After a rather neglectful few months I did a little tour of the garden yesterday.  Due to all the illness followed by festivities it’s quite genuinely the first time I’ve been in the vegetable patch for a good few weeks, despite the fact I look out on it from our ‘glass wall’ extension most days from the studio where I sew (the view of which is as below).

I was very disappointed to see that the kale, the only plant I had bothered to grow for winter consumption has been completely eaten, the nets are still in place so this year it isn’t the wood pigeons and I’m wondering if it’s the mice? more likely a stray rabbit that’s sneaked under our fence I think.  On a happier note I still have a full bed of garlic which is looking good and the large container that I started my kale in has a few plants still growing, I’ve decided to leave them be as I’m worried if I try moving them into a main bed they’ll go the same way as the rest, even though they ideally need much more room.  It does look very sad and neglected though, empty pots have been blown about in recent gales and there are lots of kids toys still outside which should have been packed away for winter.  It’s not really a very pretty photo but I want to take one each month so I can see the progression through the year and the reality is this is how it looks this January.

This year, not only did I give some homemade jams and jellies for Christmas but I received a great hamper from my Mum full of her homemade goodies; pickled onions, chutney, oven dried tomatoes and jam to name a few.  It’s pretty clear where I get my enthusiasm for this kind of thing from, she used to be in the WI you know .  I also received a couple of new books, the River Cottage Veg Everyday is great and it’s giving me lots of ideas for things to grow and cook; I’m not convinced yet on the bread book, I know from my avid viewing of The Great British Bake Off that Paul is the King of bread but the recipes I have tried out so far haven’t jumped into my top ten (and I do have a top 10 bread recipes, but that’s probably one for a separate post).

On a slightly different note than the usual food/garden topic I have a new ebay collecting obsession, I’ve bought a few pieces of vintage  Royal Doulton ‘The Coppice’ crockery.  Not many as my husband HATES my collecting things in already full house, and he does have a point, but I have always been in love with this pattern and I couldn’t resist.  I write this as the postman has just delivered some spoons (more retro than vintage but cheap and something we actually need and nicer than any new ones I could buy) and on the package it said ’6 used spoons’ which the postie thought was hilarious.  Cheeky git.

It’s really time to sit down and decide what I’ll be growing this year, although we appear to be having a late winter, with frost all over the ground in recent mornings I am keen to get my early vegetables (tomatoes, cucumbers etc) started and work out what I have room for in the raised beds.  I have a nice pile of seed catalogues and hope to feel inspired to try some new things to keep my interest up, although we had a good crop of vegetables last year and I managed a good balance of time input verses produce results I want to get my full enthusiasm back and have a bursting garden.  The only way is onwards and upwards

Merry Christmas…

For those who read my other blog, you’ll know that there has been a certain amount of illness and broken bones around here, hence my complete lack of blogging recently.  In fact there hasn’t been an awful lot of anything being done to be honest, mostly just survival and getting through the last few weeks of school where things need to be provided nearly every day for the various events (secret santa, food for class party, nativity costumes etc).

The garden has been abandoned mid Autumn with nothing cloched or cut back and the garden furniture is still out in the elements as are many of the boys outdoor toys.  I did finally put the poor hyacinth bulbs into water, having abandoned finding my existing hyacinth vases, I hunted out anything that might allow a bulb to sit on top and filled them with water, as it’s mainly a mix of old cut glass vessels (I have many small vases, glasses and jars etc) they actually look quite nice and festive.

I have packed up some of the jams and jellies produced over the year as gifts.  The medlar jelly started in the last post worked out really well.  I was a bit squeamish cutting into the bletted fruit, it essentially squished in half rather than cut as it was so soft but I tried to ignore this as best I could.  The final jelly is a beautiful clear amber colour and it has a lovely taste so was well worth my getting over the ‘rotted’ idea.  The crab apple jelly also tastes great but I was sad the lovely pink colour at the straining stage mostly went when it was boiled down.

Also from my cupboard I am giving some of the cassis made back in June along with local sparkling wine from Meopham Valley Wines.  The wine is really great, they have a stall at the local Farmers Market and I think it’s a nice gift to give, they do a lovely pink fizz that I am especially partial to.

