Recipe Roundup

Needless to say, after my last post I've been busy in the kitchen trying to wrangle a few gluts.

First up were the courgettes, the best use for them so far must surely be the Courgette Brownie recipe I picked up from Mumsnet. I used 100% courgettes instead of half courgettes and half carrots and chocolate chips instead of nuts (This is a bit like Theseus' paradox, if you change the ingredients is it still the same recipe?). There was a cloak and dagger element to the preparation as I couldn't let the children know there were (gasp!) vegetables in them. My deception paid off and the girls adored the dark, moist, indulgent tasting brownies and I could polish my good mum halo as they chomped down the courgettes.

Next were my bounteous crop of tomatoes. My whole reason for growing lots of toms this year was to repeat the Ketchup I made last year. Incidentally, I was out attempting to pick some wild apples for the recipe and, to my horror, discovered many local trees completely bare. Is anyone else finding the same? I'm wondering if the dry spring had something to do with it. I may even be driven to the extremes of paying for cooking apples for goodness sake.

Finally, I used my plums to make Plum and Lavender jam after being inspired to try the maceration technique by drroothair's comment on my Yellow Bullace Jam post. It took ages to stone the fruit but once that drudgery was out of the way it's a lovely way to make jam although I have to admit I went for the 'just boil it all up' method rather than fiddling about removing bits and then re-adding them. I couldn't taste the lavender in the final product at all but luckily, it didn't set first time so I re-boiled it and added some mixed spice which produced a lovely, tangy jam I was very pleased with. Hmmm, Theseus raises his head again, if you change the spices and the technique .....

Now, breakfast time, I'm off to pick some tomatoes for fresh tomatoes on toast - it's a hard life!

"The time has come" the gardener said,

"to talk of many things, of sheds and hoes and summer squash, of cabbages in spring" (with apologies to Lewis Carol)

I got a phone call last night from the secretary of the allotment association at our new Diss plot. We're not allowed our own sheds down there but instead have to rent one of the block of Council built sheds for the princely sum of £2 per year. The only trouble is that since the plots were divided in half there are half as many sheds as plots so there's a waiting list to get a shed. I've been waiting since I took on the plot in October and the phone call last night let me know I'd finally got to the top of the list so the upshot is - I have a shed!

This morning I went to investigate and transfer numerous things from our garage to the shed - including my treasured wheel hoe. It's much more convenient to keep it on site but I am a bit nervous about security, I'd be very upset if it was stolen. Not so much for the monetary value but the difficulty of getting hold of a replacement.

Now, I may not be cabbage looking but the purple sprouting broccoli certainly is. I bought a tray of seedlings from a car boot sale a couple of months ago, planted 5 of them, 4 have come up as broccoli but one has turned into a cabbage! Quite what my fellow allotmenteers make of me growing a single cabbage I don't know. Probably not as much as me growing enough summer squash to feed an army.

Talking of which - one of my growing goals this year was a basket of mixed summer squash and today I achieved it. I picked my first Patty Pan squash, aren't they amazing? I've not grown them before and I think I may have let these ones grow too big. I was waiting for them to turn snowy white like the picture on the seed packet but they're stayed vaguely green tinged, I'll probably pick them smaller in future. But look, Patty Pan squash, yellow courgettes and stripy courgettes, crook neck squash to come in the near future. This is why I have an allotment, you can't buy a basket like that in Tesco - I've got mixed tomatoes in my sights for next year.

Courgette Curse strikes again

Regular readers will know that courgettes are unfeasibly popular here in the Kitchen. Back in the day when I was struggling to grow what I could in my tiny garden they were a blessing as they give a generous crop in return for the smallest corner of ground. Having a glut was a novelty and I embraced the challenge with gusto - courgette cake, roasted courgette, courgette soup, courgette pickle, courgette jam, I love them all.

Therefore the great courgette tragedy of 2009, when I lost my slender green friends to mosaic virus, was a bitter blow. It's not just the loss of a popular vegetable but the ignominy of being unable to grow something universally acknowledged as a 'beginners' plant which is derided rather than celebrated for it's fecundity. Truth be told, I think it's the latter point that drives me on in my quest to conquer the courgette more than anything else.

2010 got off to a shaky start. I finally got my long awaited allotment (hoorah!) so the problem of being unable to use my mosaic virus infested garden was solved. I planted 4 courgette plants (2 green and 2 stripy) but I underestimated how exposed the allotment site was and all 4 plants went into shock after the cosiness of my back garden. I bit my nails for a week or two before they got a grip and started to actually grow.

