58 days ago
It has not been a great crop for either. I blame the weather. But the first pepper was harvested and joined home grown tomatoes and bought in minced pork and cheese in a home grown stuffed marrow for supper. The green chillies are from just one plant and on their own will be enough to support my cooking and also the Indian meals the Mrs prepares up until Christmas. There are more plants to harvest if it ever stops raining
731 days ago
I am still using some of the chillies we grew and dried last year, despite giving away pots and pots of them as gifts last Christmas. And this is despite the Mrs and her family using quite a lot of chillies in their cooking and me using a good few in the various stews I make. And guess what: we have had a pretty big harvest this year too.
766 days ago
Last night it was rhubarb as you can see below. This morning it was a sheet of the last green tomatoes, sliced. Tonight more of the tomatoes. And so it goes on day after day, until there will be nothing left to flash freeze.
773 days ago
The fried green tomatoes continue to win rave reviews from the Mrs and myself and so we enjoyed another batch yesterday after the arrival of two large bags of “old fashioned cornflour” with a big picture of what used to be known as a Red Indian on the front of each. I suggested that the flour might have been produced by Native Americans but the Mrs, a woman once known as the deluded lefty, gave each bag a dirty look, suggesting that – like the Washington Redskins – a makeover was needed for these enlightened times. I think I shall order some more bags to ensure we have a lifetime’s supply with the current design. Meanwhile, I have more of the green tomato glut to deal with, without resorting to chutney as we already have more than one winter’s supply of apple chutney.
783 days ago
Both harvests have been good this year. I picked all the peppers, both the soft bell shaped ones and the spicier long green ones, earlier this week. The chilli plants are still turning red so what you see below is just the first crop. There will be a stack more to come and, after last year’s bumper crop we are still working through the dried chillies from 2021. Even an Anglo Indian household like this one cannot keep up with what our gardens supply.
1132 days ago
Joshua and I are now almost at the end of On the Shores of Silver Lake the fourth of the books by the great libertarian author Laura Ingalls Wilder. My old babysitter, DD, is also re-reading the series, just for her own pleasure, and is now a book ahead of us in The Long Winter. She says I must store up well at the Welsh Hovel as tough and cold times lie ahead. However, on that front, today saw a gut-wrenching setback.
1139 days ago
The small chilli pepper bushes are still going gangbusters, each a small cloud of flame as the little mites turn a bright red. I am now harvesting about 30 a day,and stringing them up to dry next to the Aga. Just one added to a soup really gives it enough of a kick to have the Mrs laughing at her weedy Britisher of a husband. But we have also had a bumper crop of peppers both the normal type you buy in Tesco and finger peppers.
1154 days ago
What you see below is the yield from just one pepper bush and I have six of them in the garden. Plus another six producing normal shaped peppers and six more producing chillies which are now turning red and becoming fiery hot. All are dripping with fruit which we put in salads and stews but just cannot eat all of. I shall be threading my first chain of chillies for drying next week. Peppers, I am told, freeze well without any need for blanching so what you see below is now in a freezer growing fuller by the day.
1354 days ago
It is only March but we have the first harvest from the newly created gardens at the Welsh Hovel – a small bunch of rhubarb. There is more to come. Today sees the planting of beans, peas and potatoes. Yesterday it was (indoors) chillis and peppers. More photos later.
