The Last of the Tomatoes

At last we have reached the end of this years mammoth tomato harvest.  This is it, the end, finito, no more tomatoes to pick.  Half of the stems and stalks have been added to the compost heap and the other half will join them later.

As you can see I got a nice final mix of colours.  The ripe red and yellow tomatoes will be turned into one final big pot of Roasted Tomato Soup and the green ones are destined to become a batch of Green Tomato Chutney, I think we have just one jar left of last years tomato chutney so this has come at the perfect time.

The sad looking plants before the harvest ..... they look even sadder now!!

It's surprising how different it looks inside the polytunnel looks now without the mass of tomatoes on either side of the front door as you step in, I suddenly have lots of space.

Sue xx

The Garlic Harvest Is In ... and Strung

Last weekend I pulled up all the garlic that I have grown this year in the net tunnel, I left it overnight with some of the soil still attached to dry slightly, then the next day I cleaned it up properly and left it nicely spread out on the workbench to dry in the warmth of the polytunnel.

A couple of days later and it is now lovely and dry, so I've just trimmed it ready for stringing .... now I just have to get on with the stringing.

Edited to add  ....

It's a bit messy while you're doing it ....

... but a lot of stringing and a few snips and it looks quite good, even if I do say so myself.

And it's now hanging on the back of the kitchen door with the tail end of last years crop.  

This seems to be a good place for it looking at last years which is still perfectly fine.

Vampires be warned .... we are now fully stocked with garlic ;-)

Sue xx

Random Harvesting, Bowls and Stocktaking the Freezer

A random harvest, that's what I call the things I bring back into the house after cleaning out the henhouse each morning.

There is usually at least one egg there already when I go to clean out the house, we have had three a day for the last two weeks, I'm more than happy with that it means we have a plentiful supply for the kitchen and the occasional half dozen for Mum.  Yesterday I brought a handful of Kale back from the polytunnel on the way back from the morning doggy walk around the paddock, and since the weather has taken a turn for the chilly I bring at least one bowl full of wood into the house.  

I like my big old handled bowl, we picked up a couple of these from a farm auction we went to years ago and they have proved useful for all sort of things.

The best ever use of this larger one was as the 'day bath' for the geese, Harry, Larry and Mo.  We sat it in a tyre so it didn't tip and they had lots of fun washing, preening and generally playing with the water.

Of course all the chickens, including their Mum, the Hyline hen Mother Goose (hence her name), thought this bathing in water malarky was totally ridiculous and would have nothing to do with it.  But the geese would happily take it in turns to bath or just sit there watching the world go by.

Today it's been raining virtually all day ... yet again, so I finally got round to a bit of freezer stocktaking.  The small freezer half of the fridge/freezer in the kitchen is all done now and a list of the contents has been scribbled down on to waste sheets of A4 paper (we use the back of printed out things that we have no further use for) and will be typed up neatly once I get round to stocktaking the big chest freezer.  I'm not doing it yet in case I can combine any duplicated items.  I was amazed at how much this freezer had in it.

I virtually got frostbite while going through it ,and had to make a coffee to warm my hands around after spending five minutes separating slices of lemon that had stuck together.  I found two boxes, both half full and decided to combine them into one for ease of use and stacking.  The slices were pretty stuck together but I persevered and now they are free flowing again.I think a pair of gloves will be used once I bring myself to tackle the big chest freezer.

Time to feed the dogs now and take them for a wet and muddy walk round the paddock, the chickens will be closed up for the night as we get back to the house and then the fire will be lit.  The only good thing about these short dark, wet days is the long, cosy evenings cuddled up in front of the television with snoozing dogs and the flicker of the candles on the mantlepiece.

Have a good evening.

Sue xx

Using the Celery Leaves

I harvested our stunted growth garlic back in August of this year,  

The rabbits had feasted on the greenery leaving the bulbs with nothing to draw goodness from, so it had to come up as it was.  As you can see I've still got some of the best bulbs left.  I have been trying to use it up in the order that the best would be last as this can be stored for longer because of its full covering of papery skin.

