More harvesting, more preserving

I think I have mentioned before that the only vegetables we consider freezing are Runner Beans, Tomatoes (in sauce form) and chillis. Well, over the last couple of weeks, those three are what I have been harvesting most of, so we have been busy preserving them.

I'm not one of those people that keeps meticulous records of the weights of crops I produce, but I'd say that this year I have probably picked about 20kgs of tomatoes already, and that's only half the crop. When I first noticed blight on a couple of my plants my immediate reaction was to pick any fruit that was showing any sign of ripeness, and I have been ripening these in trays, moving them around the garden to keep them in the sun whenever possible.

I have had to throw away a few fruits which were already infected with blight, like this one:

But my quick action in removing blight-affected fruit and foliage has slowed the spread of the disease, and my garden is still full of tomatoes that will almost certainly ripen before the disease gets them.

Ailsa Craig

Sweet Aperitif



Orange Banana



Ananas

I have also picked a significant quantity of ripe chillis now.

Cayenne

Jane made a batch of Sweet Chilli Sauce this week - her first ever. It turned out to be really nice; sweet, tangy and pleasantly hot without being atomic!

After their slow start, the Runner Beans have really started to produce now, and I have accumulated enough to make it worth freezing a batch. It's not a huge quantity (about a kilogram), but although we are eating beans approximately ever other day at present, it's more than we need.

My method is to simply wash, de-string, slice and briefly blanch the beans prior to open freezing them on baking trays.

When they are fully frozen I take them off the trays and put them into 2-portion-size plastic bags and return them to the freezer.

Something else I want to mention today is that Jane has won us a Sourdough Bread cookery course, taking place in London in a few weeks' time. As you know, I am very much into bread-making now, and have reached the stage where I can turn out a reasonably respectable loaf, but there is always room for improvement, and I am looking forward to picking up a few tips to improve my technique and add to my repertoire. I made this loaf on Thursday: