Autumn Harvest

Gathered the ingredients today for Chilli and tomato jam. Its perfect way to use up late season harvests. I looked up several recipes online and then made up my own as I lacked fresh ginger, star anise and other fancy stuff.

Spent a good half hour (while waiting for parcels from husband's on line spending spree) dicing as much as possible. And washing the neglected jam making saucepan. (Have not indulged in jam making this year as we never finished last years or the years before!).

Put on for a good boil but it did not seem to go sticky? Added some more brown sugar, liquidised and re boiled. 

Ah well. It will still zip up some scrambled eggs over the next few weeks.

I have also been on and off the village Facebook page as I offered these things for FREE today.

We are altering our en suite and took out this perfectly good suite to put in one a tiny bit smaller. The built in "room" by previous owner is only good if you are a stick insect. Seemed a shame to take to tip so I hope someone wants to reuse them.

Leeks seeds and early cauli

Of all the seeds popping up at present it is the leek seeds that make me smile. They come folded over and then straighten up and often keep the seed husks like little caps!  These are a new variety for us - Crusader F1, just for a change as we have grown the old Mussleborough for some years.  You can see more of our seed sowing on YouTube channel Grow to eat.

We are still getting a few veg from last year from outside. Tops of Brussel sprouts and odd bit of kale that is quickly going to seed. Usually we have Cauliflower in the poly tunnel to fill that gap but this years have not really come to much. This very small head today. Well, it is fresh and supplements BirdsE frozen peas!

Sigh. Had to buy some carrots this week. First for over two years.

Come on spring I need fresh veg!!

Organic?

I went to the induction day to become a volunteer Master Gardener on Saturday.

I will talk more about the role of encouraging people to grow more food themselves and the organisation in the future  but as I had to take two buses to get there I had plenty of time to contemplate what to say if asked "Was I organic?".

I certainly don't pay out deliberately for things labelled organic - for the garden or in our food consumption.
If it meant rescuing a plant from devastation I may well reach for some sort of spray but would check its harmful side effects first. I might even give up on those grounds (but more likely not bother if it was an expense!).
I compost and recycle.
I keep plastic use to a minimum and keep it off our land.
Look after and try and improve growing area soil.

OK. As I neared the door I felt quite confident.

Turned out they were lovely people and their definition was

"A practical way of producing food that makes best use of resources and works with the environment".

Came away thinking, yes I can do this! Which was a boost as retiring can knock your self confidence a bit.

So I may include a bit more about gardening in this blog and include news of things a Master Gardener may do.  I would encourage any keen gardener to join in!  www.gardenorganic.org.uk  (formerly Henry Doubleday research).

You Tube channel - Gardening

I hinted some weeks ago I was experimenting with You Tube and thinking about doing a gardening channel thing from the perspective of retirees who grow things to eat and eke out the UK State Pension.


It all started because my husband, the photographer with lots of expensive equipment, had been saying he would do something for months but could not work out the movie making and editing bit and of course wanted to buy more lovely equipment i.e. a drone. I got fed up with waiting for his motivation to kick in. So I challenged him to a contest. He put movie software on my old PC.  I shot a load of quick bits and in two hours achieved a 4 minute video and added narration and music and uploaded to You Tube. A month plus later he is still hesitating!



Over the last few weeks I have put up 4 videos on growing your own fruit and veg and am working on my last for the year. And I think it may be the best to date its got a few bells but no whistles!. Although they are not very sophisticated as I just use a point and shoot small digital camera held in my hand. I have not Vlogged (as they say) which is talking endlessly to camera. And I don't think that will ever be me!  Only yesterday found out I could put my little camera on my husband's tripod so I can do stuff in front of the camera.

I am not sure yet if it will be worth doing a lot of this, but I do know I know a lot more about growing fruit and veg than some people on You Tube! And there are not many "elders" sharing sensible growing for the cooking pot.

So I called my channel "Grow to eat" which was a mistake, I think, as it comes up on a search along side these body builders who eat to grow their bodies! There is also another channel with the same name, but You Tube did not tell me that and mine loaded anyway. When you do an email address it usually automatically says there is another "MollyB" or whatever, in the system. Strange. 

Other strange thing, my family say I have put on a very posh voice. Honestly did not try to do that. It just comes out like that because I am still self conscience about sitting here with a mike talking to myself!

