Clearing out the garden

We decided to clear out the garden while the weather was still good. It's possible I could have got a little longer out of the tomatoes, but we wanted to take advantage of the good weather.

The garden now has some permanent fixtures in it, so it doesn't look as empty over winter any more. The sage in the herb patch and a few of the other herbs are permanent. So is the apple tree at the end and the stevia and raspberry plants (although the raspberry plant will be cut right back in February). I've also now planted Mr Fothergill's wildflower woodland mixture right at the back behind the apple tree because my abysmal failure to grow vegetables up that end of the garden this year made me think I should probably cut my losses and go for something pretty instead.

I've also sewn up the worst of the holes in the fleece protecting my leeks from allium leaf miners. I don't know if it'll work, but my entire leek crop was ruined last year, so it's got to be worth a shot.

Chili con carne recipe

Autumn is here in the garden and the morning sun makes the dew on the grass sparkle and casts long shadows.

It's an excellent time to eat chili and use up any excess tomatoes you may still have. OK, it's probably a bit late in the year to still be harvesting tomatoes, we've just cleared up the garden and there won't be any more tomatoes for us, but you can always use tinned or remember it for next year. Serves 4-6. Takes about 45 mins to 1.5 hours, depending on how long you simmer it for.

1-2 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, chopped (I often use frozen)
2 cloves of garlic, chopped/minced (I often use frozen)
2 peppers, chopped fairly small
500 g beef mince
1 - 1 ½ glasses of red wine (about 150 ml)
400-500g of fresh tomatoes (or 1 tin of tomatoes)1 level tsp mild chili powder
1 level tsp cumin
1 level tsp ground coriander
1 level tsp cinnamon
3 shakes of Worcester sauce
1 beef stock cube
1 tin of kidney beans

1. Heat oil in a pan, fry onion for 2 minutes, add garlic, fry for 1 minute,  add chopped peppers and fry for 3 minutes.
2. Add meat, cook until brown.
3. Add red wine and simmer for 5 minutes.
4. Stir in tomatoes (if you want to avoid lots of large pieces of skin from fresh tomatoes, chop them up first, but I liked the texture the skin gave).
5. Add chilli powder, cumin, ground coriander, cinnamon and Worcester sauce.
6. Crumble in stock cube.
7. Simmer for between 15 and 1 hour, longer is better.
8. Give the tomatoes a good squish with a spoon to make sure they are broken up.
9. Add kidney beans, stir and simmer for another 5-10 minutes.

Serve with rice or couscous or baked potatoes.

Autumn harvest in the vegetable garden

My entire squash crop this year: Thelma Sanders squash (the yellow ones) and Winter Squash Sweet Dumpling (the green and cream ones)

I looked out at the garden this week and decided it was time for a bit of a harvest and a tidy up. This is largely because most things looked like their leaves were most of the way through dying, with the exception of my runner beans, which are still producing a regular crop.

In particular, the leaves on the squashes had gone from just being mildewy, but otherwise green, to increasingly brown and yellow and curled up.

The tomatoes also look like they've pretty much had it.

A lot of the tomatoes you see there are not in a state I'd consider edible (they probably would be if I were starving, but actually, I've already harvested kilo upon kilo of healthy tomatoes, so I'm choosing to leave the ones that are old, split and partially eaten, I suspect I'm going to get a lot of self-seeding tomatoes next year).
I've discovered that the tomatoes I grew (Moneymaker and Gardener's Delight) work well as a substitute for tinned tomatoes. The food I cook with them looks less red and more orange, but it tastes divine. I simply wash them, then pop them whole into the recipe and give them a good squish with a spoon after they've cooked for a while. You end up with a lot of fairly large tomato skins in the food that way, but the texture doesn't bother me and I'm pretty sure the skins are good for me. If you're fussier about this than me, chop them up first so that the pieces of skin are smaller. If you're really, really fussy, remove the skins first.
I've also gathered in the sweet corn.

I don't fancy eating them in that state. I think theoretically I could use them in a recipe that calls for dried corn, but my plan is instead to use them in some sort of autumnal wreath and then to see if I can grow fresh sweet corn from them next year.
I also gathered in some of my coriander seeds. Not all of them were ripe yet. I simply gave them a rinse and then left them to dry before putting them in a jar. If there's any moisture left on them I think they'd probably go mouldy in the jar.

Finally, I also harvested my mooli mino radish. I had thought that they hadn't made it, given my complete lack of attention to the brassica bed after about early June, but then I noticed one sticking up through the soil. The problem is, that it was supposed to be harvested over a month ago, so I just ended up staring at it for a bit thinking "that looks like it would be unpleasantly tough", then chucked it on the compost heap. I wish I'd noticed them earlier.