Chilli on a pizza

I hope you have all missed me.

I have a great excuse for not posting for so long. Virgin Media are rubbish and my internet has been down (and is still being very temperamental) so I have not been able to get on here to update the blog.

Also, the weather has continued being awful and so getting out to do ANYTHING outside has been an impossibility.

My update today involves another instance of first-tasting of some of my produce - my chillis... and the first foodstuff to enjoy the garnish of home-grown-chilli? A pizza from Tesco :(

Anyway, onwards with the update.

This is the ruby red shiny lovely chilli that I harvested from the plant on the bedroom window sill.

I have chopped the chilli into rings, taking great care to lose none of the seeds.

The chillis have been placed carefully on top of the (not frozen) pizza bought from Tesco. (Other supermarkets are available)

The cooked pizza, ready to be eaten.

I did take a picture of my girlfriend eating it, but I don't think she'd be very pleased if I published that one!

The chilli was great! I rubbed my lips after chopping it, and the burn stayed for at least an hour. In the eating, they had a long and lasting heat, combined with good flavour and they were not too hot that the heat overpowered the rest of the pizza.

Anyway, I'll be back (virgin broadband permitting) tomorrow with a blog about the Green Tomato Chutney that I have made with onions and tomatoes grown by my very good self.

Cheers

Lamb Roast with Cabbage and (very small) Parsnips

Last night I had another great feed involving food harvested from the garden.

This is such a great payback of growing your own because food really does just taste so much nicer when you have grown it yourself, and have watched it first poke through the earth and then slowly develop until it is ready for eating.

This time it involved the cabbage, and a few VERY early parsnips, one pulled to check the development of the crop, and the other two pulled accidentally while weeding.

The Bearded Bastard selecting leaves for dinner

Lifting leaves ready for eating

A shot of the cabbage leaves mid-harvest

Reading for chopping

I have the habit of removing the tough central stalk

I decided to slice these leaves into strips, ready for the steamer (10 mins only required for these)

The (tiny tiny) parsnips, fresh out of the ground

The washed and trimmed parsnips. I cooked these for about 5 mins in the roasting tin with the potatoes and lamb joint.

DINNER!!! Cabbage bottom left (obviously) and parsnip peaking out between the yorkshire pud top right and the tatty.

Can I just say that, tiny as they were, those parsnips really REALLY packed a punch. So sweet and so tasty. I can't wait for the rest of the harvest to come in.

The cabbage was a slight disappointment, not quite as tasty as the rest of the food which I have grown. It was nice though.

Right, a slight bonus for you here. Last night myself and the girlfriend went round the outside tomatoes and chillis and counted up the current harvest (there are more flowers ready to become fruit) and I drew the following diagram, with counts of fruit per plant, and a total at the bottom.

Yes, 111 tomatoes are currently going well in the garden.

Another (final) interesting point to observe is the two plants with 27 and 9 fruits on them were both runt plants which I almost threw away and just at the last minute pushed into the earth in the herb garden. So, however small and runty your seedling may be, give it a chance. That runt is now the most productive of them all.

Cheers

Clearing Tomatoes and harvesting Onions, Garlic, Shallots and Parsnips

So I finally got outside to do some weeding, and tidy up the wreckage of the inside tomato plants (which had been blown to all corners since I moved them outside, and hadn't recovered at all, sadly).

This morning, in a fit of energy, I got out of bed and went straight into the garden. I have recovered the bamboo stakes and the little green plastic bits from the tomato plants, and then separated the soil from the plants.

 Soil from the inside tomato plants

The dead inside-tomato plants

Anyone got any ideas what I can do with the soil? I was just going to spread it onto waste ground... I presume that with all the roots in it there is a chance that next year some random tomato plants may appear?

Anyway, that done, I headed for my Parsnip Patch to weed, and pull a couple of plants to see how well they are doing.  The weeds were pretty bad, but it didn't take long to pull them back. No gloves, pulling stinging nettles out, and very very few stings... I think it is true that if you grasp a nettle hard, you don't get stung - it is when you brush past them that it hurts the most.

My weeded Parsnip Patch

A single Parnsip, looking very healthy.

While I was walking across the grass one time I spotted this little fella hopping away from me.

 This tomato plant was a runt which I just pushed into the ground and didn't even think about. It has a really good crop of tomatoes and is hugely healthy. So there you are :)

The most ripe tomatoes are still getting redder, which is nice.

This is the fruit of my harvest today. The (tiny) parsnips are to the left, next are all the garlic that I saved, then a mix of onions and shallots.

I think I left my onions and shallots in the ground too long because a good half were soft and rotted. This despite the above ground growth not having died down yet. I think this is because of the wetness of the year, which is a shame, but it is all a learning experience.

I actually harvested all the root crops completely by hand, without using any digging implements. I just dug my bare hands into the soil and filtered out the crop. This was a very satisfying (if dirty) method. I recommend it highly.

