Late October on the Allotment and Using Green Peppers

Late October and Beginning of November – Using Green Peppers

I’m spreading this blog out a bit as there is not much which is new going on that I feel I should report on. Despite claims from ‘weather watchers’ who predicted we would have an Indian Summer, there has been no sign of it. This week has started mild but wet, probably there is 100% humidity as there is a slight precipitation at all times though, it has stopped full-on raining. By the weekend it is predicted to turn very cold with possible snow showers though, not here in the sunny south west !

I have now harvested all of my squashes and pumpkins and brought them home to harden off. As they are heavy to carry, I have been bringing home a few at a time. I don’t grow the larger varieties which could be used for Hallowe’en lanterns in a week or so. I don’t have young children any more though, I might change when I have grandchildren. Now I am only interested in eating them over a period as long as possible over the winter and spring.

I did read somewhere recently that the tradition of the Hallowe’en pumpkin lanterns originated in Northern Ireland where large turnips were used [actually they were Swedes but in Scotland and Ireland swedes were called turnips – something I found hard to adapt to when I first moved to London to teach Home Economics]. I remember, as a child, trawling the fields of a local farmer to raid the biggest turnips for our lanterns. If he saw us he would set his dog on us but, as we were fairly watchful we could see it coming and leap over a fence to escape. Eventually we would be successful and in retrospect, I don’t imagine the farmer would really have allowed his dog to savage us - ? Even though we roamed in quite a large group [I hesitate to call us a gang as our activities were really fairly innocent], we did little actual damage to a crop of several acres being grown for sheep fodder. I don’t remember any of our parents questioning where we had acquired the turnips so, I assume it had been accepted practice over many generations. Unlike with pumpkins, it did take many hours to carve out the hard insides of the turnips to create a suitable hollow for the candle, a chimney in the lid and a macabre face. Much of the raw turnip would be eaten in the process – I still like raw turnip. We would also put little holes in each side to thread through a string handle. The smell of the scorched turnip was magical as we would carry our lanterns around for the evening beside the bonfire, presided over by parents of my friends. In my memory, Hallowe’en was always crisp, frosty and dry but really, as it was in Northern Ireland, it probably rained most years. Perhaps, when I have grandchildren I will grow the swedes/turnips to introduce them to that magical time.

I have now sown my Broad beans – Aquadulce Claudia from Dobies. I sowed 2 packets, the seeds planted much closer than the seed packet recommends. I did wonder about covering the seed bed to prevent raiding from birds or mice but, in the long run, I decided to leave it. If we have a very hard frost over winter I will cover with environmesh. Over the last couple of years [when I brought my seeds on in pots in my poly tunnel the planted out in November] I covered the young plants with fleece. However, I found that I had serious slug damage under the fleece and neighbours who didn’t protect their crops had much stronger plants in Spring. That said fleece is very soft and is difficult to keep up off the young plants in wet and windy weather. Although a great deal more expensive, I think environmesh is a lot more suitable. Thanks to several years of Christmas presents I now have a fair collection of the stuff.

I have also planted my garlics. After several years of trying different varieties, I have decided that Solent Wight and Purple Wight suit my ground best. I have had a significant problem with rust on my crops fairly early in the year and although I still got a good crop this year [ enough to see me through until the next year’s crop] the cloves in many of them are quite small and fiddly. Next season I might be forced to look into ways of preventing the destructive rust mould – even if it non-organic. I will get back on this.

I swore I wouldn’t bother with onions and shallots again. Although the onions did well last year, they were poor keepers and I am really afraid of onion root rot. Shallots performed poorly and although I tried again this year, the crop was again very poor. However, although I didn’t use the bulbs produced I decided I would plant them again – perhaps next season will be a good onion year.

I have also planted a row of elephant garlic. My friend and allotment neighbour, Geoff, has had excellent success with these striking bulbs. I cadged a couple of bulbs from him though, I gave one of them to my daughter, on condition that she plants it and doesn’t eat it.

I have now hardened off and planted out my young sweetpea plants. Sowing and planting in autumn is  recommended for best results but, I’m always fairly sceptical until I see the results. Yet again I am worried and have kept back a packet for planting in spring – at least it will extend the cropping time.