In mid illness we did find the energy to buy a local tree from our favourite garden shop just down the road, they are super friendly and it’s where I go for my soil.  I find it difficult to resist a real tree, I love the smell and as we have wooden boards the dropped needles aren’t such a problem. It is a ‘non-drop’ and has had it’s scab cut off the bottom (along with about a further inch) and it sitting in a large bucket of water which I am attempting to keep topped up.

Finally, to celebrate being well and to keep the boys busy and happy we have made some gingerbread today.  I would never win any awards for my biscuits and we didn’t have any dark sugar so they are a little pale but they still work and they boys enjoyed themselves.

Wishing you all a very merry and ideally relaxed Christmas!

Autumn…

I started this post a while back and managed to forget to actually publish it.  Story of my life at the moment, I’m a bit all over the place, still it gives me a chance to add a photo of my fabulous new purchase ‘Wild Flowers Sarah Raven’ which is exactly as the title suggest a HUGE book about wild flowers.  It’s full of beautiful photos and is separated into simple sections (Wood, Heath etc) and on each page there are 2 flowers with very full descriptions and an image, they are organised alphabetically using their common names.

It really is a massive book and isn’t exactly cheap but I’m in love and I’m sure will spend many happy hours reading it and identifying wild flowers I don’t already know.  Right, back to the original post…

We are back at school after a week long break and what a difference it makes.  As soon as I started the school run I noticed how the trees have all turned colour in the past week, we have mostly been at home over the holidays (both boys had colds) and as we are surrounded in the garden by evergreens I hadn’t realised just how much change there had been in the other trees, and along with the clock change it really is finally feeling like true autumn.

I made a point today of picking the few crabapples and medlars that are on my new trees, they are both only a year old but have produced enough to make some jelly so I couldn’t resist.  I have to leave the medlars in a cool room for a week or two (or three!), until the skin turns blackish purple and the fruit feels soft and smells ‘winey’.  Basically until they start to rott.  This ‘bletting’ allows the fruit to loose it’s acidity and lets it release it’s juice.  I’m not sure how I feel about this, I am a bit funny about food past it’s sell by date (depending on what it is, you should have seen what came out of my herb/spice cupboard the other day!) but we’ll see how it goes.

I have also planted out the final garlic in the form of a couple of the largest cloves I grew last year.  These along with the ‘Albigensian‘ from the last post are all happily in their beds ready to sit out the winter, altogether I’ve planted up 6 large cloves which I think will be enough.

I placed a last minute order for seed potatoes after getting an email from Thompson & Morgan saying they were in the sale.  I decided to buy:

Potato ‘Charlotte’ - Truly sensational flavour whether eaten hot, smothered in butter, or cold in a tasty salad niçoise. Second early.
Potato ‘Swift’ – A particularly early maturing potato, producing excellent yields of round, smooth white-fleshed tubers. First early.
Potato ‘Vivaldi’ - Mouth-watering flavour and creamy texture whether boiled as new potatoes, or baked, mashed and roasted as larger tubers.

(Thompson & Morgans words there not mine)

and some extra ‘Charlottes’ as they are always a winner.  I’ve decided this year to only plant in the small 14 litre exhibitors bags with 1 seed potato per bag as it was such a great way to grown them, I’ve never planted in the beds as we simply don’t have room and I love being able to turn out one bag at a time which is just enough for a single meal, this works well for me.

I also ordered some shallots ‘French Longer’ and onions ‘Electric’ to pop in for over wintering and some general seeds.  I prefer to do my seed shopping over winter when I plan next years garden, otherwise I over buy things that I don’t have room for but I couldn’t resist adding a few to the basket.

I’m looking forward to getting into the garden this weekend and doing a good tidy up.  Most of the leaves have dropped and the cold weather has killed off  all the soft flowers and plants so it’s time to lift the remaining sludge and maybe cover up anything that needs it.

Bulbs…

Despite my lack of blogging I have actually been out in the garden a few times over the past weeks, mainly attempting to tidy but also to get the final planting into place for winter.

