Early October and Using Produce - tomatoes, peppers, chillies

A Sunny Day in Early October – on the Allotment

The morning started quite misty which often bodes well for a spot of decent weather. And I wasn’t disappointed. It is a gentle sunny day, one could even say warm. One of my plot neighbours was digging shirtless.

After the rain we have had recently, the ground is in superb condition for digging and many of the deep-rooted weeds like docks, thistles and dandelions came out of the ground easily with a little encouragement.

I have been trying to make some inroads on the list of chores on my own Blog on What to do on the Allotment in October.

I have a lot to do as I have been away a few times and had several lots of visitors over the last few weeks so the only chances I've had to visit the plot have been to harvest and water my poly-tunnel and I have watched the weeds and grass growing out of control with some dismay.

I am trying to take the chores in easy stages and this morning, before I left home, I charged the batteries of my strimmer thinking I would make a start on the very untidy grass on my paths and around the edges of my plots. However, I forgot that I had removed all the tools from the boot of my car so that I could ferry visitors around and backwards and forwards from stations and airports. Never mind, I will do it tomorrow!

My first job was to harvest the tomatoes, chillies and peppers from my poly-tunnel. A couple of the tomato plants have finished cropping so it was a good opportunity to remove the plants to let more light to those which are still ripening. I also removed all the leaves from the lower parts of the plants [which are beginning to look a little sad anyway]. There are not many left now and those that are will, I feel, successfully ripen.

The peppers and chillies are a different dilemma. If they will just start to change colour from green I can harvest and use them or save them or encourage them to ripen further however, if they are still determinedly green by the time the first frost strikes, I will lose them. I could, I suppose harvest and use green peppers and chillies but, I find them fairly tasteless. I will see how it goes. Last year, which was so much cooler and duller than this season, still gave me an excellent crop of late tomatoes and peppers as well as strings of dried chillies which I've only finished this summer when making my chutneys and ketchups.

Talking about ketchups – as my homemade ketchup has been so popular with my family I have used most of this year’s over production of tomatoes making lots of batches of ketchup. I have put the recipe up several times but will add it again here. It does use a lot of tomatoes for a few pots of ketchup and that is quite extravagant for the rate my family gobbles it up. This season, as I used up my own chillies, I was forced to buy in my local market where I could only find Scotch Bonnet, apart from very mild chillies. Now, I know that Scotch Bonnet have a reputation for being quite hot but, they are tiny so, I only added about 5 – 6 to each preserving pan of tomatoes [I did include the seeds!]. The results were really quite ‘pokey’ [as my daughter described it] but, suddenly, my usual popular ketchup isn’t the first choice to take home with them, they want the ‘Hot’ stuff. And I have to admit that, even I will use it and I am not a huge ketchup fan.

Extra Hot Home made Tomato Ketchup

2Kg ripe tomatoes (4½ lbs)                             2 – 3 fresh bay leaves - crushed

568ml white vinegar( 1 pt)                              piece of cinnamon bark

190g white granulated sugar ( 6oz)                5 – 6 plump cloves garlic - crushed

1 Tblsp. salt                                                     5 red Scotch Bonnet or Bird’s Eye chillies

¼ - ½ tsp ground allspice                                ¼ - ½ tsp ground cloves

Large pinch coarsely ground black pepper                                                                

Method

·         Wash and roughly cut the tomatoes and put in a preserving pan or large saucepan with the salt, bay leaves, cinnamon bark, crushed garlic cloves and vinegar (be fairly sparing with the salt at this stage – add more in the final stages as necessary).

·         Add the chopped chillies. Use gloves when handling or chopping the chillies.

·         Bring to the boil then simmer gently until the tomatoes are thoroughly softened.

·         In the meantime, sterilise the bottles or jars – keep hot in low oven.

·         Remove the cinnamon bark and bay leaves then, sieve the tomato mixture through a coarse sieve – preferable nylon. Return the juice and pulp to a clean saucepan.

·         Add sugar then ground allspice, ground cloves and black pepper gradually, tasting frequently to ensure the flavour is not too strong. Remember, when the ketchup is cold, the flavour will be somewhat milder. You may also want to add more salt if needed.

·         Simmer the mixture until it starts to thicken. Don’t make it too thick at this stage as it thickens as it cools and stir frequently to make sure the ketchup doesn’t ‘catch’ and burn.