The back of the kitchen door seems to be a good place for it to hang, out of the way but visible often enough to remind me it's there so it doesn't get forgotten about.

I used a good few cloves in with the celery leaves, the last of the Pine Nuts from the jar in the fridge, the last of the grated Parmesan style cheese from the freezer and a sprinkle of freshly ground sea salt and black pepper.  I tipped it all into the food processor whizzed it up and then drizzled in enough Olive Oil to get it to the consistency I like it.

Then it was decanted into a storage jar .....

... my favourite shade of green in a mash of garlicky goodness.

It now lives in the fridge making me smile with it's cheery fresh colour every time I open the door, and will provide us with lots of tasty helpings, on pasta, in quiches and stirred into soups and smeared on toast before being topped with grated cheese and toasted.

It's so garlicky the vampires will be giving this house a miss for sure  :-)

Sue xx

Storing the food .....

Storing the food we grow ourselves is almost as important as the actual growing of it.  If we are to get to any level of self sufficiency we need the homegrown vegetables and fruits to last us as long as possible throughout the year, from one growing season to the next if possible.

There are still lots of fresh things in the polytunnel.  The carrots, cabbages, kale, spinach, celery, spring onions, radishes, lettuce, kohlrabi and sweet potatoes are all things I could pick and eat now, the cabbages are yet to fully heart up but the outer leaves are being sparingly picked and added to soups and stews, the other things in this list are all fully grown and ready for the picking.

Coming along behind them are the newer sowings of beetroot, more spinach, onions, garlic, more radishes, more spring onions and a couple of other things that I can't for the life of me remember while I'm sat here at the computer.  It's important to me to try and avoid too much of the dreaded 'hungry gap' by trying to keep some things available fresh at all times of the year.

Last week I used up the last of the potatoes that were in the kitchen cupboard, so yesterday when we decided to have a 'proper' Sunday lunch and I needed potatoes I went to the understairs gloryhole and lifted out the big bag of potatoes that I had stashed in there months ago. 

 They were exactly as they were when I put them in there, and still covered in the soil that dried on them while they basked in the sunshine of late September.  So now I know that the cool, well ventilated cupboard under the stairs is the perfect place for my vegetables to go.  It was a bit experimental putting them there but it worked ... phew!!

Of course my other methods of saving food to last us through the Winter months and well into next year have been well documented on various posts.  Bottling ...

... pickling ...

... and of course the easiest of easies .....freezing.

Before our Challenge kicks off on the first of January I am going to do a complete food stocktake and see what we have stored in all these methods.  It's going to be an entire year of recording what we eat, what we grow, how we preserve it all and all the nitty gritty of getting ourselves to a place where it will be viable in the future.  So you can see why sometimes my mind is buzzing at the moment.  Every trip to the cupboard or the freezer sets me off thinking again, making basic outlines of plans and wondering how we can do better.

But for now, I'm going to try and stop thinking about food and dash downstairs to empty the washing machine and peg it on the line ... because for the first time in ages it has stopped raining and we have SUNSHINE.

Sue xx

The Tomtatoes -Final Opinion

Back in June of this year I got these three Tomtato plants so I could have a go at growing them and see if they are worth the money and live up to the hype.

See THIS blog post for more information.

I planted one of the plants at the front of the polytunnel just outside the doors in one of my large zinc tall planters, and the other two were together outside the back doors of the tunnel in a large builders bag style bag .   Looking back on it I should really have planted one of them inside the polytunnel for comparison purposes.

This large colander contains the tomatoes I picked off all three plants ....

... and this tray the potatoes from beneath all three plants.

Just under two kilos of potatoes and around one and a half kilos of tomatoes, not many of which ripened.

They were good strong plants, the two at the far side of the tunnel got a full day's sun every day the sun was out and the single one at the front got the afternoon and evening sun.   They all got regular watering and plant food once the tomatoes appeared so they were well taken care of.  In my honest opinion what I got from these three plants .... was not worth either the money or the effort.

 I think I'll stick with separate potato plants and tomato plants in future, although next year I might have a go at planting one of each in the same pot and see how they get on that way.

I'm glad I tried growing them though, if you don't have a go at some things you will always be wondering.