Some garlic arrived that I’d ordered from Thompson & Morgan, 4 bulbs of ‘Albigensian Wight‘ to be exact.  If I’m honest I’d forgotten that I’d ordered them but they are now safely split and planted as per my usual method.  It’s a little less than I normally buy but I have promised the boys they can have a raised bed next year to share so I need to save a little space, also the ‘Albigensian Wight’ is by far my favourite variety so I decided to simply stick with this (I’d normally also plant some ‘Solent Wight’ which I’d buy from the Garlic Farm), even the inner cloves were big and fat so it saves me feeling guilty about making room for the usual mini ones in the center that never grow very large but take up valuable growing space.

I have also been planting quite a few flower bulbs, mainly Geums, Ranunculus and Anemones.  The Ranunculus and Anemones are best soaked overnight to get them off to a good start before planting, we have such mild winters here (usually – fingers crossed!) that they have always survived in my garden with little help, even thought their hardiness is in question, I did plant the Anemones (my usual favourites for cutting ‘Mr Fokker’, ‘Sylphide’ and new for me ‘The Bride’) in lines in the cutting patch though so that I can cloche them over the colder months to make sure the corms survive. The Ranunculus will just have to fend for themselves scattered in the borders.

Whilst placing a bulb order I bought some Fritillarias meleagris in Plum & White to add to my lonely single one that grows under our tree and I take great pains to stop M from mowing off each spring; an Amaryllis Emerald ‘Spring’ for some Christmas cheer (I do love Amaryllis) and some Hyacinth ‘Purple Sensation’ to grow indoors in hyacinth vases, if I can find them, I know I put them away last year but I can’t remember where.

In the garden it’s very much winding down, I quite fancy a rest this winter so I haven’t bothered to grow many new things, only a bed of mixed Kales as they tend to survive no matter what and look so pretty through the cold months.  I’d normally have purple sprouting broccoli and parsnips amongst others but this year I’d like to get everything properly tidied up and start a fresh next February with mostly clear beds.  I may attempt to get some of the hardy herbs in better shape and perhaps some winter lettuce, maybe some spinach but I’ve read we are due very low night temperatures this weekend so I’ve probably missed my window.

Still cropping (just) are:

Tomatoes (the last few)

Courgettes – I’m amazed how long and how many we have had from 4 plants

Strawberries, Alpine

Carrots

Horseradish root

Herbs

Cucumbers – they were so late to get going this year and now we are getting a lot of late crops.

Spring Onions

I turned out some of the last small potato bags recently, if you’ve been reading for a while you’ll know I just covered the bags with cloches once the tops died back to stop the soil getting wet, as we were a little potatoed out and couldn’t keep up with the eating.  I am surprised to say they still were delicious, even though they’ve been sitting in dry soil for many weeks now, the skins were a little thicker but they were still much nicer than store-bought ones (to be clear all the potatoes I grow are second earlies, so mainly ‘Charlotte’ and ‘Anya’ variety).

We awoke to our first frost this morning, a light one but it’s taken out the dahlias and a few other softer flowers, I am quite relived in a way as I need to get the borders tidied and it’ll be easier to do when much of it has died back.  Autumn has finally arrived!

Jams and Jellies…

It’s suddenly started to turn autumnal here (excuse to add a picture of some of my recent sewing! I’m busy, busy, busy over at The Linen Cat), the mornings have gone a bit chilly and if the sun doesn’t come out it feels quite fresh throughout the day.  To coincide I am treating myself to reading the Autumn section of the book ‘The Magic Apple Tree‘ by Susan Hill, oh how I love this book and I have been eeking it out, saving each Season section to read in time with our own progressing year.  It has appeared as a favourite on many bloggers pages and I once read an extract in a magazine and marked if for my own reading list.  It’s a beautiful description of country life in Susan’s village and garden and I think she might be to blame for my recent run on jam and jelly making as it also contains the odd recipe, sadly I believe it’s out of print (why!?), but I managed to get a second hand copy from Amazon.

I decided to have a go at the included recipe for Plum, Orange and Walnut Jam as I do like jam with nuts in and the local shop has loads of British plums on offer at the moment.  I only made a half batch as I will be the only person eating this jam so I want to enjoy it and not feel pressured into making sure it’s all eaten whilst in it’s prime, I’d rather run out wanting more than be finding jars in the back of the cupboard in a few years time looking sad and past it’s best.  I have changed the method a little so suit my needs, such as slicing the zest of the orange instead of the whole peel (it makes it quicker to cook).

Plum, Orange and Walnut Jam

(Put some saucers in the freezer)

1.350 Kg Plums

1.100 Kg Sugar

2 Oranges

225 g Walnuts, chopped.

Stone the plums and put the halves into a large pan, setting the stones aside for later.

Use a peeler to remove the zest of the oranges, slice this as thinly as possible then add to the plums.  Juice the oranges (add this to the pan as well) then cut the remaining orange zest and pips roughly and tie into a muslin along with the reserved plum stones – guess what? – yep, add to the pan.

Finally also add 300 ml of water, then bring to the boil and simmer until the zest is soft (as with marmalade, if you add the sugar too soon it will toughen up the zest making it chewy and too hard), the plums need less cooking time so they will definitely be ready when the zest is, this took me about 30 mins.

Turn down the heat and add the sugar, heat very slowly, stirring occasionally until all the sugar has dissolved and there are no crystals left.

Bring to a rolling boil and boil rapidly for approx 10 mins, adding the nuts just before you remove the pan from the heat.  Test for a set by putting a blob onto one of your frozen saucers, after cooling for a moment it should form a skin that wrinkles when pushed with your finger, this means it’s set, otherwise rapid boil for a few more minutes (4 – ish) them remove from the heat and test for a set again. Repeat until setting point is reached.

Now, once ready I waited about 5 mins in an attempt to try and allow it to cool enough for the nuts to not float to the surface, I failed.  I think next time I’ll treat it the same way I do marmalade and leave it to cool about 15-20 mins, then put it into it’s jam jars (sterilized in a 150 degree oven on a tray with the lids for at least 5 mins) before sealing with wax discs and lids.

Despite the final jam being top heavy with the nuts it tastes great and is one I will make again.

Whilst I was on a roll and had everything out I also made some apple and herb jelly.  I wanted to make a batch that I then split between apple & mint and apple & thyme jelly so I didn’t add the herbs until the last stages (see the notes).

Apple and Herb Jelly

1.5 Kg cooking apples

Granulated sugar

100 ml cider vinegar

I medium bunch of your chosen herbs (sage, rosemary, mint, thyme etc)

Roughly chop the apples, including peel, cores and pips and add to a pan with just enough water to cover (if you are making a single herb jelly you should also add the herbs now).  Bring to the boil and simmer gently, uncovered for about 1 hour, the fruit needs to be very soft.

Tip the (cooled) contents into a muslin suspended over a bowl for a few hours, ideally overnight and don’t squeeze if you would like your finished jelly to be clear.

Put a couple of saucers into the freezer and have your cleaned jars and lids ready on a baking tray ready to sterilize in the oven.

Measure the strained juice and for every 600 ml, you will need 450g sugar (don’t add it yet!).  

At this stage I split my juice into 2 batches and gently heated each with my chosen herbs, half with mint and the other with thyme, I put the herbs into a large tea strainer so as to keep the jelly clear and them removed it after a few minutes to start the next step of the recipe, which I made in half batches (so 50 ml of vinegar per batch etc).

Return the juice to a clean pan with the vinegar, heat until boiling point and then add the sugar, stir and simmer gently until dissolved.  Once all the sugar crystals are gone, rapid boil the jelly until setting point is reached, which should be about 10-12 mins.  Remove from the heat and remove any scum from the surface with a slotted spoon.

Check for a set by putting a small blob of the jam onto one of the saucers from the freezer, leave it for a few minutes and push with your finger, if a skin has formed that wrinkles then the jam is ready, if not you need to boil for a few more minutes then test again.

At this stage I added some chopped herbs to the mixtures as I think it looks pretty and let it cool slightly so the herbs stage suspended nicely in the jelly once set.

Pour into warm sterilised jars (heated for 15 mins in a medium oven, or used directly from a washing machine cycle and whilst still warm), seal with wax discs and lids.

