by up to 30%!

Fried Green Tomatoes

Show green tomatoes some love. We recommend trying some of these top tips for ripening them but if you fancy cooking up some fried green tomatoes, try this recipe:

• Coat slices of tomato in flour.
• Dip them in an egg bath.
• Coat with breadcrumbs.
• Fry the tomatoes in oil until golden and crispy.

Freeze Tomatoes

Freezing whole raw tomatoes is a fine way to preserve them without making sauces and soups in advance.

Sundried Tomatoes

Delicious for anti-pasti, great on pizzas and fabulous with pasta, we love sundried tomatoes! Making your own sun-dried tomatoes is a great way to preserve your huge harvest of tomatoes. Here’s a quick cheat method for drying your tomatoes. Check out our tomato preservation guide for an easy recipe.

Read More

• Tomato Growing Guide
• Tomato Ripening & Preservation Guide
• Planters For Growing Tomatoes