Ultra-easy Pickled Shallots

My shallots had finished drying, so the time had come to pickle them...

(Reminder: I had 1.2kg of "Longor" shallots available)

The first task was to peel the shallots. Easy enough, but very boring. It took me about an hour!



Unfortunately I did have to discard a few (about 10), which had gone soft. They smelled really unpleasant! However, the vast majority were fine. I had kept a dozen or so of the best ones for other culinary purposes, so I ended up with just about a kilo (2.2 lbs) of veg.

I put the shallots in a large mixing-bowl and smothered them in a large amount of salt, mixing them about with my hands to ensure that they were all well coated. Then I covered the bowl with clingfilm and left it to stand overnight. This part of the process (called "dry brining") extracts excess moisture, making for crisper pickles in due course.

Next day I rinsed the salt from the shallots, dried them on a clean tea-towel and packed them into cold, but sterilised jars.

Then it was simply a matter of filling the jars with pickling vinegar. For this ultra-easy 'recipe' I took the easy option and bought ready-made pickling vinegar, but you could of course make your own, adding whatever spices you like. I put a couple of pieces of chilli in each of my jars, more for the visual effect than for anything else, but I daresay they may add a little bit of extra zing...

When sealing the jars, check what type of lids you have. If they are not ones that already have a waxed cardboard inner liner, it's advisable to put a piece of clingfilm over the jar before putting the lid on. This stops the metal lid coming into contact with the vinegar, which could cause it to corrode. Or you could just use plastic lids...

Now for perhaps the most difficult part of the pickling process: allow to mature for at least a month! They will probably be at their best at about two months, and beginning to be a bit past it at six. They'll be nice with some strong Cheddar cheese...

Cabbage Root Fly

This pest is the bane of my life! I seem to be unable to defeat it. Last year it nearly destroyed all of my Winter brassicas, and this year I did everything I could to prevent it, but it seems I have failed again...

This is how I can tell. Here is a healthy Broccoli plant - foliage bright and turgid (i.e. it is "perky" and stands up firmly):

Whereas this plant's foliage is dull lifeless and flaccid (i.e. it is floppy):

This means that its roots have been attacked and it is no longer able to get moisture up into its leaves. It will most likely die.

And here are the culprits - a cluster of white maggots at the base of a PSB plant -  the larvae of the Cabbage Root Fly.

So, the brassicas collars that are supposed to provide a physical barrier to stop the fly laying its eggs near the plant stem didn't work. Nor did the application of a double dose of Nemasys Grow Your Own nematodes, administered exactly in accordance with the supplier's instructions. I am, as they say, "gutted".

Worst of all perhaps is the fact that the photo above, showing the maggots, is taken of the base of one of my reserve plants, grown specially to replace any casualties in the main batch of plants! So far, two of my six precious PSB plants are showing signs of attack.

My immediate action (after the initial shock) has been to put a squirt of the only bug-spray I have in my shed around the base of each of my plants. It is not one that mentions being able to kill Cabbage Root Fly larvae - but then which one is??? Maybe it will work, maybe not. All I can do is wait and hope. And keep the plants well watered so that they are not put under undue stress.

On second thoughts, I think maybe I'll also sow another batch of PSB seeds. I know it's late, but they might just come on in time...

Burgeoning Beans

"Burgeoning". It's a quaint word, isn't it? I expect some of my non-English-speaking readers may not know it. It means something like "beginning to grow rapidly, or flourish". It carries connotations of good things to come - bumper harvests for instance.

My beans are burgeoning right now.

Here are the "Cherokee Trail of Tears" ones:

See! Burgeoning. But the Runners are perhaps burgeoning even better:

Lots of my Runners this year are very curly. Fortunately they seem to straighten out as they get bigger.