We tested it at the weekend when I roasted some pork and it tastes delicious, it’s a beautiful golden pink jelly and is somehow very ‘light’ and delicate.  I can understand why people may make  it with chopped rose petals added instead of herbs, I have a slight aversion to rose flavours in food (makes me think of Granny chocolates!) but I imagine it works really well.

I am really looking forward to making crab apple jelly in a while and some medlar jelly from our new tree when the fruit is ready, guess what everyone will be getting for Christmas from us this year

OK so for all those living in the UK, and especially in the South you may realise this post was written a good few weeks ago (sorry, bit behind in finishing it) as we are now in the middle of a late heat wave, what happened to Autumn?  Ah well, I’ll be making the most whilst I can and spending some time tidying up the rather messy garden.

Preserves and Pontack…

I emptied out the preserves cupboard at the end of last week, partly to make sure the old has been rotated to the front, so it get’s used first and to see exactly what is in there.

I did write a list of what turned up but right now, I can’t find it anywhere, doh!  The basics are, there is no more Strawberry Jam; I didn’t make any this year as we always seem to have loads but C has slowed on his jam eating (he favours Marmite and honey these days….not together, obviously!) so I decided to skip it, I should have checked the cupboard first but we do have 4 jars of Strawberry and Rhubarb so all is not lost.  On the ‘overstocked’ side, there are 5 small jars of Redcurrant Jelly from last year, which with this year’s added makes rather a stash, I will be looking for alternative uses to make sure it gets eaten.  There is a small mountain of Marmalade in both Whisky and Jelly forms.  Basically I am the only one who eats it but I do like making it as I love the smell that fills the house and the fact it falls in Winter (if you are using ‘Seville’ oranges) when there is little else to make.  Maybe 27 jars is a bit too much (ha ha) so I need to remember not to make any more this year and it’s time to start cooking Marmalade cake for the boys

There were also reasonable amounts of Pickled Shallots, Gooseberry Jam and Jelly, Cassis and Sloe Gin to name but a few.  I no longer make things that we don’t eat, so there is no Chutney, it’s not that I don’t like it but we rarely eat cold meats or cheese and even if we did I’m the only one who would eat Chutney on the side.  Onion Marmalade is a different story, we eat quite a lot of that, especially with sausages but as I didn’t grow onions this year I wont be making more of that, sadly.

And so, what to add this year.  We have limited space for storing preserves so from my earlier days when I used to make masses,  I’ve learnt to curb my enthusiasm and only make what we will eat plus a bit extra for giving away.  One thing that I did want to try again was Pontack using the elderberries from the garden and some of the lovely shallots we have grown (like the garlic, the shallots have done amazingly well this year, this is only a very small bundle of them, the rest have been tied and hung in the kitchen ready for eating).

There is so much information on-line about Pontack that I wont waffle on too long, simply, it is a spicy elderberry sauce that you can add to stews and gravy and also eat with Game that in theory you should leave for 7 years before eating.  It’s also a very old sauce that is at least 300 years old, apparently.  Most recipes are the same, I use the one by Pam Corbin from my favourite book the River Cottage Handbook No 2, Preserves.

Elderberry Pontack

Makes 1 x 350 ml bottle

500 g elderberries
500 ml cider vinegar
200 g shallots, sliced
6 cloves
4 allspice berries
1 blade of mace
1 tbsp black peppercorns
15 g root ginger bruised

Place the elderberries in an ovenproof dish with the vinegar (cover!!) and put in very low oven for 4-6 hrs or overnight. Remove strain through sieve, crushing the berries to obtain max juice.

Put juice in a pan with sliced shallots, spices and ginger. Bring back to boil and simmer for 20-25 mins until slightly reduced. Remove from heat and strain.

Return the strained juice back to the pan and boil for 5 mins. Pour into warm sterilised bottles and seal. Store in a dark cupboard for as long as you can manage, 7 years is good!

