This year, our first summer in this house, we have been inundated with various produce from the garden. Having built a polytunnel early in the year, we have grown an amazing amount both inside and out. In fact, we are still picking tomatoes (which are now coming to the end), peppers, chillies and aubergines from the polytunnel. Ourside, we still have lettuce, beetroot, parsnips, broccoli, haricots verts, radish, as well as lots of various herbs.
Throughout the summer, I have been trying to keep up with all the veg, have made so many things for the freezer, which is now heaving with various soups and sauces. I have also made quite a few jars of pickles, chutneys and jams, which will keep us going for quite a while I should imagine. Good job that one of us is a veggie!
October is nearing to an end and so is the nice weather, this week we have had mostly rain, rain and more rain. So gives me plenty of time to catch up on the remaining jobs in the kitchen and also try and deal with the last of the vegetables and I haven't even started with my pumpkins yet, so that's yet another job! I will give you some of our favourite recipes separately. But will try and give you some ideas of what I've done with various things.
TOMATOES
We have had so many tomatoes this year, having come in every day with a full bowl of them. We have tried quite a few different varieties. I have filled the freezer with lots of different sauces which can either be used as a base for pizzas, added to meat or veg for pasta, the list is endless. I have also made soups and of course the obligatory chutneys. Also one of our favourites is tomato ketchup, which is wonderful.
COURGETTES
Unfortunately, this year once again we seemed to plant far too many courgette plants and once again, we have had far too many, but again I have found some wonderful things to do with them. Added to tomatoes, potatoes or cheese they make a wonderful soup, tomato and courgette bake, quiches, chutneys or another favourite is courgette souffle.
CUCUMBERS
Like the courgettes, yes....we planted too many cucumber plants as well and next year, have decided to only have 2 plants in the polytunnel. Everyone that visited or that we visited always had a couple of cucumbers given to them. The postwoman also got her ration! I've found that apart from the usual things like salads, there aren't a lot that can be done with cucumbers, or so I thought! But when you are faced with a cucumber glut, it's amazing how many things you find that you can do with them. I've a wonderful tomato and cucumber soup recipe, tzatiki was also a favourite and of course the cucumber pickle.
We have had so many tomatoes this year, having come in every day with a full bowl of them. We have tried quite a few different varieties. I have filled the freezer with lots of different sauces which can either be used as a base for pizzas, added to meat or veg for pasta, the list is endless. I have also made soups and of course the obligatory chutneys. Also one of our favourites is tomato ketchup, which is wonderful.
These tomatoes below were picked November 2nd!
Unfortunately, this year once again we seemed to plant far too many courgette plants and once again, we have had far too many, but again I have found some wonderful things to do with them. Added to tomatoes, potatoes or cheese they make a wonderful soup, tomato and courgette bake, quiches, chutneys or another favourite is courgette souffle.
This is almost the last courgette picked on the 2nd November.
Like the courgettes, yes....we planted too many cucumber plants as well and next year, have decided to only have 2 plants in the polytunnel. Everyone that visited or that we visited always had a couple of cucumbers given to them. The postwoman also got her ration! I've found that apart from the usual things like salads, there aren't a lot that can be done with cucumbers, or so I thought! But when you are faced with a cucumber glut, it's amazing how many things you find that you can do with them. I've a wonderful tomato and cucumber soup recipe, tzatiki was also a favourite and of course the cucumber pickle.
We have been really successful with our peppers and chillies, have yellow, red, black and green peppers as well as chillies in the polytunnel. In the other small old greenhouse I have about 5 jalapeno chilli plants, have already frozen two big bags of them, made a big jar of pickled chillies and also made some excellent stuffed chillies. I still have a lot more to pick and some of them are starting to turn red now, boy are they hot!!
AUBERGINES
The aubergines are amazing this year and still going! I use them in all sorts of things, ratatouille, aubergine and tomato bakes, aubergine caviar is also wonderful as well as having some stuffed with cheese, rice....the list is endless!
BEETROOT
We haven't picked a great deal of beetroot so far, although there are still quite a few in the garden, just waiting for the rest to get a bit bigger. I adore beetroot, either boiled, roasted or pickled. Have even made a gorgeous chocolate beetroot cake!
CHESTNUTS
I can't believe the amount of chestnuts that we have picked up in the field! Every day we seem to come back from seeing 'the girls' with more and more. If they stay on the ground long enough that is, as my little piggies seem to also adore them, will chew them and spit out the shell! Anyway, I've made some delicious chestnut jam, just hate the job of peeling them though, and obviously the obligatory roasted chestnuts which are always wonderful.
WALNUTS
We have a huge walnut tree in our top paddock and this year has been a brilliant year for them. Can't tell you how many we've had. We still have a big box of them waiting to be eaten! I've made various different cakes and tarts and some lovely apple and walnut chutney as well as adding them to some pesto, instead of the usual pine nuts, they are wonderful!
MELONS
We planted three melon plants in the polytunnel and have had about 6 large wonderful melons from it.
SQUASH
We've grown quite a few different varieties of squash this year, patty pans, marrow, sweet dumpling, courgettes and pumpkins. In fact, we've had far too many! I've made loads of different chutneys with the marrow and courgettes, and some wonderful marrow and ginger jam. We've had steamed and buttered patty pans, stuffed marrows....although 'himself' isn't too keen on either of them! Still have to decide what to do with all the pumpkins that are sitting in the garage.
HARICOTS VERTS
We have also grown some wonderful beans, we much prefer the French beans to the usual Runner Beans as find them too stringy and have a much better flavour. We love them blanched and then drained and butter and garlic added. Cold or hot, they are wonderful and freeze very well as well. Keep picking them and you will get an endless supply. We have also tried growing some in the polytunnel, so will see how long they keep over the winter.
ARTICHOKES
In our last house we had an artichoke plant which was there when we bought the house, so kept it going every year having about 3 or 4 small artichokes from it. We decided to try and move it and brought it here to our new house, thinking that it wouldn't survive. Anyway, it's survived! The plant is huge, we did think that having moved it that we wouldn't get anything from it this year, but having checked this morning, there is a little choke growing!
GOOSEBERRIES
Like the artichoke, we had quite few gooseberry bushes at the other house and decided to pilage the garden and bring them here last autumn and having pruned them back, this year we had an amazing picking of gooseberries. We have both red and green. I made some brilliant jam and of course the obligatory gooseberry crumbles!
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