One really good thing to come out of the tomatoes was this lovely tasting Chutney, and the potatoes are delicious, really delicious .... so all is not lost :-)

Sue xx

Another Harvest of Bramleys

We went out with the apple picker yesterday and managed in five minutes to get this little lot, a total of 8 kgs of lovely Bramleys.    Which according to mysupermarket.co.uk would have cost us an average of £1.75 a kilo, which means our five minutes of fun with the apple picker stick thingy saved us a grand total of £14.

We had lots of fun because the trees are tall and the apples are still firmly attached, and the only way to get them down was with the pole at full stretch and whacking the apples with the end of it.  Meaning of course, that the person doing the picking up of the apples off the grass had to duck and dive to get out of the way of these falling missiles.

I'll be processing them later today into some more jars of chunky apple sauce, which can be used for pies, crumbles etc throughout next year and a few Apple Turnovers to pop into the freezer, as I have a packet of pastry in the fridge that needs using up.

Over the weekend we had a couple of salady style meals and instead of serving them with 'normal' mayonnaise I decided to pep things up a bit with some garlic mayo.  Totally cheaty and easy to do with a squirt of  garlic paste stirred into normal mayonnaise

We also on occasion have 'chilli mayonnaise' by adding a squirt of  Sweet Chilli Sauce.  Mayonnaise can also be mixed with tomato ketchup to make 'Marie Rose' sauce, just mix it to taste.

After all why have lots of different flavours of mayonnaise opened in your fridge at once when you can simply have one jar of mayo and use the condiments in your storecupboard to pep things up from time to time.

Buying any of these variations ready made will cost you more than the total sum of doing it yourself and you don't take up extra space, or risk things going out of date in the fridge.  

I simply buy whatever Hellmann's mayonnaise is on offer at the time, sometimes it's the squirty bottles but it's usually I try to stock up with the big jars which are so much easier to get every last little bit out of ... and of course I get the jar to keep for preserving. 

Of course I could make my own mayo, but with all the busyness of harvesting and preserving that has been going on here just lately I have completely gotten out of the habit of doing it.  Although it doesn't take long, just a couple of minutes to gather together your ingredients and then whizz up for 10 seconds with a stick blender .... if you follow the recipe that is on my 'Recipes I Use Regularly' page at the top of the blog.

Sue xx

The Nut Harvest is in .....

The nut harvest is in ..... all three Almonds have now left the tree ;-)

In other news .... we are also eating the last of the large cucumbers tonight with our tea, and the ex-bread bin full of carrots has now been upended.  I also picked the last four stems of Rhubarb while I was out cleaning out the bird bath earlier and they have been stewed with some of the Bramleys and are now awaiting a crumble topping.

Well you need a Fruit Crumble after a salady style tea on these chilly Autumnal nights don't you !!

Have a good weekend.

Sue xx

Polytunnel Progress - October

The polytunnel in October is starting to feel totally different to how it was in the heat of the Summer.  The cooler, shorter days and much colder nights mean that things have slowed right down.  But still there is growth and we are still getting lots of lovely homegrown things to eat.

I have just transplanted these sturdy Beetroot seedlings to the bed on the left as you walk in.  Beyond them is the small bed of Kohlrabi ...  

... and after that we have Carrots and then a half bed of Mixed Salad Leaves.

Further along near to the other doors is a small new planting of Perpetual Spinach ...

... just in case the original plants at the opposite side near the front doors decide to give up the ghost on me.

Looking back the other way from the the back doors it looks lush and green, and the French Marigolds flash of colour is even more appreciated in these gloomy Autumnal days.

The biggest change this week is that the top half of all the doors have been covered with polythene,  pinned in place over the mesh that has kept the tunnel aired throughout the Summer, just leaving a small gap for ventilation,

With this additional protection even on a coolish day, with a little bit of sunshine I am managing to reach the giddy heights of almost twenty degrees, not bad for mid October.

The watering I was doing each evening has also slowed right down now, and with the cold nights that seem to come on us so quickly as the sun dips behind the hills opposite, I try and make sure if things do need a drink, and it's not every day that they do now, they get it during the warmest part of the day, just in case temperatures plummet so much that frost appears .... it won't be long now.

