As I do when confronted with a glut of anything edible, I consulted my favourite book of preserving recipes, “Put a Lid On It! Small Batch Preserving for Every Season” by Ellie Topp and Margaret Howard. Sure enough, this oracle had a solution to my tomato problem: Gingered Tomato Marmalade.

I’m pretty sure it’s an old Canadian recipe because it has Imperial quantities expressed in U.S. measures. It yields six 8-ounce jars.

5 cups (40 fl. oz. or one quart Imperial) chopped, skinned tomatoes
2 large oranges, rind and flesh, chopped very fine
1 large lemon, rind and flesh, chopped very fine
3 tablespoons finely minced ginger
4 cups white granulated sugar

To chop the citrus fruit, cut them in hunks to remove the seeds and do the rest in a food processor.

Mix the tomatoes, oranges and lemon in a large stainless or enamelled steel saucepan and bring to a full rolling boil. Add the minced ginger, and then stir in the sugar, keeping the boil going. Continue boiling to gel stage, then bottle and seal in a water-bath canner.

It’s a nice, mellow marmalade that will please ginger fans. Without the ginger, it’s like orange marmalade without the acrid bite of the Seville article, and not so achingly sweet as commercial preserves.