Harvesting in January

So I have a confession…

I have not worked in the vegetable garden at all this Christmas break.

I know, very bad. But I was juggling work, university work and working in the pig run to prevent it from resembling the battle of the Somme over winter. Those are my only excuses.

Despite my lack of care, the garden has looked after itself pretty well (the grass is thriving in all of the beds it should not be in…)

It has been so long since I worked over there regularly that I had actually forgotten what I still had planted and left to harvest. I had forgotten the kale, the rest of the sprouts and carrots, the tree cabbage… all I thought we had left were potatoes. So I made a big effort and harvested and prepared lots of our produce during the week.

Carrots: these are the last of the carrots sown this year. They were under horticultural fleece and managed to survive some of the freezing temperatures we had suddenly. Not one has rotted so thank goodness we are on sandy soil. They were delicious and not a lot of damage or forking going on. We even had one gorgeous proper sized carrot!

Think they are ‘Flyaway’ carrots.

Celeriac: first homegrown celeriac harvested from this crop. I know, lazy. But it was in really good condition, a good size, and tasted really good. I like to boil mine but roasting them makes an excellent replacement/accompaniment to roasted parsnips as they apparently taste the same. I have also eaten it raw, grated with apple, in a salad and that is surprisingly good too.

Brussel Sprouts – the left over small ones from Christmas finished up. They did really well and packed a punch to the taste-buds.

Kale – the kale is still alive and doing pretty well despite the various slug/pigeon/ cabbage white attacks it had this year. I do love kale boiled and it goes great in stews, on top of pizzas, in casseroles or stir fries. Kale is brilliant because it fills in the cold ‘hungry gap’ aka, winter, when most other things aren’t available.

Garlic – I sneak up a bulb every time I need it. Garlic is still prolific in our garden from years of growing it.

Potatoes – Too. Many. Luckily, they taste really good and are in pretty good condition.

All of this dinner was homegrown, except the lentils. Self-sufficient and proud of my little garden for doing so well all on its own.

Christmas from the garden

Christmas is one of the busiest times in the kitchen, but it doesn’t mean you can’t pop out to the garden too… especially to harvest things.

Christmas cooking can be like the climax of the harvested year. You can give your jams away as presents, eat redcurrant and cranberry jelly and sauce with your Christmas meal. Harvested chestnuts or other nuts can be used in desserts. Dried cranberries or raisins are great for puds. And of course, anything that is still green at this time of year can be added to your wreath or house for festive cheer.

Dried Cranberry Chocolate Cake anyone?

But you don’t have to stop there… what about the main Christmas meal?

What about growing and cooking your own Christmas dinner?

For future thinking, here are some traditional Christmas dinner things you could plan to grow for next Christmas:

• Potatoes – we always plant so many we still have plenty in the ground come Christmas day. As long as they are well buried and not planted in too damp a place, potato tubers will be fine against the frosts.
• Brussel Sprouts or Brukale (Brussel sprout crossed with kale).
• Kale
• Broccoli
• Carrots – yes, you can still be harvesting carrots from the ground at Christmas, if you cover them with fleece.
• Parsnips
• Cabbages
• Beetroot – why not add some to your roasted roots?
• Celeriac – ditto, or a celeriac mash? Or just boiled?
• Celery – homemade stuffing anyone? And in that case how about freezing some pears or storing some apple too?
• Onions
• Runner- beans or peas – store them in your freezers all year round from the first harvest onwards.
• Pumpkin or squash – usually USA’s Thanksgiving, I know, but how about roasting some and creating a vegetarian/vegan replacement for the usual meat?

Homegrown Brussels and Brukale

Christmas is a holiday, a time of celebration and of having fun with loved ones. To me, it is also a time to be creative and original, to do what I love by going back and cooking from scratch, a way of tying up my year of cooking and growing. This year we will be having our own cabbage, beans, pumpkin, celeriac, beetroot, carrots, potatoes and Brussel Sprouts, not to forget homegrown redcurrant jelly and homemade cranberry sauce… What a way to celebrate an end to 2018!

RIP David Austin Sr. 

What do you grow/dream of growing for Christmas time? Let us know.

For Christmas baking recipes, check out Beagle Baking (https://bellasbakingsite.wordpress.com/home/)

Just type ‘Christmas’ into the search bar and it will show you some festive treats.

And then, after all that food, just follow Rainbow’s advice:

Bed.

Recipe: Kidney beans and fried onion

Such an easy, simple dish but tastes so good. 