This mornings little harvest.

Kale, spinach, lettuce, carrots, radishes and the last, the very last courgette ..... oh and a couple of eggs that I picked up from the henhouse as I went into Chicken World to throw the chickens all the scraps and trimmings from my picking and weeding session, as I made my way back to the house.

Sue xx

Just Me and the Spinach

You see so many of the 'feet' shots in blog world, but I was walking back from the polytunnel yesterday clutching the morning's harvest of Spinach leaves and as I stepped on the grass I thought 'what a wonderful collection of greens'.  My wellies, the grass and the spinach all shades of green ... my favourite colour.

I've tried lots of fancy pants wellies over the years that we've lived in the country, I never needed them when we lived in the town.  They've come from all the designer labels, I was so easily seduced by flowers, dogs, birds and pretty colours but when it comes down to it all you need is something that's waterproof, comfortable and most importantly that last.  The nice flowery wellies look beautiful and I could so easily be swayed again when I see them lined up on shelves all pristine in the shops, but when your first priority is walking dogs through wet grass, mud and occasionally sand strength of construction and durability are now the order of my day.

The green of Spinach is to me even more wonderful than the green of my boring bog standard wellies, it means vibrancy, goodness and best of all deliciousness.

Once washed and spun dry in the salad spinner it's separated out into two piles, one to go in the stayfresh bag and live in the fridge for my morning Nutriblasts and the other to be frozen as a backup for when the supply dwindles as growth slows down in the polytunnel.

Neatly organised ..... and still looking green.

Sue xx

Preserving the Seasons

This month, and indeed most of last month has been all about preserving.  Taking what grew this Summer preserving it during Autumn, to be eaten in Winter .... and hopefully if successful and tasty it will be grown again next Summer.

Fed up with jams I turned my attention to Bread and Butter Pickle last week just before the onions ran out, indeed this was why the onions ran out.  I've never made this before but it was so simple, I'll definitely be making it again.

Here's the recipe I used from the same Preserves book I've used for lots of my jams etc  (it's proving to be worth every penny this book).  If you click on the photo to enlarge it you will see it says '6 cucumbers (about 800g) thinly sliced',  my homegrown cucumbers were pretty big so I just got three out of the fridge, and got the other ingredients ready, then I weighed the cucumbers, the first one I put on the scales weighed just over 1kg all by itself .... it seems I'm growing whoppers this year ;-)

So I decided to double up on all the other ingredients and make a bigger batch of pickle.

It was such an easy recipe and well worth doing, there's not many ways I can think of to preserve cucumbers for eating long after the growing season is over.  These six jars have added nicely to the store cupboard for the Winter days ahead.  I believe from reading around that it's called Bread and Butter Pickle because that's what it is traditionally eaten with.  Just the pickle on it's own with some good bread and butter.  Nice simple food ... my favourite sort.

Forging on .....

... next I took one 'courgette' and decided to make a batch of Marrow and Ginger Jam.

Making this highlights the amount of sugar used in jam making nicely, as the only ingredients are marrow, sugar, ginger and lemon juice ..... only I forgot the lemon juice!!

You simply peel and then chop the marrow,  mix it with the sugar and then leave it covered with a teatowel in the fridge overnight, by morning the sugar has brought out the moisture in the marrow and covered each piece with lots of little glistening crystals, it looks beautiful ... maybe it was admiring this beauty that made me totally forget to add the lemon juice.

All you do next is add the roughly chopped ginger in a muslin bag and heat slowly until the sugar all dissolves, then bring to the boil and keep at a rolling boil until you reach and stay at jam temperature.

Anyway I didn't even realise there was no lemon in there until I gave the bit in the bowl a taste ..... yep ... it's sweet.

But I soon found a way to enjoy it .... as a fruit corner, the tartness of the yogurt balances it out nicely ..... phew!!

Labelled and ready for the cupboard.

It's been a busy couple of weeks, but opening the cupboard door and standing and admiring all my handiwork makes it all worthwhile.

Sue xx