No vegetables this year

Im currently not updating this blog as I skipped this year for vegetable growing (I only did courgettes but alas the slugs got both sets of seedlings)

I may resume here in the spring with tales of the current bushes

In the meantime have a visit to my other blog Of Cake and Science

Blackberry Vodka

Its been a great year for blackberries and I didnt even get too scratched this year. All my blackberries are forraged and most of them are now in the freezer awaiting a life of apple and blackberry crumble or this apple and blackberry crumble cake which im dying to make soon.

For the last few years Ive been making cherry vodka, although as I no longer have my morello cherry tree of my childhood the cherries have come from jars. This year we thought we’d have a go with blackberries. There are various methods of making fruit vodkas, usually adding sugar in at the start but this time we are going to add the sugar later on.

Recipe: add 250g fresh blackberries to 350ml vodka in a large bottle. Leave in a dark place and turn (but dont shake) once a week and leave for a few months (I’ll put an image up when theyre working again)

Gardening the Alys Fowler way

Much of our garden inspiration this year came from watching Alys Fowlers telly program in spring ‘The Edible Garden’. One idea i decided to try was the mixing of vegetables and flowers and see what happens.

When the gentleman of the house made me a lovely new flower bed along the back of the house I thought this would be perfect for the experiment. The project wasnt ambitious just wild flowers and raddishes . I really wanted to have lots of dummer colour so bought two packets of mixed wild flower seeds and some red poppies to sprinkle over the ground. Also i planted a few pockets of chives for colour and tastyness. Very low maintenence or so I had thought. In the corner i planted out my lavender which, originally 2 rescue plants, had luckily survived the harsh winter in a pot and is now nicely settled next to the drain.

The problem came when the flowers didnt grow. This may have been due to an unfortunate accident with a hose pipe or some other reason. In the absence of flowers I popped in some of my extra courgette plants and french beans instead of the raddishes.

Well what happened; not precisely what I expected. The packet of seeds I planted on the left eventually grew but not very much and dont seem very happy (and something tried to dig them up). The beans wilted and died in the hot weather, one courgette died (as did 4 others in other parts of the garden) one stayed small (till last week) but the one next to the lavender and the drain turned into a gigantuan plant producing marrow sized courgettes! (last week I had to cut off a couple of leaves to stop it smothering the lavender. It seems to have powdery mildew now but that doesnt seem to be affecting the courgettes, I just have to remember to dispose of the leaves carefully.

So what have i learned: Courgettes are too big for a flower border, I should have stuck with the raddishes. Dont let the hosepipe near the seeds and have a backup plan for if they dont grow. Next year i have a new plan for cottage garden perennials and bulbs and herbs and small plants like raddishes and herbs… maybe I could move the strawberries in there they need a new home… and maybe grow sweetcorn or sunflowers in the corner… its all fun and experimental

The great chutney adventure: Day 3

Its 9:30pm and i have 8 more jars, two burns from the oven and the kitchen is like a sauna of vinegar. This time im bottling on my own and I do reccomend that its much easier when there are two of you, one to handle the hot jars and lids and one to do the spooning.

Recipes today:

• More Autumn Tomato Chutney (this time without the sultanas as I dont like them, i actually substituted them for cranberries in the Rachel Allen recipe)
• Apple Chutney recipe found searching the internet

… Cumulative jar progress 32

… Tiredness level: Shattered

… Temperature level: Sweltering

I think i need a little break before making any more but im looking forward to lots of chutney in the next few months and everyone who has helped us with contributions of apples and jars have been promised some

The great chutney adventure: Day 2

We’ve barely made a dint in the apples and I really hate peeling them… so now comes a brilliant investment, the amazing apple machine from lakeland which cores peels and chops all in one! (although i do find it a little difficult getting the apples on and off the spikes)

Today we have

• Autumn Tomato Chutney from BBC Good Food
• Keith Floyds Apple Chutney

…Cumulative jar progress: 24

…Apples used: less than a third

…Smell in the kitchen: disgusting! Im really hating the smell of vinegar right now

The great chutney adventure: Day 1

Thanks to a lovely friend who has 2 apple trees but alas no time, we now have about 6 shopping bags worth of apples. So its chutney time again.

Day one and we need more jars and lids. These were bought from Lakeland and come in very useful boxes which can be used for later jar storage. The main investment was this the jam funnel. Last time we made preserves getting them into the jars was a complete mess so this has been brilliant.

Chutney made today:

• Store Spicy Chutney (Country Living Magazine October 2008 – its basically this recipe but with 750ml vinegar)
• Spicy Apple and Tomato Chutney from Rachels Favourite Food
• Apple and Cranberry Chutney from BBC Good Food

…this made 14 jars (although two were half jars so i guess theyll just have to be eaten first)

Dreams of marrow proportions

This year i planted out every seed that BBC-Dig-In gave me and 7 plants survived (much better than last years one).

Anyway the 5 growing in the raised bed arent doing too well, they havent grown particularly big and there has been less than a handfull of small courgettes. However the plant under the kitchen window for some reason has grown gigantic and the courgettes (nicely hidden from predators under the enormous leaves) have been growing to marrow proportions. We get about 2 courgettes a week from the plant and twice they have got to marrow proportions.

Cant seem to link the photo but here is last weeks tasty treasure. It made a four portion lasagne and a 3 portion curry.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/13429663@N08/4968318511/

Technical dificulties

Slight problem with the blog at the moment as I cant seem to add pictures (which kind of defeats the point of most of the posts). Bear with me and hopefully it will all be working again soon

UK Veg Gardeners

Just joined http://ukveggardeners.com/ this week. A place to meet and interact with fellow UK veg gardeners. Its pretty cool

Decoy Chard

Somehow the rainbow chard survived the winter and has been growing enthusiastically since spring. As lovely as chard is, i cant be bothered to eat it as it tends to turn up in the veg box anyway. I decided to leave it as a decoy – hopefully things will be eating that and not my beans and courgettes. Last week it went to seed and im waiting to see if it produces any pretty flowers. Its pretty anyway as there are 2 red and 1 yellow plants thriving.