Cleaning Up

Well it's cold, wet and windy. What a change from the last few months, the greenhouse without heat is struggling to get to 70F. It looks as though I may have to get the vitopod out of the shed soon.

I have picked the last of my sweet peppers and Cayenne pepper this week and cleared out the last of the tomatoes from the greenhouse, only the Demon Red (picture below) remain, still to ripen. I'm looking forward to drying them as they have a lot of heat to add to dishes.

Demon Red Chilli

The Vitopod (they must owe me royalties) ensured that my crops peaked early, it's unusual to have your greenhouse cleared by mid-August.

I'm still eating my new potatoes and toying with the idea of planting a few of them in a planter in the greenhouse for a Christmas crop.

Now that the greenhouse is more or less cleared I shall be washing it down this week with a mild disinfectant and taking the opportunity to rearrange my automatic watering system. It wasn't that effective this year, the tomatoes regularly flooded so I need to put more control valves in.

I have purchased some new greenhouse staging and a new heater, as my old one packed up, the staging arrived today but I'm still waiting for the heater. My intention is to use the heater to keep the greenhouse frost free or keep it at 45F, haven't decided yet. The vitopod will be kept at 60F to keep my geraniums and fuschias happy.

I have also bought some spring bulbs to plant up in bowls and pots on the new staging which I hope to get done next week.

I also made a couple of scoops from used milk containers just to pass the time.

Scoop

Scented Geraniums

Plum Chutney

Today I picked the meagre crop of plums on the tree in my garden and decided to make a chutney rather than a jam. I used a basic chutney recipe and added a couple of teaspoons of Cayenne pepper flakes to give a little bite. Plum makes an excellent chutney.

Recipe for Spicey Plum Chutney

Ingredients
500g plums
1 medium onion (optional), chopped
1 tbsp olive oil
100ml white wine vinegar
100g sugar
2 tsp flaked chilli

Method

Stone the plums and chop. Add the chopped onion. Add the vinegar and sugar. Stir until the sugar is dissolved, then simmer for about 15 minutes. Add the chilli and stir occasionally, until softened and slightly thickened.

Meanwhile, heat the oven to 150°C /gas 1-2. Place a clean medium-sized jam jar in the oven to warm. When the plum chutney is ready, spoon it into the warm jar. Seal with a lid and leave to cool completely.

Recipe for Chilli Sauce

15/20 medium size tomatoes
1 medium onion (optional)
1 or 2 garlic cloves
100g chilli peppers
600mls white vinegar
150g white sugar
1 tsp salt

Chop everything and boil for one hour. Allow to cool then blend and strain through a sieve. Boil for another hour or so until you have the desired consistency.

If you intend to keep for some time bottle the sauce into sterilised jars (heated in oven for 15 mins at 150 degrees).

Harvesting Time

On Saturday we harvested our Hercules onions on the allotment. These are much bigger and rounder than the Sturon we planted last year and we have decided to plant Hercules again next year.

The plums are ready to pick. Although the leaves on the tree don't look much healthier it's given me a reasonable crop for its first year.

My greenhouse tomatoes have almost reached the end of their life having climbed to the apex of the greenhouse and are now looking decidedly worse for wear. The last batch I picked were used to make several jars of Chilli sauce, with the Cayenne peppers which are also almost finished. The remainder of the peppers I shall dry and flake. The sweet peppers have now turned red and I shall be picking those over the next week.

I am still continuing to crop lettuce and spring onions and this week sowed some Leaf Beet to overwinter in the greenhouse.