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]

Mid October and still harvesting -pumpkins/squashes, tomatoes, peppers, chillies, potatoes and peas

Mid October and still harvesting

There are all sorts of jobs to be done at this time of year – usually!

·         Preparing for winter – cutting back artichokes and covering with straw in preparation for the winter frosts;

·         Pruning fruit bushes and canes – well, I have started pruning my red-currant and blackcurrant bushes though, this is difficult as the weather continues mild and wet and many of the bushes are slow to go into hibernation though, I do see that my year-old rooted red-currant cuttings have lost all their leaves and could now be potted-on. The raspberry canes are still producing fruit, albeit only a little;

·         Harvesting pumpkins and squashes – I’ve had to harvest some of these too early as slugs and snails were demolishing some varieties. Now, however, most of the plants are dying back and I can harvest a few at a time and take them home for drying. I am setting them out on my patio until they have hardened off. I would really like to use some of the seed again. While I acknowledge that these plants are very promiscuous, I would like to use some of the seed from my Baby Bears. My preference is for smallish fruit which will keep well over winter and next spring I will be exploring different seed suppliers for varieties which will, I hope give me a greater variety.

Do try some of these sites for interesting varieties:

www.nickys-nursery.co.uk

www.vegetableseeds.net

www.realseeds.co.uk

·         Digging potatoes – any other year I would have put ‘digging and storing’ potatoes. However, while I am still harvesting my poor crop, I am only digging up what I need from the sodden ground and many of the tubers have been decimated by slugs. My last variety for harvesting – Sarpo Mira – while it might be resistant to all sorts of pests and potato blight, it has, nonetheless, succumbed to an immense army of slugs and snails. Those potatoes which I am able to rescue are excellent but I can understand that, even in years where blight was not a problem, poor weather conditions would have threatened those communities, in the past, that depended on the potato crop for their winter food – And I am not living in the poor conditions of the West of Ireland.

·         Peas and Beans – I can see that a few of our plot holders are still harvesting a few runner and French beans for eating fresh [mine have long finished]. This has been a late year though, beans for drying have been quite good, especially the pole or climbing varieties. I did plant a late crop of peas in mid July, after I had harvested and frozen all my other crops. I had been advised that late sowing of peas were more inclined to be attacked by pea moths and be full of maggots. However, I am now harvesting and, while I don’t have a crop heavy enough to justify freezing, I can enjoy eating fresh peas every other day [and no maggots!]. This is good as I didn’t eat too many fresh with the earlier crops. It is almost time to start sowing broad beans again. I will sow now..ish! and again in the spring. For the last couple of years I have chitted the bean seed then planted in pots in my poly-tunnel to be transplanted in November. [this method has worked well for me, giving me an early crop which has had little problem from black fly]. But, my poly-tunnel is not yet cleared, nor even close. So, I have decided I will sow directly into the ground this autumn. I had stopped doing this because of poor germination [ or perhaps predators were eating my seeds], this year I will sow directly, cover with a coarse net and lay slug pellets. I will report back in the spring about the success or failure of this method.

·         Well! tomatoes, peppers and chillies – while the ripening and harvesting has slowed down, the ripening process has not yet stopped. I had expected to be looking at recipes for green tomatoes and green peppers and I am certainly working on that. However, these vegetables are still ripening.

·         I still have too many tomatoes to eat but, not enough to consider making another round of roasted pepper and tomato relish or another lot of tomato ketchup – each of these takes quite a lot of tomatoes and many of my ‘now ripening’ tomatoes are the small salad varieties [I guess I could just manage a final tomato ketchup!]. The chillies, three plants are Joe’s Long, are, as always very prolific and are ripening nicely, despite the lack of sunshine. I have one plant, given to me by my daughter, I have not identified – pale green through the ripening stage and now turning orange then red – was hot even at the green stage. It has been quite prolific so, I might give most of the fruits back to my daughter. The other chilli plant she gave to me has been slow to flower and fruit but the growth type, she tells me, is likely to be Bird’s Eye – she realises now that she had given me her only plant!. I think Bird’s Eye will be much too hot for me – even at the green stage – so I will allow them to ripen as far as possible and give them back to her [I’m really not into pain when I’m eating!]. I have harvested bags full of not-quite-ripe peppers. The plants have been so heavily laden that the fruits are sitting on the ground and are prone to attack by all sorts. I have grown Capsicum F1 Denver sown in March in my propagator and Corno di Toro Rosso, sown in April in my propagator [both lots of seeds from Dobies]. The germination rate was excellent and the young plants grew on well. Although I gave lots of them away, I still planted far too many in my poly tunnel, planting 3 x 6 across an area  1.5 x 3 metres. Yes, I know I planted them too close for them to ripen properly but, each plant has produced abundantly and, although I have given many away and I will still harvest a few which will ripen, I am still left with several pounds/kilos of peppers which will never reach the fully red stage. [ but, they might have in a hot sunny year] In a few weeks I will blog on suitable recipes for using green peppers and green tomatoes.