Homegrown potato, runner beans and onion, fried with kidney beans in olive oil, and mashed with butter

Kidney Beans and Fried Onion

(Serves 4)

-Dash of olive oil, for frying -450g kidney beans (drained if canned, soaked and cooked if dried) -1 large onion, sliced 

1. Warm the olive oil in a frying pan. Add the onion and fry until just starting to turn golden.
2. Add the kidney beans and turn the heat down to medium and heat for a couple of minutes. 
3. Remove from the heat and serve with a baked potato mashed with butter, a side salad or some veggies. 

Red Cabbage

Just look at that red cabbage… homegrown and harvested from the plot yesterday.

It was the first time I have ever grown red cabbages before and I thought it was so beautiful, I decided to eat some. I went from cabbage hater, to ‘green cabbages are ok’ to ‘wow, red cabbages are good cooked too!’

Why should we eat cabbages?

89g of raw cabbage contains –

• Protein: 1g
• Fibre: 2g
• Vitamin K: 85% of the RDI
• Vitamin C: 54% of the RDI
• Folate: 10% of the RDI
• Manganese: 7% of the RDI
• Vitamin B6: 6% of the RDI
• Calcium: 4% of the RDI
• Potassium: 4% of the RDI
• Magnesium: 3% of the RDI

Vitamin B6 and folate are essential for many important processes in the body, including energy metabolism and the normal functioning of the nervous system. Cabbage is especially high in vitamin C, a potent antioxidant that may protect against heart disease, certain cancers and vision loss. While both green and red cabbage are excellent sources vic C, red cabbage contains about 30% more. One cup (89 grams) of chopped red cabbage packs in 85% of the recommended intake for vitamin C, which is the same amount found in a small orange. So I might avoid Fresher’s flu…

Cruciferous vegetables like cabbage contain many different antioxidants that have been shown to reduce chronic inflammation. Sulforaphane, kaempferol and other antioxidants found in brassicas are likely responsible for their anti-inflammatory effect.

Cabbage is full of gut friendly insoluble fibre, a type of carbohydrate that cannot be broken down in the intestines. Insoluble fiber helps keep the digestive system healthy by adding bulk to stools and promoting regular bowel movements. Cabbage is also rich in soluble fibre which has been shown to increase the number of beneficial bacteria in the gut. These bacteria perform important functions like protecting the immune system and producing critical nutrients like vitamins K2 and B12. Eating cabbage keeps your digestive system happy.

Red cabbage contains powerful compounds called anthocyanins. They give this vegetable its vibrant purple colour. Anthocyanins are plant pigments that belong to the flavonoid family. Many studies have found a link between eating foods rich in this pigment and a reduced risk of heart disease. Cabbage contains more than 36 different kinds of anthocyanins…

How to eat it?

Raw is probably best as most of the nutrients will be withheld that can sometimes leave during the cooking process. But I find raw cabbage icky. Steamed is the next best, followed by boiled, roasted, fried.

We boiled it and ate our red cabbage with lots of other homegrown produce for dinner – potatoes, sweetcorn, green Savoy cabbage, carrots, runner beans and courgette. It was beautiful and yummy and helped to ease my sore gut that had been suffering all day. See – homegrown produce is so good for you!

Update: one more pumpkin left to harvest… the other plants have all turned brown and died from powdery mildew so I cut their fruits off and took them inside to cure (more information here for those who are interested: Curing pumpkins). I’m leaving the last one on to make sure it ripens more and will take it away when the plant finally has to go.

Blight has hit the veg garden and the potatoes are starting to go – thank goodness it came so late this year as the main crop potatoes have managed to grow properly before the disease came. The tomatoes are going to suffer and I am expecting a lot of green ones to fall off soon but we did pretty well with the red tomatoes being grown outside this year in this once in a lifetime heatwave.

The autumn harvest of raspberries is being as wonderful as always. We had them last night for dessert along with homemade chocolate brownie ice cream and cookies and cream ice cream (recipes can be found on my Beagle Baking blog:

Chocolate Fudge Brownie Ice Cream

https://bellasbakingsite.wordpress.com/2018/07/27/cookies-and-cream-ice-cream/  ).

Ratatouille, new fiction book, and a blog post

Picked first green-gage plums yesterday and collected a fallen ‘Victoria’ plum off the ground too. Blackberries are ripening. Broccoli has been picked. Five pumpkins are growing. It is August now – so that basically means autumn in the UK, but there is talk of 30C at the end of the week…

 

Yesterday I harvested our first aubergine – eggplant – of the year and made Ratatouille. I have posted a recipe before, but I think this one was better, so I will re-write it in a moment.

