Why our growing season was disappointing

Posted by louisa on Monday 18 October 2010 in growing | 0 comments

You know how the other week, I said it had been a disappointing growing year? Well, this is a case in point.

This potato was the funniest shaped vegetable we grew this year.

How disappointing is that, huh?

Sure, he’s got a face but that’s not comedy testicles, is it?

Frugal, growing and cooking link love

Posted by louisa on Friday 15 October 2010 in frugal, growing, meta | 1 comment

I thought I’d share a little link love this afternoon – stuff I’ve seen on other frugal living, growing & cooking sites that I think you might enjoy too.

• First up, Kate from Living the Frugal Live has revisited two seasonal posts from last year: her quick & easy leaf compost trick and collecting & storing acorns for chickens, to make her birds more sustainable.
• Speaking of foraging for food, Robin Eat Weeds has posted a Rosehip syrup recipe – I’m going to give this a go soon!
• Notes from the Frugal Trenches has some advice on stocking up on toiletries & household goods when they’re on sale – and where she finds the money to do that on a tight budget.
• Fiona on The Cottage Smallholder posted about a very odd but interesting veg, achocha – it tastes like cucumber when eaten raw, like green peppers when fried, and grows outside in the UK. I’ll definitely be trying that next year!
• And finally, speaking of other fun things to try, The Frugal Queen has been making soap – and has written a how-to for beginners, using common, easy to find ingredients.

Lessons from our summer of growing

Posted by louisa on Wednesday 6 October 2010 in growing | 7 comments

So the summer growing season is just about over here. We’ve still got some chillis growing and ripening, and there is some winter-time veg still on the go, but the summer is just about done.

As our first summer in our new house, I always said it was going to be a year of experimentation and by mid-season, I’d already learned a lot and made a number of resolutions for next year. The last half of the season has added to that list.

Overall, it’s been a bit disappointing – I’ve learned from my mistakes and the quirks of this garden – but let’s start with some positives:

• Borage has been a big success. I grew it almost entirely as a bee attractor and it did its job well. It grew bigger and better than I thought it would, and while we didn’t like it, the chickens LOVE it. I won’t grow it in the same place next year, but I’ll definitely grow it again.
• We’ve had a lot more courgettes (& marrow) than I thought we’d get – I gave away some of the plants and they gave one or two fruits then died, but here, they gave and gave. Wonderful.
• We also had a lot of salad leaves at the start of the summer (later they became bitter, not sure why). We ate salad with both lunch and dinner almost every day for about six weeks – low effort, high impact, ace. I’ll grow more next year, from earlier to later.

Spicy marrow chutney recipe

Posted by louisa on Thursday 16 September 2010 in cooking, preserving | 19 comments

Here’s the first recipe from my preserving marathon on Tuesday: spicy marrow chutney.

With all the different spices, it’s got a very full taste rather than a one-note blast of chilli heat.

It’s not the texture of either smooth jelly-like jam nor chunky like Branston — although it would be possible to make it like that – just cut the marrow a lot smaller to start with, blend the onions etc and skip the mashing stage. I did it my way because I wanted something more spreadable for sandwiches. Plus chopping up so much marrow into teeny-tiny pieces? yawn.

It’ll be amazing with ham and beef.

Spicy marrow chutney recipe

Ingredients

The last of the marrows

Posted by louisa on Monday 13 September 2010 in growing | 0 comments

On Saturday, I harvested the last of the marrows – just under 10kg in total. We’ll get some more courgettes yet – a dozen more or so at least – but they’ve slowed down their production enough that we’ll keep on top of them now so no more massive ones.

I decided to bring them in because a couple of their compadres had started going soggy (the non-soggy bits went to the chickens) and I thought it would be better to use them, not lose them.

We’ve probably had another couple went chickenward earlier in the year, and we’ve picked probably four or five marrows to use ourselves (for cakes, jams or actually as a vegetable) or give to others. It’s crazy to think we’ve possibly had 15-20kg of produce in marrows along – let alone all the courgettes we’ve had over the last few months!

My plans for these guys: chutney, chutney, jam and more chutney; and also more marrow cake to freeze – storing the marrow & summer egg glut together as one tasty cake!