The "Michelse Tros" are perhaps the least good, though even they have a fair few pods now. These are the ones with the nickname "The Mushy Pea bean". I have never tried them before - either to eat or to grow - but I think I can imagine what they will be like. The instructions on the seed packet didn't give much advice, but I plan to grow the beans to maturity and dry them for later use. I'd appreciate any relevant advice from anyone who has grown them before.

You can already see the beans swelling up inside the pods.



In the big tub with the Michelse Tros are the climbing French Beans "Cobra". They made a very poor start (due to the excessively shaded location, I think), but they have picked up a bit with the advent of warmer weather - and because they are now tall enough to poke their heads above the wall and benefit from more direct sunlight.

Those pods are small at present, but Cobra produces very big pods that stay tender despite the fact that they get to about twice the size of a normal French Bean. These ones are about half-grown:

Meanwhile, I have Dwarf French Beans of 3 different varieties ("Speedy", "Polka" and "Amethyst") growing in pots. I have one pot of each type at two different stages, one which will be ready just as the other is finishing - I hope.

This one is Polka, whose pods are green when young but mature to a deep golden yellow. You can see that the Blackfly have taken a liking to it:

Fortunately they seem to prefer the stems to the pods, which suits me just fine. If we spilt the bounty that way there is enough for everyone! I don't think I'm going to be short of beans this year...

August harvests

Now that August is with us, my harvest season is in full swing.

In the early part of this week I was away on a business trip, and when I got back I was pleased to see that there was a lot for me to harvest in the garden. The day after my return I was out in the garden shortly after 7 a.m. picking things left, right and centre!

I picked another 383 grams of the red cherry tomatoes, and 108 grams of the orange "Sungold" ones, along with 71 grams of the yellow French Beans "Polka":

I pulled another batch of six beetroot (which were in a pan, boiling, within minutes of harvesting...)

Two more pots of potatoes gave me these (Charlotte and Pink Fir Apple):

Very little Scab on them this time, much to my relief. I think the Charlotte ones are perhaps a bit too big for "new" potatoes now, but they are also particularly fine specimens.



The Blueberry bushes yielded another 394 grams of fruit. I picked some of the berries slightly under-ripe to lessen the chances of the Blackbirds getting them. I'm sure they will ripen quite successfully indoors over the next few days (if they get a chance: Jane is threatening to make Blueberry Muffins...).

There was even another small picking of the finger carrots...

But the star performer, without a doubt, was the Runner Beans, of which I picked 1.12Kg:

This is probably enough for 4 or 5 two-person helpings, and there are loads more nearly ready so I may be able to freeze some. This will give me great satisfaction, because last year I was not able to produce enough beans to freeze any at all.

It's crops like this that really make all the hard work that gardening involves worthwhile!

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I'm so proud of this lot that I'm putting it forward for Harvest Monday on Daphne's Dandelions.

Pruning the Philadelphus

Some readers may remember that earlier this year I had a major issue with pigeons eating the foliage of my Philadelphus tree... With its leaves all gone it was abundantly clear that the tree was an eyesore that need some serious attention:

I decided that once it had finished flowering (Yes, amazingly, it did produce some flowers) I would prune it very hard and try to re-invogorate it. Well, that time has now come.

Armed with a long-handled loppers, pruning-saw and secateurs, I took the tree right down to about four feet tall. I removed all the straggly branches and even some of the main stems / trunks, which were very cramped and rubbing together. So now I am left with this:

There are now four main stems / trunks, and I hope that each of these will produce a mass of new shoots at its top. If this happens I should end up with a "lollipop-shape" bush, which will have a much better ratio of flowers and leaves to wood. There are also a few thin stems growing from the base of the plant (you can see them at the right in my photos). Since these look pretty healthy I'm leaving them in place.

I just want to put in a word here about tools. Having the right tool for the job makes a big difference, and I would have had a much more difficult time if I had not had this amazing pruning-saw made by Bahco. It is very light but incredibly sharp. It went through the Philadelphus wood like the traditional hot knife through butter! I would say that a saw like this is an essential tool for any gardener who grows anything bigger than a shrub.

