Hello Campers,
Well, I've had a very pleasant afternoon making hot pineapple chutney & I thought I'd kick in my recipe in case anyone else has any hot pineapples going spare or a boring sandwich which needs some summer sparkle.
I have a world mango shortage to thank for the creation of this recipe. A couple of years ago, I really fancied making some mango chutney. Our local market always has them, so but on this occasion it was completely mango-less. Tried two supermarkets. Nope! I didn't find out until a few days later that there had been some sort of a problem with a big mango crop & imports had been much reduced.
Anyway, the Big Hairy Half of the Relationship suggested I use pineapples instead. I snottily replied that they'd be a fat lot of use in MANGO chutney & stomped past a market stall positively heaped with pineappley loveliness before deciding that I'd give it a go. And having now refined the recipe further, it's good stuff! Here it is, in case anyone fancies having a go:
Hot pineapple chutney
4 pineapples (you need about 5lbs of chopped flesh after peeling & coring)
1kg cooking apples
900g white granulated sugar
350g onions
3 garlic cloves
50g fresh root ginger
4 -6 scotch bonnet chillies (or other habenero type)
2 level tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ground allspice
1200ml white wine vinegar
(Makes about 6 or 7lbs)
Put your preserving pan next to the chopping board & prep all the ingredients straight into it, as this saves on faffing around & washing-up. Peel & core the pineapples & chop them roughly into 2cm pieces. Peel & roughly chop the onions. Finely chop the garlic. Get the rubber gloves out for de-seeding & chopping the chillies, as Scotch bonnets are fiery beasts, but have a great flavour. Peel & finely chop the root ginger. Peel, core & roughly chop the apples. If they start going brown as you're adding them to the pan, just pour over the vinegar. Add the spices & salt. You've now go everything in the pan EXCEPT THE SUGAR which is correct!
Bring the pan to the boil, then reduce the heat to simmer for 20 mins so the fruit begins to soften.
(This will give you time to wash your jars in hot soapy water & get them in a low oven to sterilise)
Now add the sugar & stir until dissolved. Bring the pan to the boil, reduce heat to a steady simmer & cook, uncovered, for around an hour & a half. Stir it every now & again to prevent it sticking. When any spare liquid on the top can be stirred in, & it is thick & sticky, it is time for bottling. Don't overcook it, as it continues to thicken a little on cooling & storing.
Then bottle as usual in hot sterilised jars. Have a clean cloth wrung out in very hot water to clean up the tops of the jars, then seal asap with clean lids.
This quantity made 7 jars & a taster-pot today. Just a note about the chillies - I use the Caribbean varieties of chillies for this recipe - scotch bonnet or similar habanero-types. They are very hot, but have a distinctive flavour in comparison with other hot chillies, such as the more usual cayenne types. I grew scotch bonnets a couple of years ago in our greenhouse & I've used up the last of the crop from the freezer today in this recipe. I used 6 of them, varying sizes. The biggest was the shape & size of a large strawberry, the others were smaller. I de-seeded them all (with my hands encased in matron's gloves!). I love spicy food, but there is only one inhabitant of 'The People & Cats Republic' in possession of an asbestos mouth & it isn't me or Albert Whiskers! If you don't like a hot chutney, then replace the scotch bonnets with a milder chilli variety, or just make something else.
This chutney is fine to eat straight away (which is just as well as the Big Hairy Half has been DIGGING IN WITH A SPOON!!) but like all such preserves, will mellow after even a month of storage.
Oh well, time to go & see what Albert Whiskers is up to......he hasn't wandered far from the back garden since coming home with a bitten ear this week. Unusual for him to be so sensible!
Till next time....enjoy the sun,
C x
Hello Friends,
Our furred friend Albert Whiskers has now been with us here at 'Hagstones' for two years. I thought it was three. That's the thing about Albert Whiskers. You soon feel you have known him forever.
He still looks pretty rough, doesn't he? He's very good natured, though, on the whole, despite the occasional chomp of his humans (not usually me!) which is for bowl-filling or general attention-seeking purposes. His behaviour hasn't really improved. Still arguably the worst behaved cat we've ever had. As if last night's tropical temperatures were not difficult enough to sleep in, I also had to contend with a 3 a.m meow-fest from the front drive, as he obviously decided it was far too hot to waste energy going round the back to enter via his own door!