One of the best things about this dinner is that everything (except for the olive oil for frying and the rice I ate with it) is homegrown.

Very exciting!

So here is the updated recipe:

Ratatouille  

 

(Serves 4)

-Olive oil, for frying in – 1 onion, sliced – 1 large aubergine (eggplant), sliced into small chunks – 2 medium sized courgettes (zucchini), sliced into discs – 1 red bell pepper, sliced into small chunks – 1 large garlic clove, diced – 250g fresh tomatoes, sliced in half – Salt and pepper, for seasoning

1. Heat the oil in a large pan. Fry the sliced onion and aubergine, turning it down to simmer.
2. Add the sliced courgette and pepper. Add the diced garlic and the tomatoes, stirring to combine.
3. Leave to simmer for at least 15 minutes – 30 minutes, the longer the better, stirring now and then.
4. Once the vegetables are tender and the tomatoes have broken down, releasing their juices to become a sauce, add salt and pepper for seasoning and remove from the heat and serve hot in dishes.

Option: serve with potato, sweet potato or rice, and any other vegetables for a hearty meal.

Other news: Firstly, my new fiction book, Crazy Killer Sister, is available now. If you fancy a summer read, please consider? I’m not one for advertising so apart from Facebook, this blog is the only way I promote it!

And finally, I was fortunate to be able to write a blog post for Angie Viet’s, an eating disorder recovery blog, on how gardening helped my own recovery.

Here is the link if anyone is interested:

https://www.angieviets.com/articles/6-ways-gardening-strengthened-my-recovery

 

Have a good week y’all!

First red pepper ready – recipe!

Picked our first red pepper today (we have had a couple of green ones already that have fallen off early). Time to celebrate with a new recipe…

This is a little sneak peak into my cookery book for using up surpluses of vegetables and fruit from the garden or market – which is getting closer to being ready…

Enjoy!

Late Summer Fry

(Serves 2)

 -2 large potatoes (or the equivalent as small potatoes), cut into chunks -1 medium sized courgette, sliced -4 broadbean pods, shelled -300g runner beans, sliced –Olive oil, for frying -1 large pepper, de-seeded and sliced -1 fennel bulb, diced

1. Bring three pans of water to the boil. In one, boil the potatoes until cooked, approximately 15 minutes. In another, boil the courgette and broadbeans, in the last, the runner beans. When cooked, drain and set to one side.
2. In a non-stick pan, heat the olive oil and add the sliced pepper and fennel. Over a high flame, fry until they start to brown. Add the boiled courgette and broadbeans, turning the flame down to a simmer. Stir them in. Remove from the heat – you want the courgette and broadbeans to only be slightly browned – and serve over potatoes and runner beans.

A Jammy Week – update

It has been a week of making preserves here.

Mum made her jostaberry (gooseberry and blackcurrant cross) jam.

I’ve just made blackcurrant jam and more raspberry.

Recipe: Raspberry Jam      Recipe: Blackcurrant Jam

Not much has been going on in the veg patch as time has been taken up with watering and picking, again. The raspberries are nearly over, the strawberries have finished. Now we are onto harvesting potatoes, runner beans and courgette/ zucchini by the bucket-load.

Also picked this week beetroot, broadbeans, cucumber, lettuce, rocket, spinach, first tomatoes, blueberries, blackcurrants, loganberries, boysenberries, jostaberries, redcurrants, onion, garlic.

A much of ALL homegrown produce – cucumber, lettuce, rocket, spinach, potatoes, broadbeans and beetroot. Self-sufficient! 

Bad news is the birds are still being pesky. We have quite a few pairs of blackbirds taking up residence in the acre. They already stripped the morello cherry by sneaking under the netting and stripped a blackcurrant bush yesterday that got exposed. They are not very good at sharing…

Slugs and snails – touch wood – have not been trouble lately due to the hot dry weather but almost had a heart attack when I nearly stepped on a grass snake when I was locking up the other day.

And finally, celebrated my sister’s 20th with a homemade cake which I have to share because it has unicorns on it…

To get the recipe, check it out here — https://bellasbakingsite.wordpress.com/2018/07/18/sachertorte/

Have a good week, everyone!

Update: Summer Evening

Ah, what better way to spend an afternoon in July walking the dog, having a swim and then eating homegrown and harvested courgette and peas for dinner while reading a Thomas Hardy novel?

Just the classic easy-go-to-when-can’t-be-bothered-or-am-in-a-rush meal: spaghetti, parmesan, ketchup (because ketchup is good) and the before mentioned courgette and peas.

Does anyone else find it strangely satisfying to pod peas? I feel so proud when I see the little green circles inside the pods.

So: the update for the garden is literally hosing, moving the sprinkler, picking raspberries, picking strawberries, picking raspberries, picking reducurrants, picking raspberries, picking blackcurrants, picking raspberries, planning to pick jostaberries and failing, and, yes, picking more raspberries. The strawberries are nearly over and the raspberries have taken off. Slight problem: way too many to eat, not going to stand in a kitchen and make boiling hot jam in the only heatwave in England I will ever experience in my entire life, but all of the freezers are full except for one, which is typically broken (I mean, broken since last year and still not replaced because that’s how we roll). So it means literally shoving raspberries down other people’s throats before I start tearing my hair out. And stuffing the working freezers so much that it is too dangerous to try and open the doors now.

But today I made sure I picked some redcurrants and made our instant redcurrant sauce (available here at Redcurrants) and my first mint sauce, which I will share soon, for the family’s sausages this evening.

So I haven’t really been doing any proper gardening 😦 just picking and watering.

But I did harvest and eat my first early potatoes yesterday. They were ‘Charlottes’ and they were delicious.

space2grow volunteering

Other news: the charity I’ve been helping with, space2grow, was judged two weeks ago for Farnham in Bloom. We’ve only been working since September so it was pretty amazing to already be showing it to other people and entering these community events. We aren’t getting our hopes up, but it was a great first presentation of the project.

For more information about the therapy or volunteering we offer, visit https://www.space2grow.space

All are welcome to our acre, even Sid the lab.

June in the garden

It would be hard to summarise what we have been up to in the vegetable garden lately, so I took my crappy phone over with me to take some photos to show what we have been up to…

The broadbeans are doing really well. These I sowed as seed last autumn and we have already harvested a large amount, some small pods, some big that have been shelled.

Broabeans

This week we have harvested: broadbeans, parsley, Swiss chard (or perpetual leaf spinach), rocket, lettuce, radishes, cucumber, garlic, tree cabbage and wild strawberries.

Lettuce

Rocket

After trying sooooo many times to grow spinach and carrots this year, I have started again with fresh seeds – fingers crossed it will work!

I also planted out my pumpkins today, the last crop to go outside. Now I just have to get a serious move on with my sweet potatoes and some of my tomatoes need larger pots too…

‘Charlotte’ Potatoes 

Potatoes are looking as lovely as ever. I think I should just stick to potatoes. They seem to be all I can manage!

Onions

We have had really bad slug and snail damage this year – even the onions have suffered, which is very unusual. Protection has been put in place to save our babies at the cost of bug life 😦  There are only so many crops you can lose before you have to take action.

Summer Squash grown from seed and planted on

Runner Beans

Our lovely runner beans are growing every day. The ones in the front row of this picture are the ones that we planted two years ago and left the roots in the ground. We covered them up to protect them from the frost over winter and now they have grown beautifully yet again. There are another two trenches of beans in the background, and another couple in the garden. Got to love beans.

Grown from seed sweetcorn. Our neighbour kindly gave us another couple of batches from her own garden too. One might produce…?

Cheeky self-seeding orach growing among the broadbeans

Other than that, it has been weeding and feeding non-stop here. Working on clay soil at another garden has made me realise how hungry our plants must be on sandy soil. Compared to the other garden, ours need constant watering and manuring to keep them fit and strong.

So excited for the blueberries…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Recipe: Microwaved Potato with Mushrooms and Tomatoes – instant dinner

Sometimes you just need a really quick, easy meal to make at the end of the day. Or the middle of the day.

But wouldn’t it be great if it was actually pretty nutritious too? Or even better, using things you could possibly grow yourself?

I love making meals where everything can be grown in my own garden. It is sad, but I get very over-excited about it.

Here is one, really quick and easy idea to try…

Mushrooms and Tomatoes

Microwaved Potatoe with Mushrooms and Tomatoes 

(Serves 1)

-1 medium/large potato -Knob of salted butter -2 large tomatoes -4 button mushrooms -Salad or green veg, to serve

1. Poke holes in the potato and put it in the microwave for about 10-20 minutes, depending on the heat of the microwave. Keep checking – when it feels squishy all over, it is done.
2. Melt the butter in a small saucepan or frying pan. Chop the mushrooms into fine pieces and gently fry in the butter.
3. Chop the tomatoes up into chunky pieces and add to the frying mushrooms. Stir and leave to fry on a low heat for a few minutes. Once the mushrooms are darkened and the tomatoes are cooked, remove from the heat and serve with the potato and some salad or green veg.