Now I’ll be honest with you, it take quite a bit of effort to make but is also fun and the boys loved the inky blackness of the liquid.  Things I would note; if you spill it on your beige linen skirt it will stain and I made a double batch of the above, having made it before and knowing there was some work involved, I wanted to get a good 700 ml in return.  I didn’t, in fact I ended up with 300 ml so what went wrong?  The only thing I have noticed having hunted around for various recipes on-line (and there are many, the main variation being to use red wine instead of vinegar) is to cover the berries during that first stage of slow cooking in the oven and in Pam Corbin’s version it doesn’t mention doing that, it also doesn’t say not to so I assume this was my mistake (I left it uncovered).  Annoyingly as I realised this I remembered that last time I made it (a couple of years ago) I came to the same conclusion, I have now pencilled a note in my book so I don’t forget again.

I have more on jams and jellies but I’m going to split it into another post as I think this is the way going forward.  I have a tendency to wait too long between posts and then only say half of what I plan as I run out of steam and time to write it up, so the new me will be attempting to post more often and with a bit less waffle, at least that’s the plan

 

August eating and planting…

We recently came back from our holidays in Yorkshire and one of the first things I did was take a quick look at the garden to see what had survived.  This year I planted everything outside, knowing we would be away for a few weeks here and there and then set up a sprinkler (on a small table so it reaches further) that could be put on timer.  It reaches most of the vegetable patch and has generally done it’s job, but some of the plants with lots of foliage have struggled as the water just hasn’t reached the soil, an example being the potatoes which have lost all their leaves now.  I find that as long as I let the soil dry, I can eke out collecting and eating them for a few weeks and they are still fine, I am also amazed how long they survive in the fridge although that does take out some of the pleasure of eating them directly from the garden which the boys enjoy.

We returned to quite a lot of ready salad.  The tomatoes aren’t the best I’ve grown, this is due to slight neglect, lack of feeding and direct watering so is entirely my own fault.  Despite my attempts to kill them, the plants are providing a reasonable crop with the good old Sungold doing the best.  We are also, very late, now turning out lots of cucumbers which C devours at quite a rate.  I only had 3 plants in the end, the rest got nibbled at an early stage but I was only aiming for 4 as we can’t keep up with eating the fruits otherwise.

One thing I was quite excited about on our return was the sweetcorn, which is ready.  Hummmmm, freshly cooked corn boiled briefly and ideally smothered in butter and in my case salt and pepper (the kids just get butter, I sadly have to restrict this bit) makes any growing effort worthwhile.  I gave up a whole raised bed for this crop, with 16 plants this year but it’s worth it.  The cobs aren’t their usual size, again through lack of water I think, but they are still delicious and it’s always a delight to see F tucking in when the mere sight of canned corn sends him into drama overdrive of ‘bring that yellow stuff near me and I’ll die instantly’ proportions.

Plants still going well are courgettes (I’m waiting for the powdery mildew to take over, it’ll happen soon I’m sure), spring onions, carrots, strawberries, lettuce, beetroot and of course herbs.  Generally, the garden isn’t as productive as normal and I think the very dry summer is to blame along with a little laziness on my part.  It’s been hard to keep up with the watering and I’m useless at working in the garden in any heat, I just can’t do it.  On the plus side, the fruit crops, both in the garden and hedgerows have been splendid this year.  We had bumper redcurrants, blackcurrants, pink gooseberries and strawberries plus it looks like the figs, medlars and blackberries (which we have just started picking) are going to be great.  Even the sloes that normally get quite diseased are fantastic this year.

I picked these yesterday, which is a bit late for here in Kent where they ripen very early.  We have a huge bank of sloe bushes near the house, many more than I could actually do anything with, in fact as the kids are still off school and I’m quite busy sewing for the shop, these have been washed, air-dried and popped in the freezer to be dealt with at a later date (probably more sloe gin).  I have also noticed one of the elderberry bushes in the garden has evaded the birds and is heavy with fruit, if the rain (hurrah, rain at last!) stops I may pick some later today.

On a final note, I did plant lots of seeds in late July and early August which I have forgotten to mention.  Some are quite late in and I’m relaying, again, on the mild weather we get here.  So far there are, carrots, sprion onions, kale, chard, turnips, khol rabi and winter salad.  I’ve been a bit haphazard and just thrown them into the beds where the garlic where, if they grow they grow, if not no worries, I wont have a lot of time this Autumn for gardening but I do want to get everything nicely tidied up for the Winter.