If you get time please go and look and give me some feedback.  I would be very grateful.


Here is a link to the first video.
(I think, It feels like I am still stumbling in the social media dark forest.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJd0NFZtzIg&t=21s


Now back to some more editing and learning before we go away for Xmas and for a short holiday somewhere a lot warmer than the British east coast in January!!

Loosing weight

In June my husband decided he was too heavy and it made his arthritic ankles worse. So overnight we decided to:
Not eat toast at breakfast time. Cereal only and check the portion size.
Not eat 2 (or is that a sneaky 3?) biscuits with coffee at 11am
Not eat a little something on toast at lunch time  - scrambled eggs for example
Not eat a slice of home made cake with afternoon tea at 4pm
Not have seconds at dinner time even if they were there. The extra would do for lunch the next day.
Cut meat down one more notch - 180gms between us rather than 200gms planned recently.
Cut out pasta. At least down to once a week.
No supper snacks like crisps and dips, a cake, a cheese and cracker plate.

There were days when I thought my tummy was eating me from inside but mostly it was OK.
We cook from scratch nearly 95% of the time, eat loads of fruit and veg we grow,  don't eat out much (once a month if that), don't eat sweets except at Xmas and don't eat much processed food anyway.

Results
I went from 13 stone 10 lbs to 11 stones 10 lbs. (87kg to 74kg)
Husband from 15 stones + to 14 stones 2 lbs. (95 to 89 kg)




Or from the NHS orange zone down to nearly in the green!
Can't wait for my next check up and blood tests when the Nurse can, possibly, "stuff" her disapproval and early diabetic advice (I hope).
But we are now stuck. Last 2/3 weeks we are on same weights. And it is getting colder and I want dumplings in my stews, etc!  Any suggestions to get to the ideal NHS weight of 11 st 2 lbs for me and 13st 3lbs for husband  - its not a lot!

Also how can I persuade the children at Xmas to stop trying to feed us up!!! Rotters are determined to show us a good time!

Grow it, Eat it

Yesterday's lunch.

Our potatoes were spoilt by wire worm so when peeling and sorting out we end up with lots of bits of potatoes  which I dice and par boil. I then put some oil and spices in a deep frying pan (turmeric, cumin, paprika, coriander) put in some garlic and onion, diced potatoes, any left over courgettes, peppers and tomatoes. In fact any bits left over! and some stock to just cover. In a few minutes you have a nice dish. If I have it I sometimes put in panacetta or bacon as an extra treat.

For pudding we have a lot of autumn raspberries still producing the odd berry. They go in a dish with a couple of spoons of granola and Greek yougart.

Does not cost a lot, except the kitchen always looks like a tornado hit it after all the preparation!

Salmon recipe

Picked up some nice salmon this week at the fish wholesalers this week and tried a new recipe.
For 4 fillets dusted with paprika - in melted 2 oz butter and fried 4 garlic gloves (minced) add.  When browned put in oven. Add -
2 tablespoons of honey
2 tablespoons of soy sauce
1  tablespoons of water

Spoon over fish in oven - looking for a crusty top!

Delicious.

Two fillets left in fridge overnight were flaked and stirred into pasta the next day and were very, very tasty.

I have two nice pieces of smoked haddock in freezer and will be looking for tasty meals at the end of the week.

Can we last out till Christmas?

Had a quick check round the garden today while it is still mild and fairly dry.

We still have just enough potatoes to last to Xmas. . Just as well as I saw the price of a bag of potatoes was £9.50!!  Last time I brought some (year before last) they were £7.50 a bag.

Two rows of carrots not started.  Old row has a few left but a lot are split and knarly.  Should be plenty!

A very few parsnips!  Shame. they did not grow well in the hot and dry summer.

Two sprout plants. That is plenty  as I don't like them - exclusive to the husband's plate.

One more giant cabbage - these last over a week!

Inside the poly tunnel we have a short row of spinach that I am picking occasionally to add to dishes as needed. Very nice and will stand till after Xmas.

There were plenty peppers and chilis to collect still.

These are lasting weeks in the fridge when picked so should carry us through. When I have a lot to hand I slice them and pop in any spare spaces in the freezer.  Must be more careful with the red chilis; I forgot that the more heat they got in the summer the hotter they are to taste. I forgot to keep the tunnel ones separate to the outside grown ones.  Good lord - they are way hotter!!!

