Green tomatoes and what to do with them

When we cleared the garden we ended up with a lot of green tomatoes. Everyone always asks what can you do with them.
Firstly, if possible take them off the plant still on some of the vine. In this way you can hang them up near a sunny windowsill and let them ripen. They will still taste sweeter this way.

Make tomato chutney....that's the obvious but I personally am not keen on it. However you can always use it for swaps.

Tomato ketchup/ relish using the same recipe as with red tomatoes.(amazing recipe on Jonathan Wallaces self sufficient in suburbia )

Fried green tomatoes. Make a mix of breadcrumbs with spices of your choice added....eg chilli, paprika, herbs. Dip tomato slices in egg then the crumb mix and shallow fry.

If you are having a problem getting the tomatoes to ripen......I wrap each one in newspaper and put in a basket with a couple if apples. You have to regularly check to see when they are turning red.

Bonne appetite x

Freebies and foraging

 My neighbourly gesture of sharing the garden produce has resulted in some kind returns.
So far we have been given some duck eggs, a bottle of red and a bottle of white wine and a homemade lunch and a box of chocolates.
I suppose this is a method of trading goods except you may not always get what you need .....although the above come high on the want list.

We are still collecting blackberries, rasps and strawberries...however as the foliage is starting to die back I expect the fruits will soon follow suit.

The vendange. ..grape picking ...has begun so the village is full of rambling tractors and trailers.
The vignerons are not too happy with the size of the grapes this year. Along with the hailstorms that wiped out a lot if Burgundys produce I think the rouge of 2013 may be a little expensive

I picked the last four purple figs on the tree where I was attacked by the devil brambles last time.
Ha....I was ready for them this time and came away unscathed.

We had friends for lunch yesterday.Le petit pack de Sommiel.......that is David and Helen and the two dogs..fitzy  and  hecky.  We love David and Helen and usually round off lunch with a game of belote. However as Helen is vegetarian and intolerant to wheat it is always a challenge.
My hubby made a brilliant salad using all our goodies out of the garden..topped with feta cheese.....along with home made chips ( as no bread allowed) . The dessert was a lemon posset.....totally and disgustingly fattening...made with double cream boiled with the rind of 3 lemons strained then left to cool and set. We had fresh backberries on the top and I bought some gluten free shortbread biscs to go with it. It was yummy.
Helen always apologises for being fussy......having an intolerance isn't being fussy and I love searching out something different from what we would normally serve.
Hecky. And Fitzy soon polished off the sausages we gave them.....obviously not suffering from the same problems as Helen.

CARROTS...FREEZING

It has been a busy couple of days in the garden and the kitchen. Most of the summer produce is coming to an end and as we have a lot of committments over the next month we decided just to clear the garden of everything except the parsnips (which of course are not yet ready). We will go down only to water them and the fruit bushes if we do not have any rain......for once I am hoping for lots of rain but at the minute its still 22 degrees and no sign of rain.

CARROTS   ..are one of those veg that I sometime wonder if its worth growing. Were it not for the fact that they taste so good fresh from the ground I probably wouldnt bother. For planting, the ground needs well prepared..making sure all the stones are removed or you will end up with some wierd shape carrots!! Thinning is essential...done too late and the carrots will still not grow to their full potential. We have never had any problem with carrot fly as we always plant next to the onions and take away any thinnings instead of putting them on the compost heap. Other than these things and pleny of water you can happily let your carrots just grow...when they are ready you can leave them in the ground and just lift what you need to use that day. You just need to watch that the tops dont lift out of the ground and turn green!!

Freezing carrots.......blanche for 2 mins, plunge in freezing water, dry then freeze.There are many sites where you can get all the technical details for freezing so I will not bore you with it here!! The only thing I do differently is....where most people use ice cubes in the cold water I use freezer blocks. You dont then have to make more ice cubes and you can put in as many as you like without creating too much water!!

Carrots are one of the veg that I really dont like frozen....the others being celery, leeks, and onions. In fact the only veg I tend to use from frozen are green beans, soya beans and peas. The rest are just not the same after freezing to eat just as a veg.

WHEN IT COMES TO VEGETABLES I TEND TO DO AS THE FRENCH...EAT SEASONALLY AND LOCALLY.

Menus can be planned around what is available...and the veg is much better quality and much better priced!

Back to CARROTS...yes I do freeze them...but bag them up in portion sizes to use in casseroles. The same applies to celery. These are the only ones I freeze in this way.

