Homemade Chutney

At this time every year I make up a big batch of chutney for the long winter ahead. I usually let the last few courgettes grow on into marrows for the purpose along with whatever green tomatoes that look like they wont ripen. It's always a bit different each year depending on what is available. It is safe to say though that marrows, green tomatoes, onions, cooking apples (courtesy of my mum's friend!), sugar, spices and my own cider vinegar( a batch of cider went tits up on me last year and the result was 5 gallons of cider vinegar)

You basically chop everything up and lash it into a big saucepan and cook it slowly for 2 or 3 hours making sure not to allow it to burn by stirring every so often. Pot it up then into sterilised jars and it will keep for months. It improves with keeping for a few weeks I reckon.

We eat it for lunch with cheese and all sorts of cold meats and pate/terrines.

Redcurrant Jelly

OK so the summer hols went on a little bit longer than expected! I have tons and tons of stuff to stick on here about the wedding, the stag, the honeymoon as well as the usual stuff at home.

Here is my recipe of the classic accompaniment to venison, terrine, pate and the like

It couldn't be easier to make. Just get equal quantities of both redcurrants and sugar. Boil up the fruit until it realises it's juice (about ten minutes) and then add in the sugar. Boil for eight minutes before straining through muslin and into sterilised jars. Simple as that!

Forcing the garden to produce

I have been putting the garden under pressure the last month or so. It is always the leanest time in the garden with meagre pickings. One thing you can do to provide you with dessert is to force rhubarb!

I have a few rhubarb plants and force one of them by placing a big black bin over it. This means it grows like mad and gives you an dearly crop.

We usually either make a compote of the rhubarb and mix it muesli and natural yogurt for brekkie or make a pie or crumble.

The method is the same for both. Fire the chopped rhubarb into a saucepan with a little sugar and cook until it has softened. Simple as that

Tom Doorley digs the Bounty!

Been meaning to put this up. I recieved this message from food writer Tom Doorley about barrowsbounty.com.
"Hiya Liam. This looks really good. Keep up the good work. You have inspired me to start blogging again".
I must be doing something right!!! Good man Tom!

Feeling Fruity!

I have had fruity thoughts on my mind all week, finally I decided on raspberries and blackcurrants after much consideration. I planted both out this week in defiance of the weather and in the hope of a long hot summer! Agnes the hen was paying close attention as you can see.

I reckon they are probably the best of the soft fruits to have a go at as they are hardy and don't need as much sun as some other fruits. I stuck in three bushes of both and am hoping for the best. We had great success last year making ice cream and sorbet from ill gotten berries and hopefully we can repeat it again this year with our own 100% kosher ones!

New Hope

I cant beilieve it is nearly a year since I wrote my first ever post which was about how my seedling were getting on in the garden. Well it is the time of year to start thinking of what I shall be eating later on in the garden.
The first seeds to get started are the early peas and the broad beans. The broad beans are very important as they tend to be the first of this years main crops and I hope by getting an early start that they should be ready around late May.
They are as you see going great guns along with the peas in this little tray which is on the window in the kitchen. I find this the best way to give the seeds the best start at this early stage.

Plans for the year

Firstly sorry for the break in posting. I was in hibernation with Christmas and the snow!

I really just wanted to let you all know what the plans for the coming year are going to be.

I will be continuing to try and grow as much of our vegetables and fruit as possible. The pigs and laying hens will also feature along with trying to find as much wild food as possible.. A new departure will be chickens for the table. Me and a buddy of mine are going to raise some chickens for eating so I will keep you posted as to how we get on!

The big project for the year however is going to be our wedding which is happening in June. I think I may have bitten off more than I can chew here as I want to try and have all the food for the wedding either home grown produce or wild food! At 150 people it is by far the biggest challenge I have attempted in the garden and kitchen.

We are having a marquee and the idea is to have a relaxed homemade wedding with all our friends and family. The food (hopefully!!) will be some canapes of wild food followed by a whole spit roast pig with salads and vegetables from the garden and then some kind of seasonal dessert which will feature our eggs and fruit. God its a bit overwhelming when you actually write it all down!

I will post on here as to how I am getting on with the preperations, whether it be catching a wild salmon to growing the vegetables or trying to encourage the pig to grow so it is ready for June!!

The picture above is of me and George spending some man time on our local shoot which we have been doing quite a lot of while we have been away.

Winter Garden

It is a quiet time in the garden at this time of year but that's not to say that it is not still producing veggies for us. I am not really in a position to offer growing tips about brassica such as brussel sprouts and purple sprouting broccoli because they as often fail on me as bloody grow.

We don't however starve during the winter and at the moment we have Swiss chard, brussel sprouts, purple sprouting broccoli, kale and spinach in the garden. We are lucky like that here in Ireland because the winter is not as harsh as in other countries. The Swiss chard even manages to keep a bit of colour in the garden at this time of year.

The chickens have stopped laying pretty much and between them we only get two or three eggs a week. Once the days start getting longer again that will all change. They still seem happy enough mind you.

