Watercolours by Rachel

Almost every day a local Devon artist call Rachel Toll posts a watercolour painting on Twitter.  This was today's painting.  I think the wild flowers are exquisite and I wanted to share it with you.  

Click HERE if you would like to see more of Rachel's wonderful paintings.  

Plum Jam Recipe

If you have a garden you know that everything seems to be ready to harvest at one time.  I have apples and plums all over the place, which is good and bad at the same time.  It seems like I zoom from one thing to the next trying to prepare and preserve as much as I can.  A friend of mine suggested I make plum jam using this simple but OH SO GOOD recipe from Waitrose. 

Please excuse my messy cut and paste method but I really need to get back to the jam pot boiling away on the stove.  Enjoy! 

How to Make Plum Jam

Ingredients

• 2kg English plums, washed, halved and stoned
• 600ml cold water
• 2 x 1kg bags Tate & Lyle Jam Sugar

Method

1. Put the plums and water in the pan. Bring to the boil then reduce the heat, simmer uncovered, stirring occasionally with the wooden spoon for 45 minutes or until the plums are soft and pulpy and the liquid is reduced by about half.
2. Add the sugar, stirring until it has completely dissolved. When the sugar has dissolved, the base of the pan will no longer feel gritty when stirred with the wooden spoon. Bring to the boil and boil rapidly for 4-5 minutes.
3. Remove from the heat and test for the setting point by spooning a little jam onto one of the chilled saucers. Cool for a few seconds, then push the jam with your finger. If it wrinkles on the surface, it has reached setting point and is ready to put into the jars. If not, boil a further 2 minutes, then test again.
4. Skim off the scum from the surface using a slotted spoon. Leave to stand for 15 minutes, then stir thoroughly. Set the prepared jars on a wooden board, fill the jug with jam and pour into warm jars right to the top. Cover the jam with a waxed disc and a jam pot cover. Secure with an elastic band and label or mark on the jar with a waterproof pen.

Homegrown Haricots and Borlotti Beans

The plants in the allotment are obviously slowing down and going to seed.  So is the gardener.  Autumn is rapidly approaching and I can't wait.  Fall is my favourite season with its generous harvest of fruits and vegetables and bright, beautiful foliage. 

We had more fresh beans than we could eat.  Some we enjoyed fresh from the plot, some were frozen, and some were shared with friends.  Still the bean plants are producing .... not as exuberantly as in high summer but there are still pods hanging on the vines.

I've decided to leave the French beans to dry on the vine.  Once the pods go brown and the seeds rattle inside, the beans are ready to pick and shell.  We called them Navy Beans when I was growing up in Missouri.  Here in Britain they are known as Haricots. No matter what you call them, they make a great addition to the pantry and take hardly any effort to prepare.

Just make sure the beans are completely dry, place them in a plastic bag and pop them into the freezer for a few days. This will kill off any creepy crawlies. Then store them in airtight containers in your pantry.  I love to put them in glass jars so I can see the colourful beans. 

These beautiful spotted beans are Borlotti beans.  They also dry beautifully and can be used in stews and soups just like the Navy beans.  So, if you have some beans hanging on the vine, you might like to try drying some too.  

Victoria Plum Bake Recipe

When we got the allotment it came with a tiny orchard of apple, pear, and plum trees.  It appears the Victoria plums are the first to ripen so when I noticed some had dropped off the tree, I figured out it might be time to harvest them.  

It's not a huge crop.  There are not enough for jam making but too many to eat out of hand so I decided to use them for baking.  Here is a quick and easy dessert just right for those small batches of plums. 

Victoria Plum Bake

Preheat the oven to 180C/350F.  Butter a baking dish and set aside while you make the sponge mixture.

3 oz (75 grams) butter- room temperature

3 oz (75 grams) caster sugar

4 oz (100 grams) self raising flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Beat the ingredients until they make a sooth batter.  Spread the batter evenly into the buttered baking dish. 

Top the batter with plums sliced in half and stones removed.  I also removed the outer skin but you don't have to.  

Mix together 2 Tablespoons of caster sugar and 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon. Sprinkle this over the top of the plums.  Bake for about 30 minutes or until the sponge is golden and springs back when you touch it.

Serve slightly warm with cream, custard, or vanilla ice cream.  Enjoy! 

Freezing Green Beans

Chances are if you've planted beans in your garden, or know someone who has, you will have more French beans than you can eat or give away.  I can see the neighbours hiding behind their curtains when they see me coming towards their front doors with another basket filled with beans, hoping I can force them to take them off my hands.  At first they are delighted, then polite, then they just try to avoid me.

So, in the hope of preserving friendships and neighbourly relationships, I have decided to freeze some of the many Blue Lake beans harvested from my allotment. 