This evening I am planning on a lamb roast with cabbage from the garden, and I may fry those parsnips up too. I will blog about it.

Cheers

Ripening fruit

The chillis and the tomatoes have been ripening apace, benefiting from the sun that has finally shown itself in the sky this week.

The two chillis that were slowly reddening the other day are now almost entirely red and ready for harvesting, and one of the outside tomato plants has three or four tomatoes that are starting to turn and are now a lovely orange colour.

The two red chillis, with some other green ones nestling behind.

The nearest chilli isn't quite fully turned yet, as you can see the dark green of it's behind.

Tomatoes far more on the turn now too - you can still see some flowers out too, which hopefully will get pollinated and become even more tomatoes.

Whilst I was out taking these photographs I noticed a spider which had spun it's web near the chillis and thought I'd get a quick snap to show you all.

A spider hanging in a web near the outside chilli plants.

Thanks for reading

Kitchen Herb Garden Update

So, as promised, I have an update that I have been planning for quite a long time.

You may remember that I saved a couple of plastic trays that meat comes in from a supermarket, put some soil in them, and planted a couple of different herbs in each compartment.

Also, my girlfriend bought some Greek herbs for a dish one day, which I added to the windowsill collection.

I have had a mixed bag of results, and here is my report:

The Greek herbs, a little brown but still smelling INCREDIBLE

The Rosemary (in the back compartment) never grew at all, but the Thyme is looking good.

The Sage has managed to grow two relatively successful plants.

The Basil was growing ok, but then died (I didn't let it die, this happened despite regular watering and careful care).

As you can see, this has not been a raging success, and I haven't yet actually used any of these herbs (such as I have grown) in any cooking.

I would like, here, to pass on a couple of tips that I have been told by various people in response to some of the questions I have posted on this blog over the last few weeks.

First of all, regarding harvest time for parsnips, apparently they should be pulled after the first frost.

Secondly, regarding onions, apparently if you sow with seeds in autumn, and leave the sets in the ground, next year you get even better onions.

So there you are, a couple of hints for you.

Enjoy, back tomorrow.

Edit thanks to @clareyh for the following:

"Did you know not to water basil until it droops? And it hates having wet feet!"

and

"Best one I had I put in a large pot with 2"gravel at bottom and only watered when it was drooping Lasted 3yrs on windowsill 13" high"

So now we know why my basil is dead dead dead :( oh well, better luck next year :)

Sweetcorn, Cabbage and Ripening Tomatoes

Another update update today, this time about the sweetcorn, cabbage and some more tomatoes.

The sweetcorn does look like it is coming on really well, to be fair, but I'm not sure if what I'm seeing is good or bad - I had expected some cobs to have developed by now.

A close up of the tip of one of my sweetcorn plants

The sweetcorn bed

The cabbage has come on very well, and is now ready for harvesting and eating. This weekend I will be planning a meal which will enable me to taste it, finally.

The sweetcorn bed; the wet weather has once again stalled my grass-cutting habit, which is frustrating.

I have also been very excited to notice, following my hopeful blog of the previous days, that the outside tomatoes appear to be starting to turn :)

A little bit of colour starting to show on some of the outside tomatoes.

However, while I was looking over the tomatoes I notices that some bug has managed to get a taste before me! How rude!

A couple of shots of the pre-munched tomato.

So, that is it for now. Be back soon I am sure.

Chillis on the turn (and some other stuff)

I have some very exciting updates today.

Last night (when I am actually writing this, now) I went to water the chillis and noticed a little discolouration on the ones on the bedroom windowsill. So I ran to get my camera and THEN noticed that, when I looked closer, it was more than just a slight discolouration, but a large bright red stain spreading from both ends of the largest chilli, and starting on another.

The chilli which is turning the most

Both the reddening chillis.

The chillis downstairs are still green. You can still see the remnants of the flower stretched around the tip of the chilli on the right!

One of the downstairs chillis enjoying the space now that I have moved all the indoor tomatoes out of the way.

A shot of just how poor the inside tomatoes had become. I will be monitoring these over the next few days, and will update with more shots.

While taking these pictures I also got a couple of other pics of the tomatoes outside, and the apple tree (minus my EXCEPTIONALLY tasty apple which I picked the other day)

 The outside apples, seen through the newly-uncovered window post indoor-tomato-removal.

The apples, also seen from inside the house and through the aforementioned window.

Finally for today, I cooked myself chicken and chips and picked some of the new planting of the lettuce to eat. It was outstanding.

The lettuce, well grown now and very ready for eating....

... and sitting on my plate prior to eating.

So there you are. Tomorrow I will fill you in on the state of the kitchen windowsill herb garden.... and also some hints I've received about growing better onions, and when to harvest my parsnips.....