We’ve still got quite a lot of beetroot in our garden. I planted them around August time to have as salad leaves and never quite got round to picking them. They’ve now developed into proper beetroots (although some thinning wouldn’t have gone amiss as some are rather small). None of them have been bothered by pests of any sort which is rather refreshing (unlike carrots which get eaten to pieces if you leave them in the ground). So I thought I would preserve some in a chutney.
Ingredients
3lbs beetroot, peeled and chopped
4lbs cooking apples, peeled, cored and chopped
1½lbs onions, chopped
12oz demerara sugar
14fl oz red wine vinegar
1 teaspoon ground ginger
4 teaspoons salt
Method
Put the whole lot in a large saucepan, bring to the boil and simmer until soft and thickened. This will take about 2-3 hours, and it’s a good idea to stir it now and again to prevent it sticking to the bottom. The more gentle the heat, the less likely it is to stick, but the longer it will take to reduce down. It’s ready when you can draw a spoon across the bottom of the pan, and momentarily see the bottom of the pan. If you want a smooth chutney (excellent for spreading on sandwiches) then blitz with a stick blender. Spoon into hot sterilized jars. Sterilize your jars by heating them in the oven for 20 mins at 100°C.
This chutney has a beautiful deep red/purple colour and is delicious in cheddar cheese sandwiches. We left this batch chunky as we like it that way.
Honeycomb is really easy to make and makes a great Christmas gift (tastes better than the shop bought stuff too!). Here’s what you need:
I’ve put my preserving hat on and gone a bit mad over the last couple of weeks. I’m very pleased with what I’ve managed to make, but the rest of the family are extremely disappointed. Why? Because I’ve made all this lovely jam, chutney, pickle and curd to sell at the School Christmas Fair. A jar or two have found their way into our cupboards and we’re hoping that I don’t manage to sell it all!
Scorzonera was our new crop this year that we’ve never grown before, and never even tasted before. We were confident that it would be good though as many of the vegetable books rate it very highly and the French and Italians love it. So what is it? Well, it’s a root vegetable which is very easy to grow, can be left in the ground until you need it, seems to have no pests and diseases and which is absolutely delicious to eat. You have to be quite careful digging them up as the roots break very easily, and beneath the dark skin is a creamy white flesh. After scrubbing them, we blanched ours for 3 minutes, peeled them, boiled them for about 10 mins until tender, and then coated them with butter. They were really really tasty. In fact, the whole bowl went in a flash before the rest of the meal was on the table.
This is all that’s left of our asparagus ferns. The foliage was beginning to die back and it was time to cut them down. Now there is even less colour and structure in the vegetable plot. Most of it is bare earth, with just a few patches of colour from the brassicas and the chard. You soon forget how green and lush it all looked just 3 months ago. But if we didn’t have this barren phase I’m sure we wouldn’t appreciate the new spring growth half as much as we do.
Our chickens think they are magpies. They just love to peck anything shiny. The photo above shows them trying to peck my ring. Stick your hand in their pen and they just go mad pecking away. It’s lovely to have young hens again. They have so much energy, flapping, running and jumping about. We really can see where the term ‘spring chicken’ comes from. They peck everything just to see whether they can eat it or not. If you go in their pen with your crocs on they spend all their time pecking the holes, and they really love having a go at the colourful jibbitz on the kids crocs.
What a lovely surprise I found in the vegetable patch the other day! A beautiful nasturtium. It must have self-seeded because we weren’t growing nasturtium anywhere near where I found it. The mild weather we’ve been having has obviously helped it on his way. Nasturtium leaves are delicious and I’m sure some of these will end up in a salad or sandwich.
Blueberry leaves turn a lovely colour in the autumn. They are so pretty that I have moved them closer to the house so that we can appreciate them, and, because they are on full view, I should remember to prune them once the leaves have dropped. Blueberries are one of those plants that you really do want to try and grow yourself (if you like eating them of course). They are very easy to grow in pots, give you lots and lots of delicious fruit and they don’t seem to be troubled by anything except birds (do net them though otherwise you won’t get any). They are not that expensive to buy either. Get them now as barerooted plants and you’ll be eating your own blueberries next summer.
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