I'm afraid Albert Whiskers has stayed out all night for the last 3 days. It's unusual for him. He likes his bed & the chance of a few 'Dreamies' while he's watching TV. The last few nights have seen him taking up position smack in the middle of the pavement at the end of our drive guarding his property as if his life depended on it. I assumed it was a new phase of local cat turf wars, but wasn't aware of any new cats recently.....particularly none that would bother our own large rugged lad. The neighbourhood moggies are:
- Taz - Small young black & white. An irritant & gets the occasional chase or bash, but no threat.
- Abbie - Teeny tiny brindle tortie. Threat level minus 3. Her human has complained about Albert Whiskers helping himself to Abbie's 'Whiskas' & hissing at her when she tried to get some of her own food!
-Big Grey Fluffy - Must be quite old now as he was on the scene years ago when we still had Willow. Siegfried's old sparring partner. Looks huge but most of it's wobble & fur. AW likes to know what he's up to, but no apparent conflict at present.
-The Tabster - Not bothered about him.
-Little Tabby Pink Collar - Not bothered about her.
-Hungry Blackie - Not bothered about him UNLESS the hanging around the kitchen door hoping for scraps tips over into taking the p*ss.
-Limpy Ginge - Really cute smallish ginger & white. Have horrible feeling Albert Whiskers may be implicated in the 'limp'. No threat.
-Tabby White Paws -Last big turf war was with TWP.Last seen rolling around the road with AW, locked in combat, screeching fit to wake the dead. Was soundly vanquished (Albert was chuffed with that one!) & has not been seen since.
-Splodgy - Not really bothered about scrapping. Chief concern is stealth raids through cat flaps belonging to others & robbing food. Only seen 3 or 4 times a year.
-Big tabby from further down the road - Looks like he might be handy, but never actually ventures further than his own gatepost.
So that was the puzzle. No-one of any threat to Albert Whiskers, yet every night he has been taking up position, wired like a sentry, waiting for whatever or whoever it is. I happened to peep around the bedroom curtains a couple of nights ago & that solved the mystery. Albert sitting up on the wall while a dark shadow padded down the street...........Genghis!! I'd forgotten about him. This cat is a local legend. I can go for months without seeing him, but he always reappears. He is a large, lean, but muscled black Tomcat. From the size of him & particularly the width of his head, I'd guess he's still very much in possession of his love-nuggets. His territory is extensive. I've seen him at the far southern end of our village, as well as our 'town' end & he is also known to wander the edge of town on the other side of the roundabout. That's a busy junction with a major A-road, so I assume he crosses underneath, using the subway. I know there have been feral cats/kittens in the village & wonder how many of them have been sired by this big wandering boy. I have never seen him sitting down or standing still. He roams constantly. He's always on the move, not rushing anywhere, but silently, purposefully. It's most noticeable when I've seen him coming up or down the old A46 Fosse Way. It has a narrow pavement on its far side & he will have his head lowered, looking straight ahead, putting one paw in front of the other, just walking. He's crossed our garden on several occasions. I have tried to get a closer look at him to see what condition he's in, but he doesn't welcome human contact. He would run away from Siegfried, but Siegfried lived a similar lifestyle for many years & no sensible cat, whether feral or otherwise tended to take him on willingly. I hadn't seen Genghis for ages, & wasn't aware that Albert Whiskers had even met him, but seeing his black shadowy form padding past our house the other night while Albert watched from just out of reach, explained why our own ex-street cat boy is on permanent nocturnal watch. I don't know where Genghis came from, whether he ever had a proper home or if anyone ever puts any food out for him. He is a good size. He's probably a crack hunter. I guess that the only thing that would change his lifestyle is trapping & neutering. That would probably not be easy. Part of the legend of Genghis is that he is only rarely seen & never in the same place as last time. Long may he prosper! (And there will always be a spare dinner at our door if he ever turns up in need of one).
So that's the tale of how Albert Whiskers came to be (hopefully temporarily!) a nocturnal guard cat.
Hope you are loving the summer weather.
Till next time,
C x
Hello Friends,
Well, there won't be any vampires stopping by at the People & Cats Republic tonight! If any tall, fanged, black cloaked individuals are thinking of flying by for a sneaky chomp of neck, they are going to find themselves well & truly repelled. Oh yes! You see, we have grown rather a lot of this......
........ & with the help of this.........
