September

Painted in a thousand brilliant shades of green

 abundant with seed heads

 complex, delicate,

asking to be gleaned.

Tomato Jam

Warm and sweet, bright red, pepped up with fresh chilli and a whisper of some of my favourite spices.

The perfect way, as temperatures in the greenhouse slide and my plants begin to wither, to cram the last few rays of summer sun in a jar, to be savoured throughout the winter. 

Great with cold meats, hot meats, fish, goats cheese... well anything!  A kind of grown up tomato ketchup.

1 kilo tomates, 

(plum tomatoes are especially good, with their dense sweet flesh and scant pips)

140g (1/2 cup) white sugar

1 fresh chilli, finely chopped (optional)

2 cardamom pods, seeds finely ground

3 cloves, finely ground

freshly ground sea salt and black pepper to taste

Roughly chop the tomatoes and mix in a bowl with the sugar. Ideally leave overnight for the sugar to draw out the juice from the tomatoes.

Transfer to a heavy bottomed pan and add the chilli, ground cardamom and cloves, salt and pepper. 

Simmer for about 20-30 minutes over a gentle/medium heat to thicken, stirring regularly.

Leave to cool slightly then pot into warm sterilised jars.

Ideal Home Magazine

As if perfectly timed to go with a wet and blustery weekend, when all I wanted to do was retreat to the kitchen and make courgette soup, bake bread and bottle plums, October’s Ideal Home magazine includes a comfortingly “feel-good” booklet of classic bakes. 

I was commissioned, a while ago, to provide some illustrations for the recipes which had all been sourced from back issues of the magazine. They're classics that may well have you reminiscing about having to be inventive with basics during wartime rationing or remembering the fun of experimenting with exotic ingredients in the flamboyant eighties. 

The project certainly had me digging out my hand-me-down chipped pudding bowls, enamel pans, vintage whisk and 90’s yogurt maker!

Copyright Ideal Home Magazine

You're never too old...

...to grow your first aubergine!

“There are few things to be done in a garden which do not require a dexterity in operation, and a nicety in hitting the proper season for doing it”. Loudon 1871

Last year my attempt at growing aubergines was doomed form the start. I bought the seed on a whim when it was already too late in the season to sow them. But sow them I did. They germinated quickly and grew into exotic plants with a profusion of lush, fluted leaves and frilly lilac blossoms. Quite stunning in themselves, but, if you remember the dismal summer we had, there was nowhere near enough warmth to coax anything resembling a fruit from those beautiful flowers.

Sadly I concluded that if it was a purple tinge I was after, I had better stick to stick to native plants like swede, leaving aubergines to our lucky, sunny, southern European neighbours.

This year of course I couldn’t resist the fact I had half a packet of seeds left.... I sowed them at the right time, kept them well watered in the greenhouse and with the bonus of a long hot summer, I now have weary and ragged plants that are weighed down with perfect, glossy, purple fruits!  

adapted from The Painted Garden Cookbook

Tarting up some old trays!

September and the plums still aren't quite ripe, but there's a promising harvest tugging at the weary boughs so I've been sprucing up some fruit trays in anticipation. 

Here's how in three easy steps.

1. Make friends with your local greengrocer before scouring his rubbish pile for discarded wooden trays.

2. Paint three sides of each tray with a couple of coats of pale grey wood primer.

3. Paint the fourth side matt black...

...and enjoy your harvest!

Greenhouse Confessions

calendar copyright bluehillfarm.com

Bon Appetit

For this month's Bon Appetit magazine I was commissioned to stock the pantry....

....and taught how to pickle, pull and shave!

wednesday 6.45pm

6.45pm

walking down towards priory farm a light breeze teases the oilseed rape pods. it rattles the jet black seeds inside their crisp pods - a chorus of quivering maracas accompanying the twenty-four hour thrum of the combine harvester.

6.53pm

at the edge of the field a hare sits motionless. we pause. both waiting for the other to make the first move. 

7.04pm

two male whitethroats dart out from the corn stalks. they spit rasping warning cries at each other before chasing off in dissension. 

7.23pm

sundown burnishes the landscape. each ear replete. only hours away from the ravage of the combine harvester.

Out with the old, in with the new.

"It's not what you look at that matters, it's what you see".  Henry David Thoreau 1817-1862

Is there a more rewarding time of year in the veg garden? I just love hanging around in the evening, musing, hose-pipe in one hand, hoe in the other, bee identification chart in my pocket and the chickens on the far side of the fence telling me about their day. 

There’s a tangible energy in every verdant row. The parsnip leaves are looking particularly exuberant after a rain shower. Below ground their less glamorous roots swell in secret. 

Papery onion skins are splitting to expose creamy corpulent flesh. I want to hurry their leaves to wither... I’ve got cabbages waiting to fill their space.

The broad beans are finished already, I ripped out their holIow stems to give a good home to some orphan cauliflowers. My mother couldn’t bear to throw away her surplus seedlings and I had neglected to sow any, so we’re both happy.

On reflection, I should probably have given away some of my cucumber plants. I was insuring myself against the slug attack that never came. But that’s the lovely thing about abundance, I can always find a friend delighted to receive a giftwrapped cucumber!

Lots of veg means lots of weeds. With the soil baked and trodden hard, I’m afraid shears are the most effective tool for clearing the paths. Topped with a good layer of grass cuttings however it feels as though I am stepping on decadent carpets as I pick the beans.

The ghostly silouette of a lone cabbage white drifts silently by, perforating my reverie... and my Brussels sprouts!

A bit of butter

Well everything is in fifth gear at the moment... the weather, the veg patch and me! 

A few days ago, in a rare 'Martha Stewart Moment' I found I had run a couple of miles, made strawberry jam and whipped up a batch of fresh scones... before breakfast. By the afternoon, inspired by an article in the weekend papers I was even making butter! 

So, so easy, you're simply separating the fat and milk in cream, (why have I never made it before?), absolutely delicious and what's more, I had the perfect accompaniment for my jam and scones!

'It must be admitted that one of the great drawbacks to gardening and weeding is the state into which the hands and fingers get. Unfortunately, one's hands belong not only to oneself, but to the family, who do not scruple to tell the gardening amateur that her appearance is "revolting".'

From "Pot pourri from a Surrey Garden", by Mrs C. W. Earle 1897

....and having lifted my garlic crop at the weekend I fall into the "revolting" category!