Allotments.ie

I have meant to put up a post about this site for a while. I found it a few months ago and have been dropping in to the site on a fairly regular basis since. It is run by a chap called James Kilkelly who is a trained gardener. Now I go by the seat of my pants in the garden more often than not but this guy really knows his stuff and on this site keeps the likes of me on the right road.
The site does a few different things very well. It is a blog in much the same way as this one, it has a very good vegtable growing guide, it has an informative forum and also a list of where you can get allotments right around Ireland. Well worth a look!

A Barrow full of Marrows!

Well not quite but not too far off. The picture is of some of the squashes we have in the garden. I think they look brilliant and they will store for a few months without too much trouble. There is loads of things you can do with them like make soup, risotto or do them in the oven with cream. You cut the top off one and scoop out the seeds and then fill the cavity with cream, cheese and a little nutmeg. Pop the lid back on and stick it into the oven for 20 minutes or so.

I am having my pig buddy Graham over this evening to have a serious chat about how much longer Sausage, Bacon and Salami are going to be living the good life!

"Sundried" Tomatoes

This time of year is all about preserving the glut of produce for the dark winter ahead. We always try and preserve as many tomatoes as we can ( not that easy because it is hard not to eat the buggers straight off the plant). I grew only cherry tomatoes this year but grew a few different varieties. One that I missed out on though was the sungold which my pig buddy Graham grew. They are the sweetest, tastiest tomatoes I ever tasted and are definitely top of my list for next year.

Seeing as we don't get enough sun in Carlow to sun dry the tomatoes I need to cheat a little. Instead of doing as the Italians do and allowing them to dry under the sun I need a little help from the oven!

The method is very simple. Get a wire rack and put the oven on its lowest setting, around 50 or 60 degrees. Next cut your tomatoes in half and place on the wire rack with the cut side facing up. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle some sugar and salt over them. Into the oven they go for an hour before turning them over so that the cut part is on the wire rack. They need another 11 hours in the oven before they are done. They turn out "semi sundried" with this amount of time in the oven which is how I prefer them. To store them simply out them in a jar and top them up with olive oil and maybe some dried herbs such as oregano.

Garden Soup

I just thought this recipe might be of interest to some of you. We like a roast chicken every now and again like everyone else. As of yet I have not gone down the road of rearing chickens for the table. This is partly due to just not having gotten round to it and partly because George sometimes retrieves the laying hens (Puts them off laying something terrible but otherwise doesn’t seem to trouble them too much). God knows what he would do to little chicks.
As we don’t rear our own we try to buy organic or at least free range birds. However as everyone knows they are bloody expensive full stop and especially so when compared with the 4.99 bird we see in the supermarkets. I refuse to buy this kind of meat so we find ways to make the organic bird go further. This is typically what we do. Roast chicken dinner is first on the list. I then strip the rest of the meat from the bird and we will have chicken pasta, risotto or chicken and broccoli bake. Finally I make a stock with the carcass and make this soup.
The stock is easy, just break up the carcass and add some carrots and onions along with some bay and any other herbs you have. Barely cover it with water and simmer for 2 or 3 hours. Top up the water if needed and that’s it.All you do then is strain the stock. I add whatever vegetables happen to be in season at the time. This can include spuds, carrots, peas, beans, kale, and anything else that takes your fancy. The only trick is to make sure to cut everything into pieces the same size. So if using peas for example, make sure that you chop the spuds and carrots into pea size chunks so everything cooks at the same time. The other thing to note is that I didn’t season with salt during the stock making process. It can easily turn out too salty, so you are much better off seasoning when the soup is ready

Beany Hummus

When we got back from holiday the broad beans were nearly gone over the top. I made up this hummus to try and use them up and it was delicious.

I simply cooked the beans in salted boiling water and then added some mint, olive oil and lemon juice and fired them all into the blender. It turned out well which is more then I can say for my droopy sprouts!

I put off transplanting the Brussels sprouts until the peas and beans were cleared from the raised bed. As a result they were a bit too big to be moving. They all wilted and I am not sure if they are all going to make it! My pal Ross was particularly keen to make sure I included this bad news story on the blog to show that county live has its ups and downs too!!! If a few wilted sprouts is the worst of it I think I will manage just fine

Nicoise Salad

As promised last week here is one of our staples during the summer. I sometimes substitute the traditional tuna for some home smoked mackerel as in this case. Otherwise bar the olives pretty much everything else comes straight from the garden.

You can chop and change as you please with the quantities of the varies components depending on personnel taste. I don't tend to over load it with spuds for example.

Essentially you will need:

French beans,

Baby potatoes,

Tomatoes,

Eggs,

Lettuce,

Olives,

Tuna (or smoked mackerel in this case)

And for the dressing:

100ml olive oil,

100ml sunflower oil,

100ml wine or cider vinegar,

tea spoon of mustard,

clove of garlic,

teaspoon of honey,

To make the dressing fire it all into a blender and blitz for a few seconds!

Cook the potatoes, beans and hard boil the eggs. Cool them all under the cold tap.

