18th October - Shopping for herbs, chili jam and green tomato marmalade

 Making green tomato marmalade - which sounds really weird, but is actually very nice.

                                                                                                                                                  GreenTomato Marmalade

1 lemon

1 orange

1 grapefruit, all sliced very finely

Put in a large pan and cover with water - simmer for about 30 minutes until the rind is tender.

Slice 1 1/2 lbs of green tomatoes very finely - add to pan

2 cups - about 16 oz sugar - add to the pan

Simmer the mixture until it has reduced and is thick and syrupy - this can take a few hours

Store in clean sterilised jars.

 Some of our winter peas have sprouted through the soil.  

A trip to the Garden Centre to buy some herbs and tools

We spent some of the garden centre vouchers we won at the North Tyneside in Bloom awards last month.  We bought lots of new herbs for our new raised bed, mint, thyme, dill, rosemary. sage, chives, apple mint and some rosemary too.

This week we also made chili jam using our own tomatoes and a selection of our chilies.  We have sent a jar off to Jamie Oliver's 'Jamie' magazine to enter into their pickle competition - wonder what he makes of our homegrown entry?

Chili Jam

8 peppers - de-seeded and diced

about 2lbs of tomatoes - skinned and diced

8 cloves of garlic, finely chopped or crushed

about 5 chilies - we used a variety of different ones

750 g sugar

250 ml vinegar - white or cider

We chopped and diced everything and put it in a large pan.  We simmered it for a long time - 2 - 3 hours, until the mixture had reduced and was thick and 'jammy'.  We taste-tested it and decided it needed a bit more heat so we put a whole small scotch bonnet it, simmered it a while longer, removed the chili and put it in clean sterilised jars.

We are having a go at drying some of our chilies - here are some strung up in our larder, ready for drying.