I have been in a ‘spring cleaning’ mode in the last week. I decided that I needed to clear a load of rubbish from my phone and managed to delete all my contacts. I then decided that my computer needed to be tidied and I put all of my documents into properly named files. In the process I have deleted this year’s and previous year’s spreadsheets of my seeds, plantings, sowings and results for my allotment! Oh well, although I can remember much of it, I will, to some extent have to start again. The moral of this story – don’t tidy essential information, just wade through the clutter!

Well, I am now harvesting the last of my, really quite impressive pepper crop and I did say in a previous blog that I would provide recipes for using them.

Hot Red and Green Pepper Relish

I have developed this recipe to use up the significant quantities of half ripe peppers I have grown. I have used a mixture of bell peppers and pointed peppers. Of course you could use half green peppers and half red peppers.

10 – 12 good sized red/green peppers [washed, and chopped with seeds, cares and stems removed]

4 medium onions [peeled and chopped]

2 good sized fresh red chillies [ I’m using Joe’s Long]. Leave the seeds in if yu like your relish to be hotter

1 good Tblsp salt [tablespoon]

1 ½ pts vinegar – preferably white [ brown is fine but, won’t look as good]

8 oz [175gm] granulated sugar – do add a little more if you like your pickles sweeter.

2 tsp allspice

Method

·         Wash and split the peppers – remove seeds and stems and white..ish inner parts.

·         Chop them fairly coarsely. Put the chopped peppers into a large colander over a bowl into which the colander should fit comfortably.

·         Pour boiling water over the peppers and leave to sit for 5 minutes. Drain the water off and repeat the process, allowing 10 minutes for soaking.

·         In the meantime, chop the onions and chillis and put them with the vinegar, sugar, salt and allspice into a large pan. Bring the mixture to the boil gradually allowing the sugar to dissolve.

·         Drain the peppers thoroughly and add to the vinegar mixture. Bring to the boil then simmer until the mixture has thickened and the vegetables are well cooked and blended.

·         Taste for salt and heat [ taking care as the mixture will be extremely hot] You may want to add more finely chopped chilli if you like your relishes to be very hot. Add any extra chilli before the end of the cooking process to ensure it has cooked.

·         Pot up into hot, sterilised pots. Cover, seal and label. Allow at least a couple of months before eating to allow the relish to mellow.

Try also:

Hot Green Pepper and Apple Chutney

10 – 12 good sized unripe or green peppers [washed, and chopped with seeds, cares and stems removed]

3 medium onions [peeled and chopped]

4 good sized fresh red chillies [ I’m using Joe’s Long]. Leave the seeds in if you like your relish to be hotter

3 – 4 medium to large cooking apples

1 good Tblsp salt [tablespoon]

1 ½ pts vinegar – preferably white [ brown is fine but, won’t look as good]

8 oz [175gm] granulated sugar – do add a little more if you like your pickles sweeter.

2 tsp allspice,    1 good tsp ground nutmeg

Method

·         Wash and split the peppers – remove seeds and stems inner parts.

·         Chop them fairly coarsely. Put the chopped peppers into a large colander over a bowl into which the colander should fit comfortably.

·         Pour boiling water over the peppers and leave to sit for 5 minutes. Drain the water off and repeat the process, allowing 10 minutes for soaking.

·         Wash peel and core the apples – chop.

·         Chop the onions and chillis and put them with the apples, vinegar, sugar, salt, nutmeg and allspice into a large pan. Bring the mixture to the boil gradually, stirring while allowing the sugar to dissolve.

·         Drain the peppers thoroughly and add to the vinegar mixture. Bring to the boil then simmer until the mixture has thickened and the vegetables are well cooked and blended.

·         Taste for salt and heat [taking care as the mixture will be extremely hot] You may want to add more finely chopped chilli if you like your relishes to be very hot. Add any extra chilli before the end of the cooking process to ensure it has cooked.

·         Pot up into hot, sterilised pots. Cover, seal and label. Allow at least a couple of months before eating to allow the relish to mellow.

[ I have had a few green tomatoes left at the end of the season but, not enough to make a Green Tomato Chutney. I have chopped them and added them to my Pepper Chutney]