It's true we had a glut after our holiday when the courgettes had been left to their own devices and a handful grew to monster proportions but the actual number of fruit was surprisingly low. The stripy variety in particular seemed to have quite a low yield, although I do wonder if this had something to do with their early shock.

Which brings us up to date. This year I have 2 allotments so space is far from an issue and I went to town! I sowed yellow courgettes, round courgettes and patty pan squash plus a friend kindly gave me a couple of crook neck squash seedlings. So courgettes all round then?

Hmmm, not so sure. I planted 2 yellow and 2 round on the allotment, only for us to have a frost a mere 2 days later, 1 of each type (plus a cucumber) was felled and the remaining plants have that familiar stunned look about them. Luckily my crook neck and patty pan squash were still at home and my sheltered garden escaped the frost so I'll plant a few more of those to step into the beach.

However, note to self for 2012 - don't plant the courgettes out til mid-May, it's just not worth the heartache!

Today's Home Grown Haul.

The first courgettes of the season! Hurrah! I discovered them in typical courgette fashion, ie "Good Lord! When did that pop up? Better chop it down quick before it turns into a marrow", it was even more of a surprise as it turned up on the runtiest plant on the allotment, one which was chilled by the late frost this year has sulked ever since. I was sure that my pampered courgette in our toasty, sheltered back garden would win the race but it's fruit are looking quite weedy in comparison. I'm very excited about making my courgette pickle again this year, it proved really quite popular so I'll be making lots this round.

Continuing on the squash theme, I'm growing 3 pumpkin plants for the first time this year. One Crown Prince from seed saved from the pumpkin Rachel gave me last year and two anonymous orange ones I bought from the garden centre and then forgot to keep their labels (oops). The anonymous plants are huge and have begun to set lots of little fruit. I've read that I need to keep a maximum of 3 fruit per plant to get them to a decent size so I chopped a few little ones off but have kept about 5 fruit on each, I'm fearful that if I go down to 3 straight away there's a risk they may fail for some reason or other. I'll wait til they get a bit bigger (they're golf ball sized at the moment) and then chop the two weakest/smallest off.

Has anyone out there grown summer squash other than courgettes, Patty Pan or similar? I was thinking of giving them a go next year but I'm not sure what they taste like, are they just courgettes in a pretty dress?

The Vegetable Headlines today are ......

Rabe Broccoli: Was very nice but isn't really broccoli like at all. Everything is eaten, the leaves, stalks and florets. The bottom 6cm or so of the stalks are really very fiberous so they're best cut off, the leaves wilt right down like spinach (and also has a similar minerally taste) which is a relief on the emergency chomping front as I've not got the mountain of veg I first imagined. The recipe I tried was lovely, highly recommended.

Broad Beans: Having pinched the tops out I decided to keep the pinchings (not sure that's an actual technical term) to cook at home. I arrived back from the allotment with a carrier bag bulging with beans tops, Raab Broccoli and Radishes which I left in the hallway when I came in. About half an hour later I went back to it to find an army of winged creatures teeming out of the bag and making their way determinedly up my walls. I would have screamed and flung the bag outside if I hadn't remembered that not only am I gardener but am northern to boot and therefore made of sterner stuff, so I placed the bag outside in a calm and seemly fashion. Now I just have to come up with a way to use up a carrier bag full of bean tops.

Potatoes: I began to worry about my potatoes at home after seeing several plots at the allotment had flowering potatoes already whereas mine are showing no signs of doing so, yet were planted out much earlier. I rummaged around in the bags and was horrified to discover the soil at the bottom of the bags was bone dry, despite several days of heavy rain here. I didn't realise that the bags seem to be in the rain shadow on the fence. I've obviously given them a good watering so it's now a matter of keeping my fingers crossed and see what happens.

Courgettes: I've got my first courgette flowers! I initially bought 3 courgette plants, planted 1 at home and 2 on the allotment. The one at home has gone from strength to strength in the shelter of our high fences but the allotment courgettes struggled in their exposed position in the cold snap we had (despite cloches). In a panic I planted a few more courgette seeds as I couldn't face a second courgette-less year after the 2009 Mosaic virus incident so I now also have 3 baby courgette seedlings planted out on the plot. Some may call it disorganised - I call it succession planting!

