Wednesday 24 September 2014

Izzy Wizzy Let’s Get Busy …

Processing garden produce into winter preserves is a time-consuming business.  This week it has been the turn of windfall apples, the last of the cherry tomatoes, and an over-abundance of courgettes.

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The last of the Cherry tomatoes turned into pasta sauce

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Windfall apples turned into apple sauce

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Rose hips ready to be turned into syrup

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Patty pan squashes and courgettes cooked and pureed ready to be turned into soups.

That’s it now – no more – I am quite happy with what I have achieved this autumn in preparation for winter.  And may I say that if I don’t see a courgette ever again it will be too soon.

Tuesday 16 September 2014

Home and Away …

When we are away from home taking a break at the coast – I think about the garden – will my neighbour keep everything well watered – will I have huge marrow like courgettes to come back to – will all my new seedlings have withered in my absence.

I needn’t have worried.  I harvested as much as I could before we went away – told my neighbour to concentrate on the greenhouse should she be pushed for time – and kept my fingers crossed that everything would be okay.

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And as you can see – no huge marrows – a few beans from the greenhouse – loads of patty pan squash – and all the chillies ripened.

There were one or two problems though.  My two wigwams of late sown runners had serious problems.

One  was infested by blackfly – I have never seen anything like it – unfortunately I couldn’t get a good photo to show you – and the other  has an infestation of green beasties (shield bugs maybe)?  These are eating the buds as they emerge.

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So the whole crop is ruined and will have to be pulled out tout suite.

I still have masses of Sungold tomatoes ripening outside – no sign of blight (touch wood).

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The patty pan squash plant is rampant and full of what look like baby space ships – so cute.

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The seedlings in the greenhouse have doubled in size – although something has eaten the baby lettuce (on inspection I found a big slug sleeping under a pot).

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And the kale plants that are waiting to be put in the courgette bed are looking pretty healthy and don’t seem to be suffering from being kept in pots.  I have put them outside now to harden off.

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The winter onions have sprouted too – so very soon I will have to find space for them in the raised beds.  Has anyone ever grown onions in containers? – did they do okay? – that is something I may have to resort to – it’s all going to be a bit of a tight squeeze out there.

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So, all in all I can breathe a sigh of relief.  I did get a veggie garden fix whilst I was away though.  In Wells there is a fantastic allotment area  - just one field away from the sea.   The plots are on the whole beautifully kept and one in particular that you can see from the lane is a model of perfection – I didn’t have my camera with me (slapped wrists)  – I am sure you would have been as impressed as I – talk about busman’s holiday!

The other thing I wanted to mention is why are restaurants so stingey with veg? They never seem to include them with the meal – sometimes they are listed as a side order – when the meal could really do with a bit of green on the plate.  The fashionable thing seems to be to put on the menu where  all the meat and fish is sourced locally – on one menu in particular the veg was supplied by Fred So-and-So from his allotment.  Well, all I can say is, that Fred was having a bad year with his veg, or he was keeping the best for himself.  Where were the runner beans, where were the French beans, where were the spinach and chard -  surely he must have had loads to sell on – one meal we had, included some curly kale, which was as tough as old boots and certainly didn’t add any flavour to the meal at all.  I know in the main restaurants like keep things seasonal, but even I, with my limited means, could have found something green to add to the meals – they all seemed to be very keen to add salad leaves to everything though.  Sorry – rant over – you have discovered one of my ‘bete noirs’.

‘Til next time – happy harvesting.

Tuesday 2 September 2014

Gardener Cook ~ Waste Not Want Not

I seem to have been doing a lot of pressing, squeezing, chopping, cooking and tasting – all in the name of filling the freezer and preserves cupboard.

Is it some deep-felt need to go through this every year – originally in case of times of hardship.  Well, not really – I mean, everything is readily available in the shops – so what makes us keep on with this ancient practice of hoarding food  against the shortages of winter – when we know there won’t be any.

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To be quite honest, even if we don’t really need to do it – I quite enjoy the whole thing of gathering in the surplus crops and trying to make something tasty out of them – and I do get quite a kick out of opening the cupboard and freezer and seeing them full to the gills of homemade produce.

Anyhoo, what did I spend the last week doing.

  • Mixed Berry Jam
  • Damson and blueberry jelly
  • Vegetable Mulligatawny Soup (for the freezer although we did have a bowl each first)
  • Apple Juice

vegetable mulligatawny soup

I thought I would get the (seldom used) juicer out of the cupboard and make the most of the over-abundance of James Grieve apples on my tree.  I was going to get rid of the juicer as it is only taking up cupboard space – then I thought – why not turn the apples into juice.  The result is one glassful from about ten large apples. 

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When you drink this tart-sweet juice, the sharpness makes you salivate, and look at the lovely pinkness of it.  It smells and tastes just the same as the apples, which I guess is no surprise – I found it really refreshing – but was it worth all the mess, and the washing of all the parts of the machine just for a glassful?  The jury is still out on that one – but I won’t throw the juicer out just yet – it has earned a reprieve for now.

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I think that’s me done for this year a) because I have no room left anywhere to store anything and b) because I have run out of freezer containers and jam jars.

The evening on Sunday was glorious – I took a couple of pictures of the veg patch just as the sun was going down ~ as you can see it wants a good sort out ~ it all starts to look a bit messy at this time of year with the runners dying back  ~ tomatoes needing to be taken down ~ foxgloves that have seeded themselves into the beds need digging up and transplanting, all jobs that I will get on with when we come back from our September break at the coast.

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I have planted some onions in modules in the greenhouse – they were in the shop so I thought I would give them a try as I have never grown them this early before – but it seems a good time of year to get things going – the seeds I sowed last week are all through already ~ even the carrots which usually take an age to germinate ~ I’m dead chuffed because my original sowing of carrots got munched by the badgers and I haven’t had a single one this year.

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And finally – I was reading an article in Gardens Illustrated last month about the Great Dixter vegetable garden and Christopher Lloyd’s book ‘Gardener Cook’ was mentioned.  I purchased it for the princely sum of 1p. It has lots of recipes on how to use up the vegetables you have grown all given in Christopher’s own inimitable style – I shall definitely be trying plenty of them out during the course of the gardening year.

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‘Til next time – happy veg growing …

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