I've turned some of it into Garlic Pickle. It's an interesting preserve, this one. It's not the pickled whole cloves of garlic which appear in delis, along with the olives & sundried tomatoes. It's a sticky, quite spicy, very pungent preserve, almost jam-like in consistency. It's not difficult to make - maybe easier if you have some experience with preserves, as it'd be easy to overcook (garlic toffee, anyone?). The worst part is peeling 250g of individual garlic cloves, because that's quite a lot.
Put some good music on & just crack on with it. (Don't listen to the latest on the Tory leadership bunfight like I did........perfectly horrid way to spend more than a nano-second of my time but had got too garlicky to tackle changing the station). No need to chop the peeled cloves by hand. They can be speedily zizzed up in a gizmo. Then everything just goes into a large pan. It's quite a flavoursome mix of ingredients - mustard seed, fenugreek, lemon juice, cayenne, cumin seed, turmeric, as well as a bit of salt, some oil & sugar - & it just needs a fast simmer until thick & ready for bottling.
It even LOOKS stinky, doesn't it? Well, I can tell you that this pan of gloop made 5 small jars of pickle, which are currently sealed, labelled & cooling on top of the freezer...........
......but they won't be for long. Emma Macdonald, the author of this recipe book, suggests that it is nice used very thinly as a savoury spread on hot toast (a bit like 'Marmite'). I've tried that, & it's very nice.......................as long as you are not thinking of actually exhaling anywhere within a 20 mile-radius of any other life-form for the next 2 months. Yes, this stuff could fell an ox. It could fell a field of oxen. It could probably fell the field too. The Bigger Hairier Half of the Relationship, however (could you see where this was going?), is seriously in love with this stuff & will eat it on anything & everything, as well as straight out of the jar on a spoon! There may JUST be some of this batch left by the end of July (but only because I've told him that peeling all the garlic took me AGES & he's to make it last!). I'll be astounded if there is anything left by the end of August.
As for my trusty furred helper, Albert Whiskers, he's made himself scarce today. Suspect the fumes from the Evil Pan were making his fur & whiskers curl, but he'll be back when his cavernous tummy starts rumbling!
Cheers,
C x
Morning Friends,
Just back from our mini-camping trip this week & have dodged the showers to have a good look around our veggie garden to see what's looking good.....or dodgy.
The borders are looking very full but I usually let them get on with it at this time of year so as to prioritise my time growing food. Will be chopping a few things down & filling up gaps with containers over the next week or two.
Greenhouse is rammed as usual - not a very good pic, but it's just a look. 6 tomato plants & a scallop squash in the bed on the right, grapevine in the huge tub at the far end, peppers & 3 varieties of chillies wherever I could squidge them in, & aubergines & cucumbers up on the bench on the left. I planted a row of lettuce in front of the tomatoes too, which we've already eaten.
I always grow a row of tomatoes outside too, with some calendula to attract pollinators. The outside plants are much smaller than the indoor ones, but will get bigger now that I've started feeding them. The calendula are a mixture of doubles & singles as I grew them from saved seed. As soon as we get a dry day, I'll be gathering some petals to make my annual marigold scones.
Opposite the outdoor tomatoes, a squash bed....4 courgette plants in here & a scallop squash. Gave up on butternuts....see previous sorry tale of those. Behind the squash bed are 2 beds of potatoes. The Big Hairy Half of the Relationship is in charge of those. I just fling some water in their general direction now & again.
Broad beans swelling nicely. Unfortunately will only have a small crop this year thanks to the local sparrow army. They stripped off most of the flowers just for the hell of it. Love that we are doing our bit for a declining species, but they are by far the worst garden pest now, at 'Hagstones', bar none.
Sweetcorn in one of our big raised beds (netted against said naughty sparrows) & another scallop squash, growing in a repurposed grass box from an old lawnmower. I grow a fair bit of veg in containers. At the moment, I've also got.............
.....2 squash & more marigolds in a the base of an old defunct compost unit............
......a further squash & a spare orgeano plant in an old lorry tyre..........................
.......& plenty of salad stuff in these long plastic troughs. I bought 5 of these years ago & they are so useful. These lettuces are called 'Intred', a romaine variety. I've also got frilly 'lettony' lettuces, radishes & wasabi rocket growing in these at the moment, as well as red & white spring onions.
It doesn't look as though we will get more than a handful of pears this year - my money is on the Sparrow Army having pecked the blossom off at a crucial time (& I buy the bloody things heaps of fatballs!), but the apple tree is doing better..........