2010 season rolls on apace ....

The first shoots have appeared at the allotment, pictured are our broad beans, finally coming up. I was beginning to think I'd never see them again....

Rainbow Chard, carrot and broccoli seeds have gone in but it's early days so no seedlings yet. Our fruit trees and red currants are doing well, raspberries showing tentative signs of life but the courgettes are ailing. I think it's a combination of sunny days, no rain and a strong, cold wind as the leaves haven't wilted in the conventional way but gone all crispy. I've ordered some shelter netting as protection against the wind which I hope will also slow down water loss from the ground but until it arrives I've put cloches over the courgettes and am hoping they pull through. After last year's mosaic virus debacle, my confidence in my courgette growing abilities has taken a knock, I thought they were supposed to be easy?!

Things are mostly looking good at home. The salad potatoes are doing well, they're shooting up and seem to need earthing up every 5 minutes. I'm still waiting for signs of life from the Runner beans, peas, pumpkins and rainbow chard seeds. The radishes are like the curate's egg - good in parts. The lower row look fine but the top row are small and some are wilting, no idea why. I'm wondering if a cat has somehow managed to perch on the fence and pee on them (which, if true, is a trick that would do well on Britain's Got Talent) The courgettes in pots at home, in contrast to their allotment brethren, are doing well when not subjected to the attentions of neighbourhood cats trying to sit in the pot (despite it being festooned in netting and whirling windmills (the pot, not the cat))

Now that there isn't so much pressure on the space at home I'm finding myself considering (gasp) ornamental plants. The bean frame I grew borlotti beans on last year is home to sweet peas, at Willow's request, this year. The Jerusalem artichoke patch is being turned into a herb garden to allow me to indulge my interest in collecting obscurish herbs. The other day I raided an honesty table and brought home Sorrel, Winter Savoury, Loveage (to go with the Lettuce) and Salad Burnet which together with my pea shoots, mizuna and lollo rosso should make interesting salads this year.

I'm surprisingly nervous about the success of the allotment crops, I feel all exposed and wonder if my fellow allotmenteers are judging my efforts, so I'm anxiously waiting for further signs of green amongst the huge expanse of bare soil as a badge of success. Come on seeds, don't let me down!

NB* Apologies for the internal links not working properly, I've no idea why, Blogger seems to have repeated problems with them.

Chilli Day

Oh the ups and downs of jam making! After the success of the Lavender Jelly I confidently plunged headlong into Chilli Jelly. I found a recipe on a blog I can usually rely on, 600g crab apples, 35g chillis, 1 litre of water. I paused, a litre? Seems like a lot, maybe it tones down the chilli? Dunno, but as it's a trusted source I ploughed on (I seem to have a history of ignoring nagging doubts at my peril) The apples seemed happy bobbing luxuriously in their spacious waterbath which seemed odd as usually the fruit doesn't have enough water to float but hey, let's see what happens ...

It was quite late by the time I potted up the jelly last night so I left it to set, put the pans in to soak and went to bed. I was really quite surprised this morning when I came to label the jelly and discovered it was stone cold but still liquid. Not exactly a major disaster, I just re-boiled it and it has now set, reducing the yield by 1lb in the process, but a pain in the bum none the less.

Normally when making jam/jelly I put just enough water in to stop the fruit catching on the bottom of the pan then add more if I feel it's getting a bit too thick. I guess the problem is the amount of water in the fruit will naturally vary according to ripeness/size so the amount of water can't be dictated exactly. This is where a smidge of experience comes in handy - must remember to trust mine more!

Elsewhere in the Norfolk Kitchen today, I got the 3rd rather wobbly courgette from Rachel's transplaneted plant - hoorah! I also made some fairy cakes with Willow and her friend from school. They were a 5 year old girl's dream, silver cases and pink sparkly sprinkles. I had the bright idea of making lilac icing by squeezing some blackberry juice into the white icing. Can't say I recommend it, it came out a sort of dirty grey/purple colour but experiments built up into experience don't they?

And finally, we decided to dash out after dinner to get some elderberries but were foiled by a sudden, heavy downpour. From a chilli day to a chilly day - Autumn's just around the corner I fear.

Look at my Radishes!

*Sob* While we were away the caterpillars were obviously at play, all the mizuna has gone the same way too. The radishes themselves seem to be fine and are very much still edible though so it could be worse and they seem to be the only casualty of our holiday.

The tumbling toms were all very ripe so I harvested the lot this morning and we had them on toast for breakfast and the larger, main crop toms in the mini greenhouse are beginning to ripen. I have a few borlotti beans hiding in the human shrub alike which the bean frame has turned into. The butternut squash is bigger than even and has a couple of buds on it, swiss chard is ginormous and the salad and basil have gone crazy.

I think the courgette needs to be put out of it's misery though, it seems to have had some sort of vegetal breakdown. It's making a lot of baby courgettes, sending out new 'crowns' all over the shop but none are actually maturing, they're not getting more than about 5cm long before they wither and rot. Still, Rachel has brought round a large bag of courgettes to compensate so I'm going to be busy making courgette pickle this weekend, along with yellow bullace jam and a blackberry cake I've had an idea for. Busy, busy, busy.

Courgette Frustration

Right, so you know the story, sorry, I mean saga of my courgettes this summer? I bought the seeds, planted them, cared for them diligently and they develop mosiac virus. So I ditch my precious seedlings and Rachel kindly steps into the breach with her transplaneted courgette. Said courgette seems to be doing fine, then waivers a little, and finally rallies.

So at the moment, all in the garden is well, the courgettes are growing nicely, in fact will be ready to harvest in the next few days. "Great!" you say "Fab! Bet you can't wait!" Indeed I can't. But there's one small spanner in the works. We're going on holiday for two weeks on Saturday. So will I get to eat my harvest after my Herculean efforts? No. They can't wait til we get back as they'd be huge fluffy marrows by then so instead they'll go to my lovely neighbour who is kindly watering the veg and feeding the chickens for us.

Please understand I don't begrudge her a few courgettes/eggs/tomatoes for her kindness but for the love of God, am I to have no courgettes this year???

Excuse me while I go and swear to myself in a corner.

Transplaneted Courgette

Transplaneted? That's a typo I made on Twitter some time ago when talking about transplaneted basil seedlings. It tickled me and now I can't say transplanted in the normal fashion.

Rachel's transplaneted courgette has been behaving in an interesting but slightly odd way. At first I thought it was doing fine as it was putting up flowers and one courgette grew although it was a funny shape which I put down to transplant shock. However, the other baby courgettes and flowers didn't develop, they died and fell off the plant. I was worried at this stage but what seems to have happened is that the original 'crown' (no idea if that's the correct horticultural term by the way!) where the courgettes develop has died back but the plant has gradually put out two new crowns. Baby courgettes and flowers appear to now be growing normally from both.

I'm desperately hoping they continue to grow and I'll finally get a courgette crop as I've only had one this year which is a blow not only to my appetite for courgettes but to my gardener's pride. Oh the shame of not being able to produce a glut of the simplest, most novice friendly veggie in the patch, where's that dunce's hat?

Bens update as requested!

The garden seems to be motoring along nicely now, the recent combination of heat and torrential downpours have caused a frenzy of veggie activity.

The children's' 'bens' are just poking up above the soil. The Borlotti beans are doing well too, sprouting up much quicker than the ones I planted in the front garden which makes me wonder if the front garden is sunny enough for them. The courgette is struggling a bit with the extreme hot weather so it's receiving a bit of intensive care, watering twice a day and I've hung towels on the washing line in strategic places to shield it from the worst of the sun. The good old reliable Jerusalem Artichokes are towering like giants over everything, providing much needed shade for the lollo rosso.

Cropping is beginning now, over the weekend we harvested petit pois and broad beans and my first crop of mixed cut and come again salad leaves has been exhausted, the pea shoots are doing well and should be really to go in the salad very soon.

Thinking ahead, I'm in the process of drying out some seeds from Rachel's pumpkin. If the allotment goes ahead we can plant them out there next year.

Now all I need is the radish sky scraper to be installed, Adam has made noises about putting it up tonight so watch this space!

Today's bounty, neither foraged nor grown.

Debatable whether it warrants a mention on the blog really! This morning started with a visit to Rachel to collect her very kindly donated courgette plant. It's now sitting in the back garden, fully potted up and licking it's wounds in a sulky kind of way. Fingers crossed it makes it through the night. She also very kindly gave me a couple of courgettes and a pumpkin. I'm toying with the idea of pumpkin chutney if I can find a recipe.

