Sloe gin

We spent the last bank holiday weekend in Lancashire. It was a bit too late to go blackberrying, the berries were almost all gone, eaten by birds, and the remainder was just getting mouldy on the bushes.

Instead, we went sloe picking. Sloes are the tiny fruits of the blackthorn bushes which are found in hedges all over Britain. Sloes are far too tart and bitter to be used in cooking, even with plenty of sugar added to them! However, they make a wonderful fruity liquor when mixed with alcohol and sugar. Vodka or gin are particularly suitable but I personaly prefer gin. We managed to pick a couple of bags full and have been making sloe gin. There are lots of recipes out there, but we like to follow Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall's from the River Cottage Cookbook.

Ingredients:

2kgs sloes

1kg sugar

3 bottles of cheap gin (use vodka if you prefer)

Method:

Prick each fruit with a pin or a fork (that's the VERY boring bit!), then transfer to a large Kilner jar, demijohn or any suitable container with a stopper or tight fitting lid. Add the sugar and pour in the gin. Seal and leave in a cool place away from direct sunlight. Every week or so, turn the jar on its head, then back again. After 6 months, strain the liquid through several layers of muslin then bottle and seal tightly (we keep empty bottles of spirits for this). Leave for another 6 months. It will be even better after 2 years.

One of the two Kilner jars with the sloes steeping in gin

We made a couple of bottles last year. As you can see HFW recommends waiting up to 2 years but there’s no chance this is going to happen in our household! It was hard enough to wait a whole year, two would be torture. I had a glass on Monday night after a long pricking session and it was just perfect, rich flavoured and sweet. Nothing like the artificial sugary taste of the Gordon’s version – although I have been known to enjoy a glass or two before ours was ready!
I’m not sure how two bottles are going to see it through till’ next year though…

Apples

Overladden apple tree!

These are the sweetest red apples ever ...

Guess what I'm doing this weekend? Yes, picking apples! I have been collecting the windfalls for a while but I think most of them are ripe now and it's time for a good picking session.

We have another three apple trees on the plot, two are cooking apples - very tart - and the other one, I'm not sure as the apples are really small and I only used them for juicing last year and I don't remember actually tasting one!

Last year, we had tons of the cooking apples and only a few of those red ones. We had plans to make cider but didn't in the end for lack of time. We just ate a lot of apple related desserts and apple sauce!

We were hoping to have a go at cider this year but the cooking apple trees only have a few fruits on because it was very windy when they were flowering and not many flowers actually stayed on the tree! I'm not sure we'll have enough for cider and I think the red ones are probably too sweet ... Looking forward to apple and blackberry crumble though!!!

Not quite an indian summer then?

After a terrible summer, we were led to believe by some clever people at the Met Office that we would get an Indian summer. September has come and almost gone and still no sign of it!

And actually, I think it might have been the coldest September I remember since I have been here, with some surprisingly early frosts. More Artic Summer than Indian!

I had suspiscions we had a couple of frosts last week after I found black and floppy leaves on my beans and squashes and some soft rotting small pumpkins. My doubts were confirmed when a fellow allotmenteer at Kennyhill allotments reported similar symptoms affecting her beans. But this morning, it is official : the cars and grass outside the flat were all covered in those white little crystals that tell me that winter really is on the way.

Time to start winter preparations on the plot, protect the last of the fragile summer plants with fleece and mulch the hardy and perennial ones ...

Runner bean chutney

I mentioned it in my previous post so I thought I'd post the recipe here. This is a very good recipe if you have a glut of runner beans. It is absolutely lovely with cold pork or cheese !

Ingredients (makes 6 to 7 lb / 2.7 to 3 kg):

900g (2lb) runner beans, weighed after trimming and slicing

700g (1.5lb) chopped onions850ml (1.5pts) malt vinegar

1 heaped tbsp cornflour

1 heaped tbsp dry english mustard powder

1 heaped tbsp turmeric

2 tsp pilau rice seasoning

225g (8oz) soft brown sugar

450g (1lb) demerara sugar

Method:

1. Place the chopped onions into a preserving pan with 275ml (0.5pt) of the vinegar, bring to simmering point and gently simmer uncovered for 20 minutes or until soft.

2. Cook the sliced runner beans in salted water for 10 minutes, strain and add the cooked runner beans to the cooked onions in the preserving pan.

3. In a small bowl or basin, mix the cornflour, mustard powder, turmeric and pilau rice seasoning with a little of the remaining vinegar to make a smooth paste. Add to the onion and beans mixture.

4. Pour in the rest of the vinegar, mix well, then simmer uncovered for 10 minutes.

5. Stir in both quantities of the sugar until they dissolve and continue to simmer uncovered for a further 15 minutes (or until your chutney reaches the desired consistency).

Note: You can add more cornflour paste if you like a thicker chutney.

6. Put the chutney in hot sterilised jars, cover with a wax lid and screw lid. Store for 1 month before eating.

Runners

After a slow start due to flooding and generally miserable summer weather, the plot is now in full production: lots of courgettes, more salads than we can eat, some late strawberries, indoors and outdoors cucumbers, onions, shallots, potatoes and turnips...