What a mess…

I once said to one of the Mum’s from school, who at the last minute was popping back to my house for a coffee, “please excuse the house, it’s a bit of a mess.”  I think she was a bit shocked to find out it really was a total mess and I wasn’t just being overly house proud (to be fair, we had builders in ripping the back wall section off so everything was stacked in the living room and it was a bit *ahem* dusty).  The same could be said of the garden right now, it’s a bit of a mess, and I really do mean it there are weeds growing all over the place and the grass is about ready to make hay with.  I blame the last 2 weeks of school and pre-school with all the chaos that, that brings but even I was surprised how out of control things can get in such a short time.

On the plus side, because we haven’t been in the garden each day, munching as we go there is a huge crop of the wild strawberries at the moment.  I am going to pick all the ripe ones today, some we will just eat but the rest are going into the bachelor’s jam I started a while ago.

The potatoes grown in the small (14 litre) grow bags have been a big hit, there is no question that this is how I will grow all my potatoes from now on with a single chitted tuber per bag.  Being able to tip it out, have the boys rummage for the contents and have enough for a meal or two is great.

This is the crop (Charlotte variety) from a single bag, the bowl is a very large salad one so you can get an idea of the quantity.

As well as potatoes and strawberries we are also eating courgettes, salad, spring onions, herbs, the last of the broad beans and peas and carrots right now.  The tomatoes and cucumbers are running very late, next year I will probably leave them to get started in the greenhouse for a lot longer, before moving them outdoors.

I have picked the redcurrants, we have 2 bushes in amongst the border of the vegetable patch and they have provided about 2 kilos of fruit each (and that’s leaving a few for the birds).  Half of his has been turned into redcurrant jelly and the rest has been put into the freezer, some as whole fruit and some as strained juice, I simply didn’t have time to deal with it all right now.

I made yet more jam with the final blackcurrants and packed some up for teachers gifts.  The boys helped pick the berries and weigh out the sugar and stir the jam etc.  I made little ‘blackcurrant’ coloured birds for the packaging and then had F write out thank you tags (this was the hardest bit, he’s not keen on writing!).

And so, we are now on the first day of the long summer holidays; I’d like to fall into last years routine of sectioning the day up and getting a little of my chores done as well as entertaining the boys but it may not work out that way.  I hope to sew for the next hour and then once it’s warmed up outside try and sell the boys on the paddling pool as today’s entertainment with maybe a walk later, that way I can attempt to tidy the garden and feel less guilty about the mess.  Perhaps a little ice cream bribe in the afternoon will do the trick

July Eating…

Oh this is the bit I enjoy the best, popping into the garden with the boys and picking things to eat together.

I was home alone with the boys last weekend and decided to cook a roast lunch.  This is something I’d like to do every weekend, I was brought up with a roast lunch on Sundays and have very fond memories of this family event.  It was a highlight when returning home as a student and even now, when we are back visiting I still really look forward to Sunday lunch together.  I’d love my boys to grow up with a similar memories, especially as like many modern families we don’t spend a lot of time eating together during the week.

I decided to try broad beans from the garden on the boys, we were having roast beef (their choice) and I opted for the old fashioned broad beans in parsley sauce as an introduction for F (6) as he generally isn’t all that keen in any vegetable other than carrots.   This combination really does remind me of home and my childhood and along with cauliflower cheese, and braised celery often appeared on our table.  C (4) was very taken but sadly F refused to even try them.  Shame.

One thing F does eat well are new potatoes so today we have grubbed our first ones out of one the large bags.  These are the Anya variety planted early this year.  We simply pulled the loose soil away from the top of the bag and gently removed enough tubers for one meal, without damaging the plant stems, then we returned the soil to keep the other undisturbed potatoes snug for another day.  We are going to eat them boiled and buttered with some mint from the garden and I am sooooo looking forward to it.

I wanted to include a quick photo here of the Inca Bella flowers, I wasn’t expecting anything different from the usual white potato flowers but I am pleasantly surprised by these lovely purple and yellow blooms.

