Supporting autumn fruiting raspberries

Autumn fruiting raspberries are great. You just chop them down in ground level in February and they grow again, giving you lots of lovely fruit year after year (in my case in late July and August) with very little further effort. You don't even need to support them. But, if like me, you are growing them right next to a path and/or the doors to the greenhouse and/or shed, you might want to, as otherwise they do tend to scratch at you as you walk past.

In previous years, we have used bamboo canes with string tied around them to try and keep the raspberries in. But the raspberry canes have proven stronger than the canes. So what we've now done is buy wooden stakes. The wooden stakes were approximately 180 cm long with pointed tips, so we could bash them more easily into the ground.

We used a mallet to drive them about 30 cm into the ground and then tied string around them at three heights to keep the raspberries in. We actually did it while the raspberries were almost ready to fruit, but doing it before they grow is probably more sensible.

Here's a picture from last year:

You'll notice that since last year, we've also added some paving slabs to make a path. These are not concreted in. We just removed patches of lawn to make them level with the grass. This is fine for us, as their weight keeps them in place, but if you have anyone or anything come into your garden that might injure themselves on unsecured slabs, you're probably better off concreting them in.

Here's a picture of the garden as it is today. You'll notice that I've already got my first bamboo canes in one of the beds. They're for mangetout. And behind them I have broad beans growing. My beds are a bit messier this year, as I'm growing flowers in them before I put some of the veg in, and not all the mixed seeds I scattered have grown, leaving a rather patchy impression in the beds. However, the bees will appreciate any flowers I grow at all, and the sparrows also appreciate them. I've seen them devouring large chunks of leaf from some of the plants.

German Apple Bienenstich (Bee Sting) Cake

I've adapted this recipe from Dr Oetker's German website: https://www.oetker.de/rezepte/r/apfel-bienenstich-torte

Bienenstich is German type of cake. The word means bee sting, but it's not clear why they're called that, as they don't contain any honey. Instead, their key characteristic is their caramelised almond topping.

German cakes are usually delicious. But it's often hard to find the ingredients for them in the UK. I've therefore adapted this recipe so that UK ingredients can be used. I used Gala apples in mine, but if I make it again, I'll either pre-cook them a little ot try a different sort, as although these tasted good, they remained overly firm after being cooked. The cake freezes adequately. It doesn't look as good after being frozen and there's a little deterioration in texture (you probably wouldn't want to serve the defrosted version to guests), but it still tastes fine and is fundamentally still a nice cake you enjoy eating.

German Apple Bienenstich (Bee Sting) Cake

You will need a 26 cm springform cake tin (I've often been successful using a 23 cm tin and adapting the cooking time with other cakes, but this cake wouldn't fit in a smaller cake tin. You might get away with a 23 cm tin if you only only use 3/4 of the ingredients).

Ingredients

A little butter for greasing

Pastry:

350 g plain flour

135 g sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract (or essence)

1 pinch salt

125 g soft butter or margarine

2 eggs (medium)

Filling:

1.5 kg eating apples(this is usually around 11 or 12 eating apples)

250 g full fat crème fraîche

4 eggs (medium)

1 tbsp cornflour

85 g sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract (or essence)

1 tsp ground cinnamon

Topping:

75 g butter

75 g sugar

100 g whipping cream

150 g flaked almonds

Optional serving suggestion:

Whipped cream

1. Grease the base of the springform cake tin. Preheat the oven on to about 200 °C/180 °C fan.

2. Put the pastry ingredients in a mixing bowl and mix everything with a mixer using the dough hook to form a dough – start on on the lowest speed, then gradually increase to the highest speed. If your butter or margarine is too hard, this will take much longer (and you risk crumbs flying everywhere).

3. Separate the dough into two halves, then roll one half of the dough out on the base of the springform cake tin. Place the springform cake tin rim around it. 

4. Shape the rest of the dough into a sausage long enough to go all the way round the inside of the edge of the cake tin. Place it around the edge of the dough on the base of the springform cake tin and use your fingers or thumbs to press it against the sides of the cake tin, so that it goes all the way up to the top of the spring form cake tin.

6. Mix the crème fraîche with the eggs, cornflour, sugar, vanilla extract and cinnamon.

7. Core then peel the apples. Cut them in half, then cut each half into 6 to 8 slices (ideally smaller than I did). Layer the apple slices on top of the pastry in the base of the cake tin (the German recipe did not specify what it meant by "layer", so although I started off placing them neatly, I ended up piling them in. Possibly I should have tried to keep them in neater layers). 

