The 2015 Allotment / Veg Patch Thread Part 3 already!

[agoodbook]

Just seen the other is full , so here goes - we are heading for summer now! Welcome to everyone old and new :)

here is a link to the previous thread

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/gardening/2350947-The-2015-Allotment-Veg-Patch-Thread-Part-2?msgid=54546739

I love "The Sutton" my favourite broad bean.

My courgettes are still tiny - I've checked my blog and this time last year we had so many we couldn't give them away fast enough. The leaves on my courgettes are also very yellow, I'm not sure why because they are planted in different beds so I doubt if it is a deficiency as I would only expect it to affect one bed.

I planted my Kale too close so I am going to harvest a few plants and leave the rest to overwinter.

I've got lots of blackcurrants to pick, I just need to decide what to do with them.

My courgettes are still rubbish, worse than last year, and yellowing despite being in different locations too, Rooster! And everyone warned me I'd planted too many and would have a glut. Ha, I showed them...

I DO however have a mini-glut of cherry tomatoes! I've eaten loads, made pasta sauce and they're still coming. This few days of crazy rain has made the skins split I think. Any ideas what else I can do with them? I might fashion some kind of tart or something but I do have loads... I don't like them as much in soup as they're so sweet. Maybe, erm, more pasta sauce for the freezer. And excitingly, 2 of my Black Krim are nearly ripe too. I'm beyond thrilled about them.

When do broadies go in/be ready? They're on my 'must do next year' list, but I know nothing about them...

Hi
I froze virtually all my blackcurrants for overwinter - but did use some to make a summer pudding with redcurrants and raspberries - a real family favourite :)
My courgettes are just starting to do nicely - wonder if it is just cold and wet - leaching out nutrients maybe?
Cherry tomatoes I roast with garlic and olive oil on a tray, bag up and freeze. I also add peppers and shallots if I have them. Could you make them into a sort of sun dried tomato ?
Broad beans - I direct sow in late October, cover with a fleece tunnel and leave alone ( hoping the mice don't find them!) If there are non germinating ones, you can fill the gaps by direct sowing in February, or plug plants in March

agoodbook stupid question alert Can I just bung them (blackcurrants) in the freezer as they are or do I need to do anything first?

Rooster I just open freeze them - a nice thin layer so they freeze quickly. Then when they are frozen I bag them up. When I need them, they are easy to just take out what I need . I try to take out the leaves and twigs first. :) I do this with raspberries/redcurrants/brambles/gooseberries. And I have started doing it with runner beans and french beans as well, (cannot tell the difference to those I used to blanch and cool quickly)
I have had these trays for years and years,work a treat, but a flattish tray with baking paper on would work
www.lakeland.co.uk/3518/Open-Freeze-Trays

Thanks agoodbook I shall do that - apple and blackcurrant pie later in the year

I just throw mine in on bags. Works fine. For redcurrants you can take them off the stalks with a fork once frozen so no need to separate them from bunches first.

I have bn drinking redcurrant gin. Hic.

Oh and yy to roasted cherry toms. I half mine, cut side down cram then in, olive oil and salt. Yum.

Oh and lovage. Does anyone else grow lovage? I'd forgotten how tasty it makes things. I made a lentil and chorizo cottage pie with lovage. 'Tasted" so much of it hardly any made it to the freezer.

I've never grown lovage. Might have to investigate.

I'll try runner bean freezing without blanching this year (assuming they keep on coming). I did a similar thingwith leeks earlier in the year - just chopped and froze. Worked well.

A trip to the plot yesterday evening. My sweetcorn are flowering but looking yellow at the bottom so I fed them and the pumpkins and squashes. Hopefully that will help them perk up. Cucumber has a couple of fruits on. More weeding - at least the damp soil meant they were easier to get up.
I've been planting green manure seeds in places where I have gaps and they are starting to germinate. These plants should be ready to dig in for the autumn and then I have some winter green manure seeds to try as well.
My kale seedlings which were donated are tiny after several weeks. I don't know if its the compost they're in or whether they are just slow.

Right, I might try this Sutton bean then!! It sounds yummy. As does lovage.

I did overwintered peas last year and they have been brilliant. Gives the bees something early in the year, too. I just wonder if four beds of them might be, uh, a bit much

I am of all this amazing cooking that's going on. I made my first load of chutney last year, but that is my entire experience as far as jam-making and canning goes. Your lovely-sounding recipes are making me realise this is probably a skill I need to learn!

Shove I really hope it's not too late to sow kale as my first sowing has been slugged. Gah. Blasted slugs. Need to get more compost before I can sow any more though.

My jar shortage has thankfully been resolved, so more jam will soon be made. Assuming I can get the burnt bits off the bottom of my preserving pan. . I've got loads of chillies which I'd like to preserve somehow for gifts. Anybody know how?

mink never tried lovage before but I like the sound of that cottage pie! Can you share the recipe? Please?

spotted if you go onto BBC Good Food and search for Cherry Tomatoes there are some lovely recipes. this one lookes really nice!

cupcakes - I am your comrade in slug adversity! We shall fight them on the beaches, we shall fight on the compost heap, we shall fight in the fields and in the beds, we shall fight in the hilly mounts of manure; we shall never surrender!!