The amount of wood and twigs that came off that one tree was prodigious! Pruning the tree was actually a fairly brief task, but dealing with the trimmings took much longer. I kept several long straight branches, which will be used as plant-support stakes. I sawed up the bigger branches and added them to my log-pile (aka insect hotel). And finally I cut the remainder into manageable lengths so that I could stuff them into old compost bags for eventual disposal at the municipal tip. Job done!

The first of the Runner Beans

A few days ago I harvested the first pods of my Runner Beans. Jane and I love Runners so much that we are always impatient to get at them, and we have established a tradition for eating the first of the new season's crop. As soon as there are enough pods ready for two servings (even if they are a bit on the small side) we cook them and eat them just on their own, as opposed to serving them as an accompaniment to something else, which is more normal. We slice them thinly, boil them for a few minutes until tender, and then serve them with black pepper, lashings of butter and some brown bread. Delicious! Almost as good as Asparagus. (Almost, I said).

Here's the first batch of 2012 Runners:

No photo of the cooked beans I'm afraid. We were in too much of a hurry to eat them...

Runner Bean plants are notoriously thirsty, so with all the rain we have been having I am expecting a good crop. The plants are just "dripping" with pods.

With a bit of luck I'll have enough to freeze some, because we really do enjoy having home-grown Runners in the middle of Winter -- especially for Christmas Dinner!

A point to note for anyone growing beans for the first time: you really do need to pick the pods as soon as they are mature, even if you are not planning to use them immediately. If you leave them to get very big not only will they be tough and less pleasant to eat, but also the plant will stop producing more pods.  Runner beans keep quite satisfactorily for a week or so in the fridge - even longer if you use those "Stayfesh" bags (I'm a great devotee of them. I think they are very effective indeed.)

This week also saw the first viable picking of tomatoes. These ones are a mixture from my 3 Cherry type plants: Maskotka, Losetto and Lizzano. The first little batch was only about 50 grams:

But the following day I picked a more respectable 332 grams:

So far I am managing to keep the blight under control, and it looks as if I will get a reasonable, though not huge, harvest after all, despite having to cut off large chunks of most of the plants.

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I'm adding a postscript to this article, so that I can legitimately link to Ren Behan's "Simple and In Season" link-up. My view is that Runner Beans are so wonderful that it is a shame to mess about with them - so I strongly advocate my simple way of serving them  - as described above. And to just to inspire you, here's a photo of some beans I harvested from my garden this week. Enjoy!

The Three Sisters - Part 3

The Three Sisters are a very unevenly-matched set of siblings. I have given up hope of ever getting any fruits from the Squash plants, which are still pathetically minuscule and weak.

The Sweet Corn could go either way. Most of the plants are a lot less vigorous than I would have expected, and nowhere near as tall - with one exception: the plant which had initially seemed to be the "runt of the litter" is now looking the strongest, and is at least two feet taller than any of the others.

Each plant has produced a cob, with its frilly mop of silks:-

Up at the top of each plant a flower forms. With the exception of the one good plant, the flowers have been very thin and spindly. This is what they are supposed to look like:-

The theory is that when the plant sways gently in the breeze, pollen falls from the flower down onto the silks of the cob. The trouble is that when most of the flowers were at their meagre best the weather was so atrocious that I fear that the pollen will have been washed away and not gently wafted down onto the cobs.

However, the third of the sisters is looking a bit stronger. The "Cherokee Trail of Tears" bean plants are doing a lot better than last year, when I felt that they were a bit feeble. They have lots of flowers now

and some tiny pods too...

The beans are belatedly reaching out to the corn stalks for support. I think it was a good thing that I erected a wigwam of wooden poles for them though. The spindly corn-stalks would definitely not have been enough on their own.



Not content with staying at home, the Cherokee beans are reaching out to make friends with their neighbours the Runners. Looks like the feelings of friendship are mutual...