And now the runner beans have started … I grow them against a wire fence that separates us from another plot and they have been beautiful this year, climbing and covering the fence in masses of red and white flowers. I grow 2 varieties: White Emergo and Scarlet Emperor. The red ones were first to fruit but now the whites are catching up and soon the whole fence will be overloaded with beans. We’ve already had enough for 2 meals and I know we’ll be sick of them soon when the glut is in full force! Last year I gave loads away and made runner beans chutney which was really nice. I’ll probably make a few jars again this year even though we still have a couple left from last year and of course I'll freeze some for the winter months. Any other ideas and recipes are welcome!

Runner beans collage

Apart from weeding and picking beans, another big job last weekend was to sort out the strawberries bed. Whilst we were away in August, they have been very busy throwing out runners which started rooting all over the bed. And it was getting pretty crowded! I spent the best part of Saturday afternoon transplanting the runners, trying to find space for them all. Our strawberry bed is certainly going to get even bigger next year: I think we have in excess of a hundred new plants! But you can never have too many strawberries, can you?

Some of the runners settling in their temporary bed

Two of my favourite courgette quiches

We got our first allotment when we were living in Chesterfield, in England. At the time we really didn't know anything about gardening AT ALL! We made up things as we went along, learning from successes and failures. We did loads of silly things which we laugh about now. One of our biggest (funny-ish) mistakes was to underestimate how many courgettes a courgette plant can produce over the course of a summer.

We planted 8 plants, and being a reasonnably warm summer, our courgettes went in total overdrive. From early July until late September, we were harvesting more than 10 courgettes a week! That is A LOT of courgettes. We had them for breakfast, lunch and dinner. I started collecting all the recipes I could find, my mum sent them in, my grandmothers revealed their secrets. But that wasn't enough: we got sick of them and so did our friends!

These days we are a lot more sensible with our courgettes and get to appreciate them more!

Courgette plants - yellow and green

(before my weeding craze!)

One way to use courgettes that people don't necessarily think about is to use them in quiches. These are two of my favourite courgette quiche recipes.

Courgette, Feta and Mint Quiche


Ingredients (serves 6 to 8):

250g shortcrust pastry

2 medium size courgettes

125g of feta cheese

1 handful of mint, finely chopped

4 eggs

200ml of semi skimmed or full fat milk

200ml of single cream or liquid "crème fraîche"

salt and pepper




Method:

1. Preheat oven to 200C/400F/GM6

2. Line the pastry in the tart mold (butter the mold or use greaseproof paper)

3. Wash and grate the courgettes finely, place in a colander and press to extract as much water/courgette juice as possible.

4. In a separate bowl, beat the eggs and incorporate the milk and cream. Season with salt and pepper.

5. Add the grated courgettes, the crumbled feta cheese and the finely chopped mint to the egg mixture. Pour into the mold.

6. Bake in the oven for 30 minutes or until set.

7. Serve hot or warm with a side salad.




Courgette Quiche with Shiitake Mushrooms and Goat Cheese

Ingredients (serves 6 to 8):

250g shortcrust pastry

2 small courgettes

250g shiitake mushrooms

150g soft goat cheese

1 bunch of flat leaf parsley

4 eggs

200ml full fat milk

250ml of single cream

10g of butter or greaseproof paper for the mold

1 tbsp of vegetal oil

2 pinches of cinnamon

nutmeg (to taste), salt and pepper



Method:

1. Preheat oven at 200C/400F/GM6

2. Line the pastry in the tart mold (butter the mold or use greaseproof paper)

3. Wash and dry the shiitake mushrooms and fry them for 2 minutes in 1tbsp of vegetable oil.

4. Wash and grate the courgettes finely, place in a colander and press to extract as much water/courgette juice as possible.

5. In a separate bowl, beat the eggs and incorporate the milk and cream. Add the cinnamon, nutmeg, salt and pepper.

6. Add the grated courgettes, the crumbled goat cheese, the mushrooms and the finely chopped parsley to the egg mixture. Pour into the mold.

7. Bake in the oven for 40 minutes or until set.

8. Serve hot or warm with a side salad seasoned with walnut or hazelnut dressing.


Both are also great for summer barbecues or picnics served cold!

Weeds weeds weeds ...

I have to admit to a rather unhealthy obsession with weeding.

Of course, weeding is almost vital around small seedlings and young plants but larger plants are normally strong enough to fight the weeds off. But I think I have been reading too many gardening books or watched too much Gardener's World and I want neat lines of vegs and weed free beds ...

Since the beginning of spring, I weed, hoe and mulch to try and keep the weeds at bay, a war most gardeners know too well. And this year, I was doing well, keeping on top of the new growth. That was until we went on holidays. As soon as my back was turned, the weeds started growing as if their life depended on it (well it does actually...) and I came back to a seriously weedy plot. A friend of my plot neighbour asked me if I enjoyed growing weeds. I felt like crying! The thing is, my plot is actually tidier than most but I am a control freak. So I have spent the last few weeks weeding with a vengeance.

But this weekend, I realised this was becoming seriously unhealthy. On saturday morning I drew up a list of things to do on the plot, a rather long list from which I purposedly left out weeding. When I got back home on saturday night, I could not cross a single thing on that list. I have now a weed free allotment but I have to realise that it is not what's going to feed me through the coming months !!!

So next year, I'm going to try and chill on the weed front, grow things through weed suppressant membranes, mulch as much as possible and undersow larger plants with flowers or green manures. And maybe I'll get my life back!