The Harvest Cometh

It's that time of year...everything grows! Abundance manifests itself and the eating has begun!

Bean Brave

Bean there...done that!

Yep, making a start in braving the cold weather of May (barely 12°C)...most unsuitable conditions for bean growing...20°C is much more favorable. However these baby plants are covered with three covers...black netting to keep rabbits etc out...white fleece for warmth...and transparent plastic cloche covering against heavy rain and chilly winds.

Roasted Beetroot Soup

This tastes as good as it looks.
A recipe can be obtained online. The one I chose said to roast the beetroot in their flesh with onions and garlic.
The roasted effect brings out the earthy flavours...in other words the flavour of beetroot, onion and garlic, all homegrown of course, are much stronger than if just boiled.
The recipe I was followed said to blend all the roasted veg together and thin out with stock to the preferred consistency.
I chose to simmer the roasted veg together with a veg stock for about 30 minutes before blending.
A swirl of cream and a topping of chopped basil leaves enticed the taste buds no end!
A second serving...and I was full.
Such lovely flavour...earthy and sweet!

Figgy Brandy

For the festive season and beyond...here's hoping this version of fig preservation makes it through the next few months.
It's a simple recipe of cutting fresh figs... proudly from the veg plot...into quarters and immersing in brandy in a container glass jar. This one is 1500ml. 

I ran out of brandy, so a little top up will be needed soon. Though I do believe if there's an additional top up of sugar and water, or maybe honey and water syrup, could provide the environment for a liqueur of some sorts. Here's hoping it will be edible for the festive season ahead. A serving with icecream or some other simple creamy concoction would be inviting.

Courgette Collection

Large courgettes develop frequently, almost overnight it would seem.
The effect is due, of course, to water and heat.

Therefore it is easy to end up with a glut and I am always on the lookout for those who will take them to use for soups, stir fries or baking cakes. ..a nice ingredient to use in a recipe called Courgette/Zucchini Bread. It's more of a cake than bread and quite delicious.

A recipe can be found easily online. It's possible to make a kind of spread also with the extra courgette.
Nature's bounty knows no limit

!

Pop Ups in the Garden

Pop up spinach 'going to seed' in the beetroot bed.
I will probably have to wait about 6 months for the seed harvest...but worth it if the seeds are viable.

Last year's  (2017) seed harvest had too many to count and the really interesting thing I discovered recently was, that a number of seeds had fallen from last yeast's plant and germinated after the rainfall last week.
The seeds were well buried and trodden on and still managed to germinate. I couldn't have planned it better.

Now the problem is...where to plant all these spinach seedlings. I've run out of room!. Still, its nice to get an abundant gift like that! That's the beauty and generosity pf the natural process. We're just a part of it and the abundance is always close at hand.

The spinach bed has been growing since May, though prolonged drought conditions have kept the plants on the small size.
Still, seed from last year's pop up harvest has allowed me to be very generous in the sowing of a profuse lot.
I expect rain over the next few weeks to increase the size of the leaves and i can then freeze some for the long winter months when growth will stop and the leaves become scarce.

Basil Outdoors

This is the first time I can truly say there's been a success growing basil outdoors. ..3 varieties...lemon, purple licorice and genovese. This last one has the usual strong flavour that's expected in this variety.  The other 2 have a milder flavour. They grow in pots, next to the Black cherry variety tomatoes. Not sure how basil acts as companion plant etc, but the colours look good against the dark green of the tomato leaves.
All tomato plants had their first organic commercial feed 4 weeks ago.  Before this I just watered in some Epsom salts for fruit setting. That seemed to work as the small cherry tomatoes are loaded on the Totem variety, but not so much on the tall black cherry. Here's hoping the ripening process begins soon. Don't fancy too many green tomatoes...though I understand they are quite edible when cooked. Anybody got any experience cooking with green tomatoes?