It's difficult to think anything but pleasant thoughts while eating a homegrown tomato.

Lewis Grizzard

~ Melbourne Tomato Fest ~ 

From what we have seen in our gardens, to what we have been hearing in store from our customers, the Tomato's are a tad slow this year. But be patient, they will come ! On March 19th they will be in abundance at Northcote's All Nation Park as the annual Melbourne Tomato Festival takes place. Fine food, drinks & mountains of Roma Tomatoes will be waiting for you & the family. So pencil the date in & come and join us in our free & day long, hands on Passata making marathon. To be apart of the passata making event Registering your interest is a must!  Places go quickly. Grab your festival tickets here.

 

~ Ticket Give Away ~

  

We want to spread the love here at Home Make It, so we have some tickets to give away to 3 lucky customers. Come into any Home Make It Store, spend $60 or more on any Passata goods from now until the end of February & automatically go into the draw to win one of 3 Double Passes to the Melbourne Tomato Festival on March 19th.

 

~ Road Trip To Festival Land ~

Next Saturday the 12th of February the Home Make It team is splitting up, then hitting the road to 2 amazing cultural Festivals. One half are heading down to Gippsland, to the Mirboo North Italian Festa. A day packed full of Italian food, wine, comedy and activities awaits all that come. Entry is free, so bring all the family & friends.

The other half of the team are stopping in Clayton for the Clayton Street Festival. This a celebration of all cultures, and features food, dance & music from all over the globe. We will be hosting a pop up store, and doing some hands on Passata & Sausage making demo's from 12 onwards. Feel free to pop down & say Hi. 

 

~ Carla's Tomato Jam ~ 

Tomato's are not all about Passata, and after a chat today in the office I have sourced a tried & true recipe from one the HMI team. With a glut of our little ripe red friends on their way soon, put some aside & whip up this simple gem of a recipe from Carla. You won't regret it. 

Carla’s Tomato Jam Recipe

Ingredients:

1kg Tomato

500gm sugar

Cinnamon stick

One lemon

Method: 

Wash and dry the tomatoes.

Using a sharp knife, score the bottoms of each tomato in a cross, then plunge the tomato into boiling water for about 20 seconds.

Remove skin and roughly chop the tomatoes.

Slice a piece of the rind from the lemons, about 80mm long.

Place the chopped tomatoes, lemon rind, cinnamon stick and the sugar in a large, heavy-based saucepan.

Stir over medium heat for 30 minutes or until the jam comes to the boil.

Reduce the heat and simmer, stirring frequently, until the jam reaches setting point. You might be looking at 1.5 hours of stirring time

When setting point is reached, allow the jam to stand off the heat for 15 minutes.

Remove any scum from the surface and ladle the hot jam into sterilised, warm jars. Seal and set aside to cool completely.

Enjoy.

 

~ Sauce in a Few Clicks ~

 

If you are doing relatively small runs of sauce making, or have a lack of space, then these machines are just the thing for you. In Stainless steel or Racing Red plastic, the "Click Click" (named after the noise they make) machines are a popular & cost effective solution to small scale Passata making.   

 

If you really love the idea of a small scale Passata operation, maybe our starter Tomato Sauce Kits are the thing for you? All you have to do to upscale is add more jars & you are set to go. Might even be the perfect Valentines gift for that DIY foodie making better half! 

 

~ Awaiting The Grape ~ 

As with the Tomatoes, the grape harvest is still a little while away this year due to this ever changing climate. We do have some good growers we recommend each year, so if you are after some grapes for your home made Vino this year..drop us a line late next week & we should be able to point you in the right direction.  

 

~ Cade's Brew News ~ 

Today a tall attractive Red dropped into store. Not Christina Hendricks, but our very own Red IPA Fresh Wort. If you love a big IPA with a bit more of a malt backbone & some American hops, this one's for you. Simply pour, pitch & throw lots of hops at it & you'll have one your friends will be jealous of. We also have our Pale Ale & Session American Pale ale Worts in stock too. 

It's nearly time to re-order our liquid yeasts from TRUMP-land, so we need to make a bit of room & sell off our current stock. Can you help us please ? Until they are gone, all of our Whitelabs & Wyeast are 15% off in-store. These are all in date and most have about 2 months or just under on their use by dates.

Also new into store are the wonderful SS Brewtech False bottoms. These beauties are slightly domed to give a very small dead zone under the mesh & come with a connector set to connect to your SS Brewtech Boil Kettle port ( where the trub dam & pick up usually sit ). We currently carry the false bottoms for the 57 & 76 litre kettles. We only have limited stock, so get in quick if you want to turn your kettle into a mash tun :)

 

Speaking of SS Brewtech, we have just received in an order & have really goods stocks of Kettles & the good old Brewbucket. 

 

~ Courses ~ 

Check out our workshops for 2017 - we have some new ones now available!!!!. Click on the links for all the workshop dates and for more details. Our workshops are hands on, fun and interactive. To participate in one of our great courses, just book your spot ONLINE or call our Clayton or Reservoir stores for assistance.

~ Specials ~

Click on our sale banner below for this week's Specials .   

 

~ Vouchers ~

Gift Vouchers and Course Vouchers make an ideal gift for. Available In-store or ONLINE.