In the poly tunnel Despite the best efforts of green caterpillars 6 cauliflower are filling out and should mature next month. This will make a great difference to our lunches.

We spent one morning in the tunnel clearing and digging over. It was warm and dry. So dry after the scorching summer, we had to leave a hose on the rain barrows for 2 days to dribble the water on the main beds to re soak them.  Least it was free water!  Now the beds are ready we have put some spring cabbage in there to come along over the winter.

Overall I think we will be fine till Xmas with supplying the majority of our own fresh veg.

Autumn harvest

Our weather is yo-yoing between warmish and wet and then clear and bright. Wednesday was a lovely day and two loads of washing were dry by 3.30 pm.  There is nothing more lovely than white sheets billowing brightly!
I managed some gentle gardening after lunch, taking care not to overdo the sore back (again) and brought it in a bucket of potatoes and this lovely collection of roots, leeks  and a cabbage.

Next year I must make sure my husband gets seeds for SMALL cabbages. Thee great big things keep us going for a week!

That evening there was an article on the news about sustainable food and buying local - we looked at one another and laughed.  Apart from the small amount of chicken brought locally from the butcher who buys only local products, 90% of our dinner had traveled 50 yards down the garden.

Plums

Hi

Isn't this weather lovely?  I think it is my favourite time of year.

Our three plum trees have done a bit better this year. No Victoria plums at all, but a good 2 kg from the yellow plum and the same in Damsons.  I made a pudding or two from them, and we had a few fresh but in the end had to put the majority into jam. We have fresh autumn raspberries and blackberries for immediate puddings.

I split the yellow plums, added an apple but took out the stones which I think was a mistake. I did some reading on the internet and for the damsons I left the stones in and it set much better.

The yellow plum turned a fairly nice colour but is still a little bit sharp.

The damson is very, very dark and really sweet and well set.  I have made a couple of mini jars for Christmas gifts (that is about as far as getting organised in advance I will ever get).

Asparagus

Today you could practically see the asparagus grow inch by inch in the extraordinary weather. So exhausted from digging and rotovating to try and get the veg beds ready I cut the first three stalks and went in to tea.

YUMMMMMMMY

Meal planning

Having now restocked the dry goods cupboard I popped down to the next village and spent £32 on
various meats, 1 kg of fresh fish and a tray of eggs.  I then spent the afternoon on dividing it all up to last over the next two weeks.  I have 17 main meals and 10 lunches where some meat is included.

Some is to be cooked in big batches - a mini roast lamb joint that our butchers sells for £2.90 and will last at least two main meals. Sometimes a bit also left for a lunch.
I also got a pack of shin of beef. Stewed in the slow cooker with beans it makes lovely meals for 2 days. I try to be good and restrict the addition of dumplings to just one day.  But its cold and I could weaken and have more. Weight loss will have to wait a bit longer.

The rest was all weighed into 200grm portions which is our shared protein for our main meal.

A bucket of fresh vegetable collected from the veg patch will help the week's meals.

Some weeks ago I was reading a blog of someone who used up odd shampoos for other cleaning.  Having got annoyed with how poor my supermarket own brand shampoo was I thought I'd use the rubbish up on cleaning up the stove top.  Great results!

No wonder it was doing nothing for my hair!

Shopping just in time

I was amused by Life After Money's blog and U tube video the other day about not shopping until unless you really you need to.  Look at our fridge 6 hours before the on-line supermarket delivers the fortnightly regular shopping.  I really need our shopping!

Half the jars in the door are jam stored there for the winter. What did we have for lunch? No eggs, no meat, no ...anything really.  Last two slices of bread, with a mix of last bits of cheeses grated and toasted with sliced tomatoes from the garden. Last two pears from the garden (finally ripened) and last two squares of home made carrot cake with a cup of tea using the last inch of milk.   Least it was easy to clean the fridge!

The fortnightly £42 shop (including £1 delivery charge and  £7 spent of stocking up loo rolls while they were on offer) but with plenty of basics - milk, marg, butter, eggs, cheese, for the fridge plus flour etc for the store cupboard means cooking fresh from scratch can continue.  We spent £26 in the butchers and £13 in the fish market in the next village, which will last over the next fortnight.   So about £40 per week for the two of us at the moment.  I keep about £10 in the house for the odd purchase in our limited village shops if needed.

