19th August 2013 - Picking the Shallots

Today we picked the shallots we have been growing in one of our veggie boxes, they were looking a bit soggy and the leaves had started to die off. 

We managed to harvest quite a lot of shallots in the end - leaving them in the greenhouse for a while to dry off, hopefully they will keep for a while.

Not sure if you can see all the bees buzzing around our Comfrey Bed?

Our carrots are looking huge!

 More of our flowers from our wildflower bed.

Some of our chilies are beginning to go red - not sure what types we grew this year?

 Our cucumber plant growing in the corner of the greenhouse.

Marrows/Courgettes?

Some broccoli plants we planted today in the space created when we pulled up the shallots.

What to do with all the courgettes?

This is a fantastic recipe for getting rid of some of the courgette glut - I've made it using my courgettes at home and intend to repeat it with our students in a couple of weeks time.

Courgette Chutney - recipe adapted slightly from River Cottage - "Pam the Jam"
http://www.rivercottage.net/

1kg Courgettes
2 tbsp salt
Dice the courgettes into about 1cm pieces, salt, cover and leave for a few hours.  Drain, rinse and repeat - leave in a colander to dry a bit.

2 med onions, peeled
25g chunk of root ginger, peeled
4 - 5 garlic cloves, peeled
1 chili red or green - mild or hot - whatever you have - seeds in/out?
Put the 4 ingredients above in a food processor and blitz them into a finely chopped paste.

100ml oil - vegetable or sunflower
2 tbsp mustard seeds, black or white
1 tbsp coriander seeds
1 tbsp ground cumin
1 tbsp turmeric
Fry spices in oil for 3 - 4 minutes stirring all the time, then add the onion paste and fry for about 4 minutes stirring all the time.  Add courgettes, then,

300 ml vinegar - cider, white wine etc
225 Demerera sugar
I have added a couple of peeled, cored and diced windfalls from the apple tree, or a couple of green tomatoes that the kids have 'accidentally' picked.  Also a peeled and diced Kolrabi also works really well. 

Stir and simmer for about 45 minutes until chutney has reduced and is jammy is consistency.
Spoon into sterilized jars while hot, use oven gloves to tighten lids.

17th August 2013

Out sweetcorn is starting to tower above everything in the garden - wonder how you tell when it is ripe?

I think these are cornflowers?

Carrots and Beetroot.

When does a courgette turn into a marrow - this one is looking huge, I wonder if it will beat last years biggest which was 6 1/2lbs?

 More raspberries are just about ripe and ready for picking - and our first ripe tomato from the greenhouse.

We spotted another baby pumpkin starting to grow.

This is our biggest pumpkin, which seems to be getting bigger daily.

Some snaps of our chickens, who are all getting on a bit better now, although they are not laying many eggs!

13th August 2013

  

Our Curly Kale is growing really well - we will be making plenty of Kale Chips in the new term at school.  Our chard has bolted and a lot of it has gone to seed, but the hens have enjoyed a bit of a treat and there is still plenty left to pick.

The onions are just about ready to pick, hopefully we can wait and pick them with the students in a couple of weeks.  Some of the onions have gone to seed - which the bees are benefiting from.

 We found a fantastic spiders web in the greenhouse today, but my camera has not manged to capture the huge spider or its beautiful web on stretching over the chili plants.










Our first greenhouse tomatoes are just starting to ripen, we seem to have a good crop this year.  I'm hoping there will be plenty for our chutney production in September.

         Some of our lovely climbing roses which are growing up the school fence at the moment.

Our courgette plants are producing some enormous courgettes, which we hope will provide us with another home-grown ingredient for pickles and chutney in September.

Two new cockerels join our flock

We have two new cockerels, Ritchie, a Legbar Cross and Marius, a Welsummer, lets hope they all settle in quickly.  We now have 16 chickens in our flock.

Our sweetcorn is growing really well, some cobs have formed on each plant.

Our beetroot is also growing really well.

Some more of our beautiful wildflowers.

Our pumpkin is slowly getting bigger.

Courgettes, which we hope we will be using to make pickles and chutneys in the Autumn term, Chili Peppers which are just starting to ripen and turn from green to yellow.  And finally our outdoor tomatoes which are looking good.