After podding the beans yesterday, today was using them in the tortilla filling for lunch. We also used home grown onion, and home grown tomatoes, from the tomato plant in our bedroom that has really got going again now the heating is on a lot more!
Yesterday, I set to and made a batch of pumpkin chutney (well from what is to be honest an orange coloured squash!)
The first task was the peel the flesh, get the seeds and pith out and then chop up the squash into small pieces ready for cooking.
I needed two pans into which also went about half a kilogram of brown sugar for each, which gives the chutney a nice darker colour, and about 3-4 cm depth of pickling vinegar into each pan. Into one pan I also chopped up some ginger and into the other I put a tablespoon of both chilli flakes and garam masala.
The mixture was bubbled for at least three hours on a low heat, stirring every so often and then near the end mashing the mixture and increasing the heat to ensure a decent consistency and no vinegar was left visible as liquid.
The mixture was then transferred to sterilised jars, it is best to use jars from such as indian sauce mixes rather than jam jars for this because of the type of lid as long storage of chutney containing vinegar will eventually corrode certain lids. The jars were sealed and left to cool.
Just a short blog today to say that I have spent a lot of it podding the ying-yang and borlotti beans that have been (or bean!) drying in an upstairs bedroom for the past few weeks.
This isn't all of them either - the pods will go into the compost heap and the beans are being stored for the next time we have tortillas!
Just a quick one for this evening. I am busy learning how to use my new Omegon LX3 Minitrack for astronomy photography, amd indeed the camera settings necessary for this.
Last night was clear and so I got a nice picture of the moon for starters.
Recently I have finished reading "A Green and Pleasant Land" by Ursula Buchan, borrowed from the library just before the second lockdown.
There's a collective folk memory based on the "Dig for Victory" poster, an idealistic image of everyone on the home front growing their own crops and being self-sufficent. This book sets out to explain what actually happened and the different approaches to ensuring that the nation had enough to eat during the wartime years.
Much has been made of how parks and public spaces were turned into allotments and how it was encouraged for people to turn over large amounts of their garden to fruit and vegetables. However, a survey done in 1944 showed that under half of households grew some of their own fruit and vegetables either at home or on an allotment. There would be many reasons for this, not least of which either space at home or lack of time or manpower to undertake this, though many observed during the war that many who could have grown their own did not do so.
The book also looks at cultivation on farms, the efforts of the Women's Land Army, how gardening was covered in the media, and how changing farming practices, for instance with chemicals, changed the landscape and habitats. The efforts of the WI, particularly in preserving fruit and distributing food, are also documented.
My view of grow-your-own is this - if you have room to grow something for yourself, you should. Whilst even our present Covid-19 crisis does not compare to the hardships and issues encountered in the Second World War, those who can take a little of the pressure off the food supply chain should do so, and indeed reduce their food miles and reap the benefit of ultimate freshness that the market can't provide. That being said, I acknowledge that not everyone can do this, though I often mention my grandparents growing tomatoes and cucumbers in the window of a tenth floor council flat in inner city Leeds!
It is not about total self sufficiency either, most of us are not lucky enough to have the two or three acres that would make this even remotely achieveable. However, with a little planning you can have elements of many of your meals that are entirely your own growing efforts.
Today, for instance, we had home grown preserved pears on my porridge and home made damson jam (damsons from the allotment) on my oatcakes at breakfast. At lunch, a home grown apple with more damson jam on one of the sandwiches. At tea, with the pie was home grown potato, as well as home grown carrots and parsnip, and a little spinach beet, broccoli and some very small sprouts (the latter three are pretty much at the end of the crop now!). These are all from the allotment and served two people.
Even if you don't have that much room, pears and apples can be container grown minarette trees and carrots can be grown in an old dustbin or tyre stack. Spinach beet is a cut and come again crop, so should be able to be grown in a large container like salad leaves.
A brighter morning this morning, although a lot colder and there may well have been a touch of frost overnight. I had to go into York today, so decided to cycle through some country lanes on the way there, some of the same route that we took yesterday, although it was a lot quieter today.
Most trees have lost their leaves now, although the ivy that has colonised these trees is flowering
Today started off quite cloudy and cool but gradually brightened up during the morning. We went on what is one of our regular cycle routes through the countryside, which is usually quite quiet, but this morning lots of walkers, joggers and other cyclists seemed to have had the same idea! Still plenty of space for everyone though on country lanes.
The big open fields where last week there were hundreds of gulls, starlings, crows and redwings picking over the ground were quiet this week, though further on there were black-headed, common and a few herring gulls. Sheep in the fields were doing what sheep generally do, eating grass although in one field they were just sitting around, obviously on a break from working! Whilst I think most of the lamb round here goes to more local customers, I feel very sorry for those farmers that have built up a successful export business and will see this in all likelihood ruined by Brexit. The lamb we had at lunchtime, bought at our local butchers and supplied from a farm three miles away, was delicious, slow cooked in the oven for four hours and served with our own parsnip chips, home grown carrots and potatoes, and some bought in swede, peas and a jerusalem artichoke. We've not eaten the latter before, but seeing them in a greengrocers in Garforth, Leeds (where I would normally be working in a charity shop if it wasn't for lockdown), I decided to try one, and for 23p it wasn't really a waste if we didn't like it!
So, a quick look in our go-to book for grow your own - Your Kitchen Garden (George Seddon and Helena Radecka - written in an era when I think you can guess who did the cookery section!) for ideas on how to cook one, and found that slicing and parboiling it for a few minutes until slightly soft, then popping it in the chip pan with the parsnip slices was the best method for today. The jerusalem artichoke has a slightly sweet taste but would do well as crisps actually. Very nice anyway, and we are wondering about growing some next year, but are aware that they are difficult to get rid of if growing in the ground, so maybe a big plant pot might be best.