.......& even the permanently sulky greengage tree looks as though it might grudgingly kick a few fruits out this year
I know that photos taken on my phone (while dodging the showers) don't do the garden (or anything!) justice, but one view I really like, is when I'm working in the veggie plot, then looking down through the arch to the house, & seeing all the flowers, the pond with what has been a fab display of native pond irises this year, & the lawn dotted with blackbird families feeding their plumptious babies.
For those friends who were expecting a big EU Referendum rant, I don't have time for the 27 pages that would currently involve, so am keeping busy & trying not to think about it. Once this latest shower has stopped, I'm off outside to pick some more rhubarb for the freezer, then I intend to bake a cake. Albert Whiskers returned from the C-Word on Thursday. He went over his territory with a fine tooth comb to see if any interlopers had, had the cheek to pee on any of his bushes, but everything was pretty much found to have been in order..........hence today's obvious inaction!
OK, rain's stopping, off to get my trug.
Have a good weekend all,
C x
Greetings Campers,
Useful afternoon outside in the sunshine & I'm starting to feel I'm actually in danger of catching up! All it took was a bit more motivation, kicking the lergy into touch & some slight semblance of a plan!
Borders starting to green up now & the soil is warming. This means it's both planting-time & decidedly grubby cat time, as Albert Whiskers likes nothing better than rolling around on sun-baked soil. If he comes anywhere near me this evening, he's in danger of being set about with a Value Pet-Wipe......not exactly a dignified experience for him!
Well, with the soil warming up nicely, the Chief Potato Grower decided to get the seed potatoes in. They've been chitting for weeks.
We bought an 8kg bag of Sarpo Mira & they've filled a couple of beds in the veggie garden. Sarpo Mira are our preferred spud these days because our area does seem to get badly affected by blight. One summer, when we lost most of our crop for the 2nd or 3rd time, we noticed our village garden centre displaying a poster from a local allotment which showed how great their potatoes were doing in late summer, despite it being a really crappy year for blight. The variety was Sarpo Mira. We bought some to try the next year & they were fab. No blight, good crops & very versatile. They made good chips, mash, the bigger ones baked well & the smaller ones were good boiled or cold in potato salad, etc. So pleased we discovered them, as the CPG was getting distinctly peed off with seeing his hard work disappear in a tragic tangle of smelly black haulms. If you are in a blighty area, give them a go.
Have to admit the CPG has put in more labour than me today, as he's also cut the lawn & flame-gunned the weeds on the front drive (& he hasn't flame-gunned a hole in the front door this time.......), but I haven't been idle. I've potted up my outdoor tomatoes & put them in situe, although they will still go back in the greenhouse at night for another 10 days or so. I've planted my usual row of pot marigolds in front of them as these seem to attract pollinators. Saved seed, so will be a mixture. Such cheery flowers. I can almost smell those warm buttered marigold scones already :-)
More cheeriness.....an orange-tip butterfly in the garden today. Used to be such frequent late spring visitors but hadn't seen one for the last couple of years. Also a holly blue butterfly. We do have some holly, but another of their food plants is apparently ivy, & we do have lots of that. Pretty little things. Maybe it's going to be a fab year for butterflies. Hope so!
Oooh, here comes my coffee.
Cheers all,
C x
Morning Friday People,
Our fabulous swifts usually return in the first week of May. Had a look yesterday morning, no sign of them, none in the afternoon, then just as I was shutting up the greenhouse for the evening, I looked up & there they were! Five of them, so only the advance party. Swifts are a declining species & I feel privileged that they nest in our eaves every year. Swifts not only make their way all the way back to the UK from Africa, they come to the same nest site! I can barely get my head around migration, let alone that some of those little birds are setting off from Africa with our very own roof in mind!
And another piece of birdy info - we've got a blackbird nest! As feathered real estate goes, this isn't the brainiest of choices. It's deep in our hedge (a mixture of privet & fire thorn) but it's very close to the conservatory & my 'cafetiere & good book' sitting out corner. More worryingly, it is right above Albert Whiskers' self-appointed area for...er....more sizeable ablutions. If I can hear the chicks bibbling away, & I really can, then he'll definitely be able to, with his radar tabholes. Oh well, have moved my chair away & will keep putting out bird food. Hope they make it!
The garden's looking happier for the bit of sun we had yesterday. Love this colour combination....pale yellow from the primroses & bright magenta honesty. Both self-sown. Free plants - my best kind!