So now the carrots, celery, tomatoes, peppers, butternut squash and sweet potatoes have all been lifted.  Yes...in one day...and all prepared, stored or eaten!!!
First I did my good neighbourly bit and spread around a little love with my gifts of produce!!!THEN...
I froze the carrots
I made celery soup.
Stuffed peppers and froze them
Wrapped up the sweet potatoes and the butternut squash in newspaper and stored in cool dry place.
NOTE...do not store your butternut squash with the potatoes...they give off ethanyl ( I think thats what you call it)...anyway it gives off a gas that will make your squash go off!!!
The tomatoes....I used 3kg and made some fantastic tomato ketchup. It was a toss up between the recipe of Jamie Oliver or from Jonathan Wallace.....Jonathan won as hes a bit of a hero to me at the minute..just love his blog(SELFSUFFICENT IN SUBURBIA) and what he has achieved in his suburban allotment.....and he's from the North East like me... so what else can I say!!

So thats it for another busy day...perhaps almost the last of the season....till my next venture!!!!
Off for an aperitif...
Bon Soiree

ROSE HIP SYRUP..RECIPE..Winter Vitamin C

Rose Hips are ready between late August and November. They are usually in plentiful supply in the Uk...they are also here in France but the berries here are nowhere near as big.
However I did manage to collect a small supply today to make some Rose Hip syrup ready for the winter.

Normally rose hips are a bit of a fuss if you want to use them for desserts due to the pith being hard and the effort it takes to remove seeds and hairs!!!
During the war they were a real lifesaver here in the UK due to the lack of the usual sources of vitamin C and the Ministry of Health had a scheme for collection. The resulting syrup was sold at a controlled price and mothers and children could obtain it at reduced prices.

This is the recipe suggested by the Ministry of Food and it worked really well for me. I could only gather half of the fruit so just used half of the recipe.

Mince 900g of washed  rose hips in a coarse mincer and drop into 1.7 litres of boiling water. Bring to the boil then stop heating and leave for 15 minutes.
Pour into a jelly bag and allow to drip till most of the liquid has come through.
Return the residue of rose hips back to the pan with 852ml of boiling water and allow to stand for 10 minutes. Pour back into jelly bag to drip.
Check all sharp hairs have been removed and return to jelly bag if needed
Put liquid into a clean pan and boil until you have about 852ml of liquid. Then add 560g of sugar and boil for another 5 minutes.
Have ready sterilized and heated bottles or jars.Seal immediately. Small ones are better as the syrup will only keep for 2 to 3 weeks once it is opened. Store in a dark cupboard.
The syrup can be used in puddings,as a flavouring for milk or ice-cream or as when
I was young just taken as a teaspoonful each day.

 

Happy picking.......but remember the golden rule of foraging to is to check and double check you are picking the right kind of berry. You will know rose hips bushes as, like garden rose bushes, they have small thorns....and vicious little things they can be so you may want to wear some protective gloves.

Foraging in France in September

So here we are in the first weeks of September. The garden produce is slowly dwindling.......although I am still managing to get a bowlful of rasps and strawbs every couple of day.

We are still collecting lots of blackberries...although I did have a bit of a disaster tonight!!!
On the way back from the allotment I managed to collect a large pot of particuarly big juicy berries. I was very pleased with my little horde.....however I spotted that the fig tree had several of the lovely purple figs on. Why is it that the biggest bet looking piece of fruit is always just out of reach? Not one to give up... I ended up tripping on a bramble...knocking over the pot full of brambles  I had collected.. which disappeared into some crevice in the ground...which ensured there was no way I was going to give up....the said bramble would not let go of my leg and I ended up looking like I had had a fight with a tiger!!!! BUT...I did get the figs!!!! NEVER GIVE UP!
They were baked in the oven and we had them with some ice cream after our dinner!!!! Welll worth the war wounds!

September in France is the Vendange...grape picking. It is a little later starting this year due to the cold Spring and the hot weather. However the downpour we had at the weekend has ensured that they will be very juicy and nice. The grapes are for making wine...but they can also be eaten. It would be more than your life is worth if you took any grapes before the Vendange....you are stealing someones livelihood..however after it has finished...usaully two weeeks....then you are free to help yourself. Great just for eating or you can make grape juice.
The figs are just about finished but there is still some picking left.
The almonds are now ready so we will be heading out to pick what we can.
I store the almonds in their shells in a cool dry place. I also shell some then roast them in the oven with salt or a little honey. They can be sealed in jars to use later. They do not keep as long as the plain almonds but are very nice.
I also ground some to use in baking recipes and also for making almond and honey face mask.
Very versatile little darlings. I cant believe how expensive these nuts are in the shops when there are so many trees out in the vines.
There is not a lot else to pick here...or they may be... but nothing that we would use.
The next forage will be later in the year when the mushrooms arrive...the Cepes here are abundant...I have always been a bit nervous about picking the mushrooms...as we should all be. The Golden rule of foraging is to know that what you are picking is safe to eat. Here in France you are able to take your mushrooms to the local pharmacy for identification. A MUST!!!

Off to bathe my foraging wounds in a warm bath!!!