Before I book the next basics order I will look carefully at the seasonal changes - its time to think about stews with dumplings and milk puddings. 

Autumn King carrots

An old fashioned variety but it has given as some very good late crops.  Two rows still doing well in the veg garden at the moment.

Nice long straight carrots!

So its been carrot soup, carrot cake, steamed carrots with every evening meal, grated carrots with salad.etc etc.

These will last till Xmas.  I recommend this variety.

Meanwhile I will sow some faster growing varieties in the poly tunnel for early spring.

Ripening pears

Despite our early spring fears about our tree fruit the Bramleys and pears have produced some fruit. We were unsure how to tell when pears were ripened. Apparently you pick them when a gentle pull detaches them from the tree and put them in with bananas -  this worked well for the comice pears.  But these conference pears have been in the bowl for a good week.

 Fresher bananas on today's shopping list. 

Any ideas? Or just cook with them to soften?

Excessive veg

What are you doing with your gluts of veg?
Cake
Carrot cake - I have got a WWW veg oil based recipe sorted now but I may try to make two third quantities as the whole thing is a bit too much when it is just for us two. Also I substitute half the walnuts with sultanas as nuts are not top of our favourite tastes. I often leave the cream cheese topping off (unless its a treat day) as the sugar levels are a bit much if you have a lump for coffee and afternoon tea in one day!  Note - home grown carrots are NOT like  commercial ones - less wet, not the same bright colour and if you leave them a day or two after picking they go too soft to grate!
Beetroot and chocolate cake - we are not that fond of chocolate cake so this one has not proved too popular but it did use up a couple of large beetroot (before the hare called the other night to devastate a large one left in the ground).

Soup
Tomato
Broccoli
Carrot
Curried Carrot
Minestrone/Vegetable -  a cabbage base plus just throw in what you have (except beetroot)
May get desperate next week - courgette with Stilton stirred in.

Relish
Tried a courgette one - not so successful
Red cabbage and red onion - oh yes, that is nice with just about anything!

I won't bore you with the endless salads from the garden - lettuce, toms, cucumbers, radish, beetroot.  Or the dinners with at least 3 veg choices plus freshly dug potatoes.
The other day it all got too much - we had tinned spaghetti on toast for lunch.

What else are we doing with the excess?  We have built a little stand from pallets and bits of ply and sell veg at the gate.  Last year we made £90 over the summer excess ( we just had a small box perched on some bricks then) - so far this year we have £30 in the jar. The pound coins will be in useful for car parking at the beach in August when the various family bring the grand children.

Nightshade plants

"What are nightshade plants?" My husband is reading a book about arthritis and keeps reading out bits with strange requests to change his diet.

"Nightshade? Belladonna? which you would definitely not eat. Or do you mean the fact tomatoes and potatoes are in the same DNA whatsit species family, once a long time ago, before they were refined?"

By this time he has read on "Tomatoes, potatoes, eggplants and peppers are not good for arthritis!"

"Really? Not sure about egg plants as never been a fan. But there is lots of vitamins in tomatoes and peppers. Anyway I am sure in moderation they are all fine."  These wretched american feel-good books, I must make sure the next one is UK based, but at least he is thinking about doing something about his health.

Gosh,I hope I sounded reassuring - there are stacks of ripening toms and peppers in our poly tunnel!  Now is not the time to be a fussy eater.

Thanks for the birthday wishes and nice comments  Have not been on line much as I am suffering from horse fly bites. I forgot to change out of shorts BEFORE cutting under a hedge.  Silly me.  Every time this happens (and it has been like this since early teens) I end up with great big swellings and on antibiotics.  Luckily the local health centre fitted me in immediately when I described the red line and swelling creeping up my leg! Will only take 24 hours to knock it on the head.

Onion crop

We have grown red and white onions from sets and they have now been harvested and put out to dry.

Only 3 had soft/white rot and not too many went to seed. So a good crop.  We would normally leave to ripen in the soil but the bed was so weedy we needed to get on top of it.  Trouble is finding space in sheds for open storage - one already has 30 garlic cloves drying out. Took those out to get rid of rust that was developing on the foliage.  These crops make a great difference to our shopping bills as we get through a bulb of garlic and a good pound of onions a week. (Saves about £1.50 a week).

Meanwhile my husband is growing GIANT onions from seed in the poly tunnel. 

At least nothing was eating them!  Chasing birds off everything at moment, especially the blackbirds who are desperate for anything juicy (it is so dry here there are no worms)  they have even started to nibble the ripe tomatoes in the poly tunnel.

Soft fruit

I have finally come up for air from underneath the avalanche of soft fruit which has all come at once and as promised I will contemplate what we have done with it all.

Strawberries growing in the poly tunnel  have fruited well as they were keep warm in cold and watered in the heat.  Picked 4 lbs every day for about 2 weeks.  They have finished now (thank goodness) and I have cleared the plants back to a nice green crown to re grow and I am keeping the runners under control) Outside the strawberry plants in the open ground have not done so well, in fact I think the blackbirds have taken nearly all the ripe fruit there has been.

Raspberries started small but followed strawberries quickly and have cropped well - collecting 4lbs every other day!  The autumn fruiting ones have not made much growth and may well not fruit till well into August.

Blackcurrants looked dreadful with yellow leaves and aphid damage and have ripened in batches of a pound or so every two days.   I did not think the gooseberries were doing well but eventually a good crop was picked especially the red desert variety which are much sweeter than the green ones.

We netted the tayberries this year having lost them all to the birds last year and this has worked well. The plant now 2 years old cropped well.

Rhubarb had an early flush then stopped all together as it was too dry. It is only just making some growth.

Blueberries are ripening slowly and only a handful have been picked. Blackberry (thornless, grown on wires for easy picking) crop is full of berries and a tinge of pink is appearing.

So what did we do with the crops?

Gave away about 10 lbs of fruit.

14 jars of jam.  The tayberry jam is particularly nice  (2 jars), the raspberry set well (6 jars)  I still have problems with strawberry (6 jars)and just can't get a good set.  I hesitate to make more as we don't use more than one jar a month.  A couple may go as gifts.

2 demi johns of wine.  One strawberry (4 lbs of fruit) and one raspberry (3lbs  of fruit with 8 oz of leftover dried sultanas in the must for a sweet wine).  I love blackberry wine so I am intending to get one more jar going this year.  They are happily sitting in the space under the stairs.

Frozen fruit:
10 lbs strawberries
10 lbs raspberries
6 lbs blackcurrants
2 lbs green gooseberries
12 lbs red gooseberries
Just one box of stewed rhubarb.

Fresh fruit for lunches and tea.  Lunch tends to be freshly picked fruit with yougart.  Evening meals we have gooseberry, black current and Tay berry crumble and the same with a sponge topping.   I tried a tart with tayberry - the bottom is a rich pastry case and the tayberries were sweetened with icing sugar and simmered with a packet of powered gelatin.

I am envious of blogger "That British Woman" who recently listed 51 blackcurrant recipes. I may need several such lists.

Spring bank holiday

Phew it has been hot! We took our boat down to its new mooring on the Great River Ouse. Bit of a performance to launch it on the narrow concrete slip way but luckily the lock  keeper wandered over to check our river licence and gave us a hand. This is a new location for us and we are looking forward to exploring the river system.

A family of swans floated by and we saw several interesting birds including a great crested grebe with young. 

We went down the river a bit and turned into the River Wissey. Just as we were remarking what a nice narrow river with overgrown banks full of wild flowers and deciding to do a three point turn back to our new mooring when a great big full width motor boat loomed up. Quick turn into the reeds and we beetled off out the way.  It was a busy bank holiday on the river!

We were going to eat lunch at the pub but it did not open till 12 noon and past experience was that it takes ages to get served (plus nothing on offer less than £12 a plate) so we had a quick cool drink and some crisps and came home for a late lunch.  This was the first packet of crisps I have had in a year - what happened to the fat and/or taste?  I had heard the producers have reduced fat, salt, etc in these foods but not realized the results were so revolting!

At home I found some cheap prawns in the freezer my daughter in law had left after a recent visit and used these to flavour a risotto with our spinach and topped with some asparagus from the garden.

Plenty of lettuce in the poly tunnel and my husband has started to harvest some cucumbers from the greenhouse.  So we are deep into salads at present - no tomatoes ready yet.  The plants are about 18 /24 inches high and have flowers; so it won't be long!