A great recipe for green tomatoes
It’s beginning to feel quite chilly here so I harvested the remnants of the outdoor tomatoes this afternoon. Gentle warmth on this south west facing windowsill will gradually ripen the green ones that I don’t want to use now. I’ve bottled (canned) masses of tomatoes, pickled some and made passata to last us through the winter. A lot of our harvest has been dehydrated for use throughout the year. I know that I should be developing a green tomato chutney recipe but I’m indulging myself and am going to make Rozanne Hall’s green...
read moreTales of a busy dehydrator: Experimenting with rehydrating food
“Can I eat any of this food when it’s fresh or does it all have to be dehydrated?” Danny examined the bulging carrier bags carefully. I’ve been discovering the delights of buying fruit and vegetables on offer to dry for use later in the year. This will have an enormous impact on our food bills and will guarantee that we have the best seasonal foods available all year. We’ve also been dehydrating a lot of our own tomatoes, summer squashes, apples and pears. So for the first year ever there’s no waste. It makes fast work of drying...
read moreThe frontier is down and the cockerels have been named
Up until now I have kept the new Italian Leghorn chickens in a separate half of the run. There have been several escapes when I’ve opened the ‘door’ to top up the feed and water fountains. Mainly led by the Italian gentlemen who are keen to get close to the ladies that they’ve been ogling through the wire. These passionate visits have not gone down well with these elderly maidens. Our small Golden Sebright cockerel is much smaller than his dashing rivals. Beatyl now just appears not to see them and hides behind his coterie. If...
read moreThe slow cooker chef: Apple and Orange butter recipe
“Taste this.” “What kind of fruit is that? It’s gorgeous. It would be great with the duck legs.” With 25 kilos of apples to turn into something delicious that would not put us off apples for life, I was experimenting with orange and apple butter. Simmered for hours in the slow cooker to increase the depth of flavour. The end result tastes tropical, almost like mangoes and apricots and has a wonderful deep orangey colour. Fabulous to use as a sauce for chops, chicken or even fish. A tablespoon would lift the apples in a pie. It’s...
read moreDuck legs with mango sauce on a bed of saffron rice recipe
“What are you doing? I thought we were having plums with the duck.” Danny’s eyes flicked across the green mango skins on the chopping board. I had planned to make a duck leg version of our duck breasts in a fresh plum sauce but have overdosed on plums recently. So when I spotted a pile of mangoes in the fridge – waiting to be turned into Mango Chutney I decided to make a little less chutney and use a plump mango as the fruit base for this recipe. I’m pleased that I did. This recipe is really easy and tastes superb – don’t...
read moreHome grown tomatoes: a retrospective
We grew several varieties of tomatoes this year and for the first year ever had a success with the French Super Marmande slicing tomato. It looked superb on the vine and it was with great joy that we plucked the first sturdy fruit. Danny was silent as he tasted the first slice. “What’s wrong?” “It tastes woolly and it’s very thin on the flavour factor.” I had bought the Unwins ‘The Classic Tomato Collection’ – comprising, Super Marmande, Golden Sunrise, Ailsa Craig and Gardener’s Delight. The last three were very...
read moreGrowing vegetables all year round: October 2009 kitchen garden update
I thought that you might like to take a peek at our extended kitchen garden. Some of the paths are new and no rain for weeks has taken its toll but over the winter they will perk up. The layout is nine 12’x12’ beds and we are planning an 8’x 8’ asparagus bed. I traded some decorating for the wood (it’s going to be a raised bed with new top soil from the Fens). This means removing the last of the roses and it’s a project earmarked for next Spring. We’ve discovered that the old kitchen garden – the part enclosed by the blue...
read moreBuy new rubber seals for old Kilner jars from Adams traditional ironmongers.
Years ago there used to be two ironmongers shops in Newmarket. I used to love browsing in them. Then one closed and the last one struggled on and finally closed last year. These were the sort of shops where you could find everything that you needed from dustbins with chimneys for burning garden waste safely to heatproof rope to mend the wood burning stove. Now we go to Homebase to buy exorbitantly overpriced packs of nails and screws. We often can’t find exactly what we want as the stock is designed to appeal to the majority of shoppers...
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