I burnt a pan really badly recently, to the point that I had to look up online instructions of how to clean it! I ended up boiling up a water/vinegar solution for a bit (this does not smell good, by the way), then adding some baking soda and leaving a while before scouring. Worked a treat.

Thanks for the tip - I shall have to try that! It's only in the very corners of the pans where I couldn't get the spoon in to stir properly. Is that what those wooden spoons with a square corner are for then?

Spoons with square corners?

You've lost me.

It has to be said, my level of cooking is significantly below the Mumsnet average. I consider myself as having performed some heroic feat if I put some veggies in a pan and boil them without setting the kitchen on fire.

This sort of thing

I once DID nearly set the kitchen on fire boiling veggies. I forgot a crucial ingredient. Water.

Morning!
should be fine to sow kale still - have you thought of sowing on a little bit of ground like a seedbed? I was looking to see if you could buy plug plants , they are a fortune !
The only reason I open freeze my stuff is because it is easier to take a little out at a time. I mostly freeze things as ingredients rather than cooked meals - gives me a bit more flexibility. Though I do make pasta sauces ,lots of soup, preserves and jam.

Ooh, yes, Cupcakes, a Cherry tomato tart is a lovely idea. I can make it and pretend that it's really summery weather... Right, to add to my '...next year...' list, I will add: amend balance between cherry and bigger tomatoes. I still maintain that I can't have enough tomatoes, but maybe I can in fact have enough cherry tomatoes when the weather is wintry. I'm even harvesting from armpits already!

For chillies, I love love love the Nigella chilli jam recipe. I eat tons of the stuff. I use white vinegar though (cheaper), and normal sugar with pectin separately sometimes. That's cheaper too. And more adjustable. Actually I start with that recipe and sort of freestyle, as I now bung in other stuff.

And today's other top tip (ahem) is for cheapest jam jars, use tesco value lemon curd jars @ 22p each. And bung the contents.

Oh, and to clean up boiled ruined pans, I boil up clothes washing powder in the pot, and that'll take whatever I've ruined back to normal. But if it's sugary, I usually give it a good long soak in cold water first.

Ooh agoodbook thanks for broad bean info. When would they be ready to eat then? Ish.

I'm another that's never tried lovage. Or savoury.

Cottage pie
Sorry my measurements are no more accurate than a little, some and lots.

Boil some red lentils until soft
Fry off an onion or shallots, finely chopped carrot, red pepper if you want.
Add the lentils.
I put roasted cherry toms in mine + some tin toms
Add chopped chorizo (i used veggie chorizo)
Bay leaf, lovage leaf, dash of worcester, dash of soy, seasoning.

Cook gently till the flavours merge.
Pour into dish, top with mash, grate over cheese. Oven cook till cheese is bubbly, then grill to crunch up.

Yum.

Chillies can be preserved in oil too. No idea exactly how but thinking of those fancy jars you can get with the whole chillies in.

Shove my loganberry glut forced me to try making jam last year and it's surprisingly easy - although my mum who is much more experienced in these things tells me that loganberry is easier to get right than strawberry.

Cedar03 You are giving me confidence! I have always thought jam-making was of about the same difficulty as finding the philosophers' stone via some kind of alchemical process! I mean, all that measuring of temperature and stuff . It's the kind of thing I would love to do but I really lack the confidence, if you see what I mean. It's stupid, because what's the worst that can happen? I set the house on fire I burn the pan a bit and I make jam that's too gloopy. I need to gee myself up a bit to give new things a go instead of being scared of screwing up all the time!!

Picture of my first courgettes of the season! Hooray! I also harvested half a trug full of my first early potatoes - Winston and Foremost. What's the best way to store them? Do I need paper sacks?

That cottage pie recipe sounds just lovely, Mink!

I am about to join my local allotment group! There isn't one for my site yet, so it's based at another set of allotments down the road. I'm sure everyone already knows about this, but I only found out last year and was about it - so on the off-chance anyone hasn't already heard: you can get really, really cheap seeds through a lot of these groups! They come from a place called King's. I got tons last year and every pack has been a roaring success.

The best thing is, if you order through the allotment society, you get a huge bulk discount. The seeds are cheap anyway compared to places like Thompson and Morgan (full retail price for many packets is under £1.50), but the discount is almost half price off that again. To give you an idea, last year a pack of globe artichoke seeds was 80p, rhubarb chard 80p, kale 75p, courgettes 1.00, broad beans 65p, tomatoes 55p. They do herbs too.

I know discounters like Aldi do varieties a bit cheaper than this, but you don't get anything like the same selection!

Vegetarian chorizo, mink ??? I never knew such thing existed! Where do you get that from?

Lovely courgettes, Shove. I especially like the bendy one at the bottom that's like a smile. What will you make wih them? Excellent news on the allotment group too. I found a similar kind of thing my way too, £2.50 for the year and access to loads of cheap stuff. Like you, my sitenis tiny so thisnis at another site. Of course I found it months after I'd bought piles of canes, seeds, manure etc...