·         Put the heated sterilised bottles/jars on a wooden surface and fill them with the ketchup while it is still very hot. Seal the jars immediately. This ketchup should keep for several months.

Try also:

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 you 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.

And:

Hot Spicy Roasted Pepper and Tomato Chutney

2 kg ripe tomatoes - peeled

4 large ripe sweet peppers – any shape will be good but use only red or yellow peppers

3 large onions – peeled and finely chopped

4 good sized garlic cloves, finely chopped or crushed

3-4 hot red peppers (remove the seeds if you don’t want your chutney to be too hot)

1 tsp ground cinnamon,        1 tsp ground cloves,       ½ tsp ground black pepper

1 tsp salt

850 ml vinegar (1½pt) – white vinegar is best but malt vinegar will also do

700g (1½lb) sugar

Method

·         Skin the tomatoes and chop – (skinning tomatoes can be done in several ways:

* – on a fork over a gas flame – great for a couple of tomatoes!

* - in a bowl with boiling water poured over – great for a handful or so.

* - For a large amount – cut out the core and put in the largest bowl which will fit in the micro wave. Microwave on full for 20 minutes, then, just lift off the skins. Chop roughly.

·         Put the peppers into a roasting tin in a hot oven 200°C or No 6 Gas for 30 mins or so. They should just start to brown or char. Leave them to cool.

·         Remove the skins and the seeds as far as possible then chop roughly.

·         Put the chopped tomatoes, chopped peppers, chopped onions, chopped garlic, vinegar and sugar into a preserving pan with the spices and seasonings.

·         Simmer slowly until the sugar has dissolved and the fruit/vegetables have softened.

·         Bring to the boil and cook, stirring frequently to ensure it does not stick and burn until it starts to turn thick.

·         Pot up in hot, sterilised jars. Cover and label.

I have now harvested all of my pumpkins and squashes and am bringing them home in bags as heavy as I can manage – they really are quite hefty vegetables, even my small and medium varieties. I have ended up with about 70 or 80 individual fruits although, about a third of these are the very small varieties – Baby Bear, Hooligan, Jack be Little which are brilliant. I have given lots away to friends and my daughter took about 20 of the larger varieties away in her car – she does love the flesh of these fruits in her curries. I still have many to bring home and then store. They must then be stored in a cool frost-free place to over-winter successfully. At the moment I am setting them out on my patio and on my patio table to dry off and allow the skins to harden.

I am continuing to harvest my last 2 ridges of potatoes – Sarpo Mira – they are late maincrop and I am reasonably happy that they will not be susceptible to blight – I do love these potatoes but, unfortunately I haven’t managed to grow enough to see me through the winter season… ever! But, then again, I do like potatoes, they are my carb. of choice. By Christmas, I will have to buy them from the market again.

In the process of digging them up, I have cleared an area which I had planned to plant my autumn sown Broad Beans – Aquadulce Claudia, one of the few bean varieties which is good for autumn sowing. I have, over the years, tried several different methods of germinating, planting out and growing on – all of which have had some success but not every year in every set of conditions. This year, I am sowing mine in early October when the ground is still warm but, is forecast to turn cold – if they germinate, I will cover them for the winter and will report back on this.

I have just received my garlic bulbs for planting this autumn. I am planning to put them into two or three raised beds but, I need a top-up of organic compost which I’m hoping to buy from my Allotment Association for these beds. Once I have that organised I will plant my garlic. Although it is recommended that garlic is planted a couple of centimetres below the surface of the soil, I have always sown mine just below the surface as the ground is so heavy – even this depth led to a problem with harvesting them at the right time as they were ‘cemented’ into my rock hard soil. Those that I did manage to ‘hack’ out are now brilliantly saved and hung up in my kitchen. Those bulbs which I waited to harvest when the ground was softer after some much needed rain are also good and well saved but, the outer leaves are dirty, grey and I find I’m inclined to avoid them when choosing a garlic bulb for cooking.

I am also uprooting and transplanting the wallflowers I sowed earlier this year. I do like a display of these in my garden at home – I love the perfume in mid spring which reminds me of spring holidays in Paris in my youth. However, I have nowhere to sow and bring on the young plants at home and although, they are mostly biennials, I prefer to grow them as annuals.