Freezing fresh produce is SO easy and you will enjoy a little taste of summer once the winter sets in.  All you need are some little freezer bags, a marker pen and these simple instructions: 

1.  Pick and wash your green beans.  Sort them roughly by size, little skinny ones in one pile, medium sized beans in another, and big beans in a third pile.

2.  Top and tail the beans and cut them into bite size pieces.

3.  Fill a large sauce pan with water and bring it to a rolling boil.  Add the first pile of beans and parboil them for the following times:
      BIG BEANS - boil for 4 minutes
      MEDIUM BEANS - boil for 3 minutes
      SKINNY BEANS - boil for 2 minutes

4.  Drain the beans and plunge them into VERY COLD water to cool them down. Drain the beans well.  

5.  Pack the cooled beans into freezer bags, press out as much air as possible and seal.   I like to use a marker pen to label and date the beans.  

6.  Place the bagged beans into the freezer and enjoy within one year.  

Allotment Learning

It's almost the middle of July.  I figure this is the height of the growing season in the allotment. As you know, this is my first year of actually growing vegetables and it has been a real learning experience.  I've made all the expected novice mistakes; bought too many different seeds, put plants in the wrong locations, over planted some things, and planted too few of other vegetables.  Perhaps the most annoying thing I've done is not giving myself enough room between rows to harvest the vegetables comfortably.  It's like a game of Twister when harvesting flowers from the cutting patch - right foot between the cosmos, left foot by the cornflowers. 

It's been lots of work but I have loved every minute.  Things don't seem as frantic now that most of the planting and planning is done.  I've had time to stop and enjoy the garden and evaluate what lessons have been learned in such a short time.  Here's a list, in no particular order, that might be useful if you are a beginner 'plotter' like me:

1.  Sow seeds indoors and plant young seedlings into modules.  Transplant them into the garden once you think they are big enough to stand up to the slugs. 

2.  Use heavy cardboard, landscape fabric, or old carpet to cover any garden beds not in use. This will smother out any weeds and saves you digging it over more than once.  

3.  You can never have TOO much twine... 

4.  You can never have too many bamboo canes, pea sticks, or plant supports. Practically everything taller than ankle height needs staking in our coastal winds.  This is also why you can never have too much twine. 

5.  Grow beans and peas that climb up.  Bush beans are lovely but they are harder to pick and growing vertically gives you more room to plant different things. 

5.  Pick beans, beets, and turnips when they are young and tender.  Most veg is best picked on the small side. Nothing is worse than wooden turnips or stringy string beans.  

6.  Grow some 'No-Fail' plants to encourage you to be brave.  If you don't have room to start plants from seeds you can purchase lots of different veg from garden centers in modules or bare root ready to plant in your garden.

7.  Grow some scary plants, the kind that may or may not make it.  I've got watermelons in the polytunnel.  If I get one melon I'll be happy.  

8.  Always add flowers, the bees will love you and it makes the garden look beautiful.  

9.  Water! Weed! Feed! Then weed again. 

10. The 'Golden Gardening Hours' are VERY early in the morning and that hour between sunset and dusk.  You can catch the slugs and snails unawares and watering is most effective when the sun isn't beating down on the garden. 

11.  Make friends with your allotment neighbours but don't live in their pockets. Do a good deed for them now and then and they will return the favour.  

12.  Dress appropriately; hat, sunglasses, long sleeves, and SUNSCREEN. And don't forget to wear the right shoes/wellies/work boots. 

13.  This may be the most important point, research: READ, READ, and READ some more.  The more you learn before you plant the more success you will enjoy. 

AND FINALLY-

Listen to advice but don't necessarily take it, especially from ME!  

Beans and Flowers for Cutting

Today is the 4th of July - not that it means anything special here in Devon. When I was a kid it was a big deal, Independence Day, one of the few times when my parents would host what we would consider to be a party. They would fire up the Bar-B-Q, make homemade ice cream, slice a big watermelon, and invite the neighbours over to our BIG back garden to watch the fireworks.  As a child, this was almost as good as Christmas... almost.  

I often feel a little nostalgic on the 4th.  It was always a big 'family day' for us. The plants in the allotment also are reminding me of days gone by and family members who are no longer with us. The vegetables remind me of my great-aunt and great-uncle who kept the most immaculate gardens and grew Sugar Baby watermelons just for me!

I planted zinnias in memory of my grandmother Lessie.  She always grew her vegetables in great beds bordered by colourful zinnias.  Most of my family 'gardened' and each plant and flower fuel a memory.  I think it is true of most people's gardens.  So I'll cut sweet peas, collect some beans, and remember all those who shared those special Independence Days with me.  Of course, there won't be any fireworks tonight... not in DEVON!