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Garden Diary – Rain, rain, the produce is liking it, but the bees are not!
Well, rain, rain, thunder and more rain this last week! In all fairness the sun did peep through and was wonderfully warm when it did but really! This is our summertime! Luckily the apples and pears are plumping up with all the watering and most of the veg is doing well despite the awful weather. We’re getting a few firsts of the season now like our first fig this week and we are now tantalisingly close to the first tomato. I do hope two ripen then I won’t have the dilemma of whether to share or not! The mid summer flowers have been late but are now starting to open…
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Naga Chilli Relish – Best made outside!
After the garden apprentice discovering his favourite curry of all time, is made with Naga chillies. Guess what I’m now growing? Yes, Naga’s. Growing Naga Chillies I bought the seeds mid-season last year and had a bit of trouble with germination. I ordered two varieties, ‘Yellow Blaze’ which as the name suggests are yellow and a classic red ’Norfolk Naga’. I didn’t get any Norfolk Nagas to germinate at all and only managed one yellow blaze. It was slow to grow as chillies are but it got to reasonable size and I managed to keep it going through the winter. In the new year I ordered more seeds of the…
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Fragrant Summer Bean Curry
We are big curry fans in our house, so at this time of year there is a lot of bean curry being made. The heat of the curry is where we differ, but this is easily remedied by adding homemade, hot haberero chilli sauce to the individual serving. Lots of curry is made all year around – always from scratch – in large portions to freeze. This makes for super easy week-night meals. It’s also a great way to use the produce from the garden, as most things can go into a curry. July is the beginning of the main harvest time in the veg garden, but now as we…
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Rhubarb Fool – A speedy pudd when unexpected guests turn up
You know what it’s like when you are suddenly having unexpected guests and you have to throw something together for them to eat. Well you won’t get a speedier pudding than this! I think most gardeners that grow at least a little of their own food have a clump of rhubarb, as it’s one of the easiest foods to grow. Give it a sunny or slightly shady spot, chuck some well rotted manure on every year, and it will grow happily producing enough rhubarb to stew and freeze to last all winter. If said guests turn up in the winter, just grab a portion out of the freezer and pop…
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Stewed Rhubarb & Yogurt – Breakfast of Gods!
A week ago on Gardeners World, Monty Don said, “I think rhubarb just lightly stewed with yogurt, is a breakfast of Gods”. Well Monty, I couldn’t agree more! As a little girl, when my dad harvested the first rhubarb of the year, and my mum turned it into a crumble. I really couldn’t understand the appeal. But now… I am a total convert to rhubarb, and despite all the recipes I make with it, including savoury ones. I think Monty is correct, there’s nothing nicer than stewed rhubarb and yogurt, it’s delicious! My favourite yogurt to have with it is by Yeo Valley, their organic Lemon Curd yogurt. It compliments…
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Bramley Apple & Calvados Cake
Scrumping! We are very lucky to have a Bramley apple tree in our next-door neighbour’s garden, and even luckier to have a generous neighbour that tells us to help ourselves! This year the tree has produced more beautiful looking, delicious fruits than ever. We’ve already made a number of apple crumbles, which have been portioned up and put in the freezer. This week though we decided to make an apple cake. I have to give credit to the garden apprentice for the addition of the calvados, and wow, what a difference it makes! Calvados is a spirit along the lines of brandy, but rather than being made from grapes, it’s…
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Pear & Raspberry Cake – Gluten Free
We grow two most delicious desert pears ‘Louise Bonne of Jersey’ and ‘Beth’. Unfortunately, with pears, they all ripen within a short period of time, usually around a fortnight, so a cake beckons. We are lucky enough to have a long south facing boundary in the garden, where we built a wall. The fruit trees grow along the wall. A Plum and Cherry are grown as fans and a Fig as an espalier. The Apples and Pear trees are grown as cordons. This means a single stem planted at a 45-degree angle. We get more than enough fruit off them grown this way, with the big benefit of not having…
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Tomato Sauce – A Very Simple Recipe
Transform your homegrown Tomatoes into delicious Tomato sauce for the freezer! Tomatoes were the first edible crop that I grew and once I tasted that first homegrown tomato I was hooked! I’ve grown tomatoes every year since, which is now more years than I care to remember. I initially only had the tiniest vegetable patch and I only had enough space for four tomato plants. Although they were outside, they were against a south facing wall, but I still struggled to get them all to ripen before the end of the season. I dreamt of having a greenhouse and growing enough tomatoes to make tomato soup. Well dreams sometimes come…
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Simply Delicious Cauliflower Cheese – Recipe
I love cauliflower cheese! I only have to hear someone mention it, and I crave it until I get chance to buy a cauli and make it. This has led me to make a larger portion and freeze it in batches. That way I can satisfy my craving instantly. Well at least when it’s defrosted! Having these portions ready made has recently resulted in making one of our favourite dishes, even better! In the summer when our courgette plant is producing so much fruit we can hardly keep up with it. We make so many different dishes with them, including courgette cake. One of our favourite dishes though, is vegetable…
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Courgette & Cauliflower Cheese Vegetable Lasagne – You’ll never want a meat one again!
Can be gluten free If you grow your own summer squashes, then you too will be desperate for new things to do with them. They certainly are prolific croppers. Over the years we have used courgettes and other summer squashes in more and more inventive ways. One of our favourites is to use it in Courgette cake which we eat for breakfast with yogurt, it’s really good! But we have a new favourite! I speak to you as a meat eater when I tell you that this vegetable lasagne is far, far better than a traditional beef lasagne! If this dish doesn’t convert the most ardent carnivore to eating at…