Greenhouse also looking better for the warmth. The tomatoes I set out in pot rings the other day have settled in well.......
......& you can see I've got a sneaky row of lettuces in there, to make use of the space for a bit of extra food before the tomatoes take over. I didn't buy the official pot rings for growing tomatoes. They were silly money for rings of plastic. I showed them to my Resident Grunt-work Operative in the garden centre & he said if I found him some big pots from the shed, he'd punch the bottoms out. These are now on about their 6th year, & just help with that little bit more soil-depth for hungry roots.
Pleased to see my courgettes & squashes (scallopini) coming through this morning. The only ones not doing anything are the yellow 'Sunstripe' courgettes & to be fair, that was old seed. They can be a bit arsey about growing too, so I'll give them a bit more time.
Coriander looking lush this morning. Will definitely cut a bunch to sprinkle over our lamb curry tonight. I usually get about 3 good cuts from a pot this size.....more if I've grown the 'Calypso' variety, which this isn't, as it was a cheapo free packet I had from somewhere or other. Intend to make another sowing this afternoon, also of radishes, to keep the good stuff coming.
Albert Whiskers thinks 'Sod the veg, when's me dinner coming out?' Strongly suspect he's been out all night (cat turf wars on our street, Big Grey Fluffy has been waddling his way up our end upsetting the applecart in local cat relations). Albert Whiskers appeared at breakfast time absolutely ravenous, wolfed his pouch in one while barely coming up for air, then laid into his biscuits. At 7.47a.m precisely, he started asking for his dinner. No chance yet, Matey!
OK, well I'm off down the greenhouse with those seeds.
Cheers Friends,
C x
Afternoon Campers,
I feel soooo behind with the garden this year. I'm putting it down to a number of things.....two lergies, Easter weekend, birthday weekend...which due to Lergy 2 rolled into the bank holiday, & most of all, the icy nights we've been experiencing until very recently, which has put the brakes on much of my veggie-growing activity. Must try to do more regular blog posts to motivate me into making progress.
These are funky little tulips, aren't they? They're called 'Lilac wonder'. They close up when it's shady & open right out into pinky-purple stars with poached egg middles when the sun comes out. They've been flowering for ages - a welcome pop of colour on our dark courtyard (way too dank to call it a patio!)
I've started livening it up today. I want it to look lighter, more airy, more welcoming....more anything, really, it's such a big bloody black hole, but the key thing is that I don't intend to spend any money on it. Well, maybe £5. OK, £6 at a push. I'm going for a vintage theme, & intend to re-purpose stuff & use clobber I've already got. Had a general tidy-up & sweep today. Removed 3 tubs of daffodils. No joy in looking at dead flowers. Have replanted them to fill gaps in my big borders for next Spring. Went round wafting the secateurs in the direction of anything looking dead, wilty or just generally crappy. Funny how once I'd done that, I started noticing new green things coming into their own.
The witch-hazel is pushing out Spring leaves........it will enjoy a month or two of perfection before the leaf cutter bees move in on it, chewing out halos of greenery & rolling it up under their wing before taking it off for their nests.
Well, I felt quite inspired once I'd started clearing away the crud. I brought my pelagoniums & agapanthus out for a short back & sides, & have left them in situe to start hardening off.
Whooo-hooo! Am flying now! Fetched Possibly The Most Pot-Bound Bay Tree In The World & set about re-potting it into the lush pot I received as a birthday present at the weekend. It's been a gorgeous sunny day here & the warm roots smelled amazing.......a little like the leaves, but more like a Bay & Lime fragrance the Big Hairy Half of the Relationship used to wear. Any neighbours looking out probably thought "OMG, she's actually INHALING PLANT ROOTS now!" But hey, these are grim times, horrible divisive Tory government, levels of inequality going backwards.......a girl has to take whatever zen moments she can!
Then scrubbed out the foetid bird bath.......it's beyond me what had been going on in there. It was a rainbow of sludge, all of it clinging to the sides like grim death. There may have been new penicillin strains in there, all of it now dumped around roots of cherry tree in the hope of amazing nutrient content. So that's the start of my £6 courtyard tart-up. The best thing is that it looks way better already. The next best thing is that I haven't spent any of the £6 yet!
Think I need to focus on the veggie garden tomorrow.
Hope you've all had some of this fab sunshine.
C x