·         Of course, now is the time for autumn digging. Always, if you can, dig during the autumn. I have found that spring dug ground just does not break up so well until late into the season, after lots of rain. A few weeds may well grow over the area again but, don’t worry about that. Come springtime, this ground will be easily tilled. A few weeks ago, I fell and broke a rib [or two] and was not able to water my poly-tunnel. As this was a job which much needed to be done, I paid someone to do it for me for a couple of weeks. As this man was there for an agreed time, I also asked him to dig over my cleared ground. What a luxury! What would have taken me a couple of weeks, took this man a couple of days. I do still have an area to dig but I just might be able to do that on my own! Yippee!

More Recipes for Using Dried Beans

More Dishes for using Dried beans

Well, as I said in my last blog, I am providing a few more recipes for using dried beans. It takes me a little while as I have to develop tasty recipes using the vegetables and beans that I grow on my allotment or in my poly-tunnel. Of course, there are many alternatives and lots of options from my plot I haven’t used.

My interest is, as always, in how to use my produce to maintain a healthy and varied diet thorough the year.

It also means I have to re-create some dishes for photographic purposes as I have been making some of these for a few years before I started my Blog and feel the need to illustrate the dishes - well, a couple of them anyway. That said, if I were taking photos for a cookery book I would have to be a great deal more careful, instead of just photographing what I am about to have for dinner. Oh well! You can't have everything!

The recipes I am providing use, as far as possible, the vegetables, herbs and spices I am growing on my plot but many other vegetables can be used – frozen, tinned, dried or bought fresh from your local vegetable shop or supermarket.

There is a huge range of dried beans, chickpeas, etc, available to buy. There are many more available tinned though they will be MUCH more expensive and are not suitable for all recipes.

Over-winter, there are other vegetables available, which I don’t grow but are so suitable to be added to these recipes – mushrooms [always]. Celeriac is wonderful [use celery if you can’t find celeriac, swede and turnip – excellent. If you have an allotment and grow winter vegetables different from my suggestions, do try them in these recipes – there are so many variations available – different herbs, different spices, different cheese toppings!

Spicy Bean Soup

6 oz [ 150gm] dried beans – borlotto, black beans, butter beans, Yinyang, etc

1 large onion – finely chopped

2 Tblsp, good quality olive oil

1 – medium beetroot – peeled and grated or finely chopped

2 medium carrots – washed, peeled and chopped into small pieces

4 large tomatoes – washed, skinned and chopped

1 – 2 good-sized red peppers – washed, seeded and chopped

2 – 3 slices of bacon or ham [uncooked] – minced or finely chopped – if you can get a ham hock bone that would be good

4 cloves of garlic – peeled and well crushed or finely chopped

1 – 2 medium heat chillies – leave the seeds out if you don’t like it too hot

2 leeks – trimmed and well washed, then sliced thinly

2 pints beef or chicken stock

Sea salt and freshly cracked black pepper

½ tsp smoked paprika pepper

1 Tblsp finely chopped parsley

Double cream for serving - optional

Method

·         On the previous day pick over and wash the beans of your choice – put into a container large enough to allow the beans to triple in size. Put a tsp. of baking soda [bicarbonate of soda] in the water, if you live in a hard water area.

·         Before preparing the soup, drain the beans and wash well with clean water.

·         Heat the oil in a large pan [don’t allow it to smoke], add the onions, leeks, beetroot, bacon, chillies and carrots, peppers and sweat [cook without colouring], until the vegetables are soft. Add the garlic and cook gently.

·         Add the beans, stock, black and paprika peppers and bring to the boil.

·         Simmer gently until the beans and vegetables are softened and the flavours have blended – 45mins to 1 hour. Test the beans by taking one out of the pan and tasting it. If it is not soft continue cooking for a further 15 minutes then, test again.

·         Check your soup for seasoning then add the chopped parsley. You may want to mash the beans and vegetables a little, using a potato masher, to reduce the ‘chunkiness’ of the soup.

·         Optional – add a swirl of double cream to the top of the tureen or individual bowls before serving and add a sprinkle of chopped parsley.

·         Serve with hot crusty bread.