Next dress the lettuce with the dressing. Place at the bottom of the bowl. The potatoes need to be dressed next before putting into the bowl. The tomatoes and french beans go on top. Sprinkle the rest of the dressing over the salad now before adding some olives, quartered hard boiled eggs and fish.

Couldn't be simpler!

Full Bloom

The garden is finally pulling it's weight now and our only problem is trying to keep on top of it all. The courgettes are going great guns and we are harvesting them on a weekly basis. I will just have to try and find some way to preserve them for the winter. Anyone got any ideas as to how???

The peas and beans are all now doing well and we are enjoying them a couple of times a week. The broad beans are coming to an end but I am hoping that the French beans and the peas will continue on until October. Fingers crossed!

The tomatoes have just started to ripen and it looks like a bumper crop. In saying that it wouldn't be too hard to beat last years performance which was about 5 tomatoes in total!

I have for a while been meaning to put up a recipe for Nicoise Salad, one of our favorite staples here which we have at least once a week. I will try and get that up in the next few days.

Fruity Delights

Yesterday we went to the local fruit farm, Malone's Fruit Farm for an open day. It was great in fairness and the weather was fantastic. They have a farm shop out there where they sell their produce and they make their own jam and chutney on site.

Yesterday they had a mini local market on along with tours of the farm by Tom, who owns the farm with his wife Elizabeth. He brought us all around the farm and explained what everything was and gave great tips on how to grow the crops. The main crops are raspberries and strawberries but they grow all sorts of unusual stuff like tayberries and loganberries.

The best part of the day was when we could buy some plants to start off our own little fruit garden. Fruit has been sadly missing up until now in our garden. I put that right yesterday and bought plenty of raspberries and strawberries. The strawberries are grown in grow bags and should last three seasons. I can however take runners or baby plants from them and I should get around 10 years from what I bought yesterday! The raspberries are not difficult at all, or so I am lead to believe. You stick them in the ground, give them some support and away you go!

I am on a bit of a fruit buzz at the moment so I am going off to rashly purchase an ice cream machine to put all this fruit to good use! I will keep you posted as to how I get on with it!

How does your garden grow

Things are really kicking off now in the garden with everything growing like mad. Still not much to eat apart from lettuce and rocket though. I should be enjoying nice crisp radishes by now but I either have some Fraggles living at the bottom of the garden or some mice have taken up residence and are helping themselves.

I do have some good news on the war against pests and seem to be getting the upper hand with the slugs eventually, but not until they decimated my courgettes and squashes. I had to go to the garden centre yesterday and buy some plugs to replenish my stocks! As I said before I am trying to grow everything from seed as against buying plugs (small plants bought from garden centres). The cost difference is massive. You can buy a pack of seeds for a couple of euro and it can have hundreds of seeds in it while I paid €4 a pop for some squashes yesterday!

I am nearly all planted up now for the summer and it wont be long now before it is a struggle to keep on top of everything. It just grows so fast and can go over the top just as quick. We do of course have methods to preserve many things for the winter and I will be sharing with you the various recipes as we go along.

We try hard to pick a variety of crops that will not just give us food during the summer but also right through the winter and spring, not always an easy task. Below is a list of what we are growing this year and when we should be able to harvest it.

We have Spinach and Lettuce all year round along with;

January; Brussels Sprouts, Kale and Swiss Chard

February; Kale.

March; Kale and Purple sprouting broccoli.

April; Purple sprouting broccoli.

May; Radish, Rocket and Broad beans

June; Radish, Rocket, Potatoes and Broad beans

July; Radish, Rocket, Potatoes, Peas, French Beans, Courgette and Broad beans

August; Radish, Rocket, Potatoes, Peas, French Beans, Courgette and Tomatoes

September; Garlic, Rocket, Potatoes, Peas, French Beans, Courgette and Tomatoes

October; Peas, Squash

November; Brussels Sprouts, Kale and Swiss Chard

December; Brussels Sprouts, Kale and Swiss Chard

It's a War Out There

It’s all activity this time of year getting the garden going. I have four raised bed and two mini poly tunnels to plant up. Up until this year I have cheated a bit and used plugs which are small plants bought from the garden centre instead of growing my own vegetables from seed. This year I have bitten the bullet and have been trying to grow all my own veg from seed with varying degrees of success.

I started off in early March with broad beans and peas and have followed with all the rest in the last month. It all seemed to be going grand at the start and I had every window sill in the house taken over with seed trays full of the different veg. Since then however I have waging war on an assortment of pests who are hell bend on destroying all my hard work.

The pigeons are laying siege to my peas, the rabbits I suspect are sneaking in at night and helping themselves to my baby lettuces but the bane of my life at the moment are the bloody slugs! I don’t use any chemicals but I sorely tempted at the moment to scatter a liberal amount of slug pellets to try and deter the buggers.

I have put out beer traps which essentially are jars full of beer. The wisdom is that they the slugs love the stuff, have a swig, get a bit pissed and fall in! I don’t know what I am doing wrong, it seems the slugs are loving the beer but instead of falling to a drunken death the beer seems to give them extra vigour with which to launch their next attack on my seedlings! The nightly rounds with a torch and a scissors will have to continue for a while longer yet!