As it’s such a lovely sunny day we are going to have poached salmon, with the Anya potatoes and a nice salad to include, from the garden;  courgettes, broad beans, peas (raw), mint and feta cheese.  The peas are from the Sugar Snaps that I have let get slightly too big, although at the rate the boys are eating them raw they may not make it to the salad.  In fact this is another minor miracle moment as F hates peas with a passion but has just been converted to raw ones, this along with last years eating corn-on-the-cob, even though he wont touch the tinned variety, do make it all worth while

Blackcurrants…

The blackcurrants are ready and I’ve been waiting for a break in the rain so I can pick them, ideally dry, and make some store cupboard food.  As always I turn to my favourite cluster of books for some inspiration; Sarah Raven’s Cookbook, River Cottage Handbook No 2 (Preserves) and The River Cottage Year.  Much as I love tart fruit the boys are not all that keen so I’ve mainly been looking for jam or jelly recipes, although the RCY had a recipe for blackcurrant double-ripple ice cream that I am rather tempted by.  This year I have 2.5 kilos of fruit and so I’ve decided to go with jam and the usual Cassis as it’s always a winner and good for gift giving.

For both the below, the fruit has been washed and dried on teatowels and the shrivelled flowers on the end of the berries have been left on.

Cassis

450 g blackberries, crushed

450 g sugar (I used golden caster as I didn’t have any granulated)

570 ml brandy

7 very small, new blackcurrant leaves.

All the above is put into a 1.5 litre kilner jar and will be turned once a week (in fact once a day initially) and left for one month before straining off into sterilised bottles.  I’ve read in some recipes that you should leave it for 3-4 months and whizz the alcoholic fruit and strain through a muslin to be added to the liquid, this makes sense to me so I might try it this year.

Blackcurrant Jam

Makes about 8 regular jars.

For the jam it’s a very simple recipe and as the fruit is so high in pectin there is no need to add lemon juice or use sugar with added pectin.

1 kg blackcurrants

1.5 kg golden granulated sugar

Put some saucers in the freezer.

The fruit (with stalks removed) is put into a large pan (I went to buy a new jam pan today after burning the last one so badly it was beyond repair only to find they were £50!!!! I don’t think so, I shall be using my large spaghetti pan today) with 600 ml of water and simmer for about 15-20 mins until the fruit is soft.  The trick is (apparently) to get the fruit soft but not completely mushed, otherwise when you add the sugar the skins toughen up and become quite chewy in the final jam.

You then add the sugar and leave it to dissolve on a very low heat, stirring occasionally.  

Once all the sugar has dissolved you bring to the boil and boil on a rolling boil for 5 mins.  

(just before boiling, put your cleaned jars and lids into an oven at about 150 degrees)

After a rapid 5 mins rolling boil remove from the heat and test the jam for a set.  To do this, put a small blob of the jam onto one of the saucers from the freezer, leave it for a few minutes and push with your finger, if a skin has formed that wrinkles then the jam is ready, if not you need to boil for a few more minutes (only about 3 mins for blackcurrants as they have a high pectin level and so don’t need much to reach setting point) then test again.  Repeat until the jam has reached setting point.  For me this took 5 mins plus an additional 3 mins today.

Remove and scum from the edges and leave the jam to cool for 10-15 mins, then stir and check the fruit is being held in the jelly and not bobbing to the surface (leave it a bit longer if this is the case).  Ladle into your sterilised jars, whilst they are still hot from the oven.  Cover with a wax disc and screw the lids on immediately.

Having just had a good look through the preserves storage cupboard I’ve decided to ditch the remaining 2 jars of gooseberry jam as quite frankly they are past their best and no-one is interested in gooseberry jam in the household.

I hate throwing things away that I’ve taken the time to grow and make but there is also little point keeping them, especially once they are gathering dust and quite frankly are well over a year old.  The one thing I could make mountains of is strawberry jam as the boys eat it by the bucket full, it’s lucky we live in Kent and can buy local strawberries at great prices.

 

I’m impatient, the jam is still quite warm but I’ve just taken some homemade bread out of the oven and couldn’t resist having a taste and it’s definitely a winner.  In fact, I’ve just given some to C, having told him it’s ‘Ribena’ jam and he’s also sold.  Hummm…..not sure I actually want to share