The chickens have had a preliminary scrub, they were kicked out of the coop early this morning while it was pressure washed. Tomorrow we break out the Jeyes fluid, anti mite spray and diotoms, the lucky, lucky birds.

Then it was on to Paddock Farm Shop in Mulbarton which is a charming farm shop/butchers/PYO fruit farm. It's a lovely shop, idyllic spot, yummy cakes and cheese and chutney tastings, what more could a girl want? I've decided that when I grow up I want a fruit farm, definitely my fantasy job.

However, it's all too easy to forget we're not foraging and have to actually pay for this stuff. We picked and picked and picked (and ate and ate and ate) then got a shock at the till. Going on last year's experience it should hopefully be enough for around 20 1lb jars of jam so I have my work cut out for the next couple of days.

The strawberry/raspberry jam is the pinnacle of my jam making year, very much a treat that we're happy to pay for. Later in the year we'll pick wild fruit which is the rather more workaday backbone of the jam store. No less tasty but certainly cheaper and rather more plentiful.

And there they were - gone

I've now accepted the inevitable and binned the courgettes. I'm pretty sure it's mosaic virus they've got. The symptoms are yellow, withered leaves and stunted growth. Although my courgettes weren't withered they were very yellow and growing very slowly. According to Google fruit from infected plants doesn't make good eating so I've cut my losses.

Apparently I now can't plant the infected spot with courgettes for a year which is a shame. If our allotment plan comes together we should be ok though as we can plant courgettes there next spring. I've also washed my tools in hot, soapy water to kill any virus hanging around on them.

Rachel has very kindly stepped into the breach and offered me one of her courgette plants, I'm going to plant it in a bag of compost and sit it on top of the infected soil so the plant isn't growing directly in it. I've replaced my potted courgette with more strawberry plants and hopefully there will also be borlotti and french bean seedlings to throw into the mix.

Sadly, my troubles don't end there. My healthy borlotti bean in the front garden has suffered an injury of some sort and it's growing shoot has broken off so it won't grow any taller. The seeds I planted aren't showing any signs of coming up. Personally, I suspect the portly sparrow perched on the chard tubs has got something to do with that, my evidence being the holes in the ground where the seeds used to be. When I finally plant out the bean seedlings from the back garden, I'm going to have to construct yet more netting swathed structures around the place. Sigh.

Courgette Anxiety

Over the last week or so I've spent more energy than is healthy fretting over the fate of my courgettes. The yellowing hasn't gone but it has stopped spreading which is good but they're also growing reeeeeeeally sloooooowly whereas last year the speed with which they threatened to take over the garden was quite terrifying so I'm a bit concerned.

If they do fail I will be gutted. I love courgettes. They're fabulous value for space in a small garden, giving a pretty heavy yield for the square footage they take up. Courgettes seem to be a bit of a joke in the gardening community, derided as easy to grow and the annual glut they produce seen as a burden rather than a blessing. I seem to remember a joke involving the Amish, their enemies and courgettes but in typical girly fashion I can't remember the punchline - if anyone knows the joke I mean please remind me and put me out of my misery.

However, I adore courgettes, there can never be too many in my kitchen. Roasted courgettes are a hugely versatile side dish and can easily use up 3 or 4 in one meal for a family of 4, they're also a reliable stand by to use up in kebabs on a bbq. I love Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall's recipe for courgette pasta sauce (scroll down to courgettes on toast), it's not diet friendly being heavy on oil and cheese but it's heavenly. I'd love to try courgette chutney too but so far, haven't had enough courgettes left over to make any!

At least my stand by courgette plant in the front garden is looking healthy and has a few baby fruit on it. I'm worrying about what to do with my courgette bed in the back if I do give up on the plants. I'm reluctant to buy more courgette plants in case there's a virus been passed into the soil but the courgette bed is the sunniest spot in my shady garden so I want to make the most of it and get a crop of some description from it.

So this morning I've planted the remainder of my borlotti bean seeds in a tray. I'll give the courgettes another couple of weeks or so and if they recover fine, if not hopefully the beans will have grown enough to be planted out and take their place.

Photo special

Just thought I'd let you see how the Borlotti bean is doing. As hoped it has romped away up the bean frame and doesn't appear to be mourning it's brethren too much. Also pictured is my yellow courgette (why don't they come in red so I can make up a pun about a little red courgette?) I'm going to put down some nitrogen fertilizer later on so fingers crossed that stops the leaves going yellow.