Beans au Gratin

4 oz [100gm] dried beans – kidney, borlotto, Yinyang, chickpeas, etc

2 - 3 leeks – trimmed, washed and sliced

2 onions – finely chopped

3 – 4 cloves of garlic

2 smallish courgettes – I use Orelia which is dryer and denser than Zucchini

3 oz [75gm]sweetcorn kernels – fresh, frozen or a small tin

3 oz [75gm]shelled peas – you can use frozen

1 large red bell pepper – washed and seeded then, chopped

A small head of cauliflower – washed and broken into small florettes

3oz [ 75gm]  butter

3 oz [ 75gm ] plain flour100gm

1 pt [ 570ml] hot chicken or vegetable stock [if you are vegetarian]

Juice and grated rind of 1 lemon

1 good Tblsp. chopped parsley

Seasalt and freshly ground black pepper

2 oz [50gm] fresh breadcrumbs – brown or white

2 oz [50gm] grated cheddar cheese

Sauce

·         Pick over, wash and soak the beans the previous day or at least 4 hours in advance. Use baking soda [bicarbonate of soda] in the soaking water if you live in a hard water area.

·         Rinse the beans well and using fresh water, cover the beans, bring to the boil and simmer until soft.

·         Melt the butter with the seasoning and lemon rind. Sweat the onions, and garlic then add the leeks, red pepper, cauliflower and courgettes. Cook gently until the vegetables are soft, taking care not to brown them.

·         Add the flour and cook gently until the flour is cooked out without allowing it to brown.

·         Gradually add the stock, stirring all the time until you have a smooth sauce around the vegetables. Add the sweetcorn and peas and simmer gently for a further 3 minutes.

·         Drain the beans and add them to the mixture along with the lemon juice and chopped parsley. Check the seasoning.

·         Pour the mixture into an oven proof dish. Sprinkle with breadcrumbs and grated cheese and bake in a medium to hot oven - 180°C, No 6 Gas for 15 – 20 minutes or until the top is golden brown.

·         Serve immediately with hot crusty bread. – this dish will keep in the fridge to be reheated if necessary.

Bean Pie [or Gardeners Pie] – like Shepherd’s Pie, which uses minces lamb, or Cottage Pie, which uses minced beef, this pie is for vegetables or for Bean Pie – Beans with Vegetables.

You can also top this with Puff pastry – also very yummy!

6 oz [ 175gm] – dried beans of your choice – or chick peas or blackeyed beans or black eyed peas [which are not really beans, but a sub-species of ‘cowpea’] – delicious, nutritious and very useful nonetheless.

3oz [75gm] butter

3oz [75gm] flour

1 large onion – finely chopped           

3 medium sized leeks – trimmed, washed and sliced thinly

1 medium sized parsnip – washed, peeled and chopped finely

2 – 3 good-sized carrots – washed, peeled and sliced finely

1 medium sized green cabbage – trimmed, washed and sliced

A good slice from a medium sized squash or pumpkin – peeled and cut into chunks

3 oz [ 75gm] sweetcorn kernels – fresh, frozen or a small tin

4 large garlic cloves – peeled and well crushed or chopped

1 pt [ 570ml] hot chicken or vegetable stock

6 large tomatoes – skinned and chopped [you can also use frozen or tinned chopped tomatoes]

Chopped fresh herbs – tsp. each of tarragon, lemon thyme, oregano

¼ tsp chopped rosemary,                              1 good handful chopped parsley

Sea salt and freshly crushed black pepper

For the Topping

2 lb [1 kg] potatoes – preferably floury or ‘general purpose’ potatoes

5fluid oz, ¼ pt [ 150ml] hot milk

1 oz [25gm] butter

Seasoning

Method

·         Pick over the beans, wash and put in a container large enough to allow the beans to triple in size. Cover with water and leave overnight or for at least 4 hours. If you live in a hard water area, add 1 tsp baking soda [Bicarbonate of soda] to the water.

·         When the beans have soaked, wash them well, then cover with fresh water and bring to the boil. Simmer for 30 – 45mins and taste one of the beans to see if it is cooked. If not continue for another 15 mins or so and test again.

·         Melt the butter in a large saucepan and add the onion, carrot, leeks and parsnips and sweat [cook without colour], add the garlic, herbs and flour. Cook gently until the flour is cooked out but without colouring.

·         Gradually add the hot stock until a non-lumpy vegetable sauce is attained – allowing for the vegetables. Add the sweetcorn , tomatoes and chopped cabbage. Stir well, check the seasoning.

·         Drain and add the cooked beans. Put into an oven-proof dish. Allow to cool

·         Wash and peel the potatoes and cook until soft – taking care that they don’t disintegrate.

·         Drain well, mash thoroughly and add seasoning, hot milk and butter. Mix well.

·         Pipe or spread the potato mixture on top of the bean filling.

·         Bake in a medium hot oven - 180°C, No 6 gas, for 30 – 40 minutes or until the top is golden brown.

·         I love this with pickled beetroot and or a good sharp, spicy chutney or relish.