8. Pour the crème fraîche mixture over the apples. 

9. Put the cake tin in the bottom third of the oven and bake for about 30 minutes.

10. While the cake is baking, make the topping:  melt the butter and sugar in a pan. On a medium heat, add the cream. Stir for about five minutes while the mixture thickens a little (mine did not thicken much at all).

11. Stir in the almonds. 

12. Once the cake is out of the oven, reduce the oven temperature to about 180 °C/fan 160 °C. Spread the topping over the part-baked cake, then return to the bottom third of the oven and bake for around another 40 minutes.

13. Leave the cake to cool in the tin on a cooling rack (this will take at least one hour). Then remove the cake from the tin. Serve with whipped cream, if desired.

Älplermagronen recipe and German apple sauce (Apfelmus) receipe (vegetarian recipes)

Ever since I visited my friend Moni in Switzerland I've been making Älplermagronen, a delicious Swiss recipe that she made for me while I was staying with her. Älplermagronen translates as Alpine herdsman's macaroni, and it's a macaroni and potato-based dish made out of a mixture of long-life ingredients and things an Alpine herdsman would have easy access to when living far away from other people half way up a mountain (think Heidi's grandfather). I didn't like any of the recipes I found in English for it, so I've translated a Swiss one. Because this dish goes perfectly with German apple sauce, I've also added a (sugar-free!) recipe for German apple sauce.

Älplermagronen (serves 4)

2 onions
½ tbsp flour
2 tbsp olive/vegetable oil
1 tablespoon butter
250 g waxy potatoes (e.g. new potatoes)
350 g macaroni
200 g Gruyere
200 ml single cream
salt and pepper
optional: marjoram for garnish
German apple sauce (Apfelmus) - see recipe below (best made in advance)/apples (sliced)
optional: green beans or salad to serve

1. Peel onions and slice into thin rings. Dust with flour and mix well.
2. Heat oil and butter in a frying pan, then fry the onions over medium heat for about 10 minutes until crispy. Lift out and drain on kitchen paper when done.
3. Meanwhile, put large pan of salted water on to boil.
4. Peel the potatoes and cut them into large bite-sized cubes. Boil for 5 minutes.
5. Add macaroni to the pan with the potatoes and boil for a further 8-10 minutes until just tender. Drain well.
6. Return the drained potatoes and macaroni to the pan on a low heat.
7. Remove the rind from the cheese; then cut the cheese into cubes. Add the cubed cheese and the cream to the macaroni and potatoes. Turn the heat off, put the lid on the pan and allow to warm through until cheese is melted – about 5 minutes.
9. Season to taste with pepper. Sprinkle onions on top. Garnish with marjoram if using. Serve with apple sauce or apple slices on the side and optionally with a salad or green beans or similar veg.

German apple sauce (Apfelmus)

2 kg apples – if using cooking/Bramley apples, add sugar to taste
200 ml water
optionally around 25 ml of lemon juice – prevents apples from going brown
optionally cloves, cinnamon stick, vanilla stick or other spices
glass jars with lids

1. Preheat oven to 160-180 C (to sterilise jars).
2. Peel and core the apples then cut them into small pieces.
3. Put the apples (and optionally the peel) in a pan with the water. Add the lemon juice if using. Also add any cloves/cinnamon/vanilla you are using.
3. Bring to a boil and let the apples simmer on low to medium heat for 20 minutes.
4. While the apples are boiling, sterilise jars and lids as follows:

• wash in hot soapy water but do not dry
• stand jars and lids upside down on a roasting tray
• heat in preheated oven for 15 mins
• turn the jars the right way up ready for filling using oven gloves

5. Once the apples have simmered you can optionally pour off some of the water for a thicker sauce. Either mash the apples coarsely or mash them into a fine puree.
6. Fill the applesauce into the sterilised jars and seal them with lids immediately. Turn upside down to cool.

An intrepid adventurer in the garden

 The garden has a new and intrepid inhabitant, a tiny little mouse:

This mouse is crazily brave. We were sitting out in the garden and the mouse was running back and forth past us, near enough to get photos. It was a tiny little thing, much smaller than an average adult mouse, so it must be either a baby or a different type of mouse. It's adorable, but I think it may be responsible for the hole in one of my squashes. I had previously put this down to slugs, and now there is a hole it the squash's skin, the slugs are munching happily away, but I suspect the original nibbler may have been this mouse or one of its friends.

Can you still eat big patty pan squashes? One-pan cream cheese, patty pan squash and tomato pasta recipe

 I did an accidental experiment in the garden by failing to notice one of my patty pan squashes until it had reached a diameter of about 16 cm (6 inches) across. I so utterly failed to notice it, that I don't even know if it started off yellow like the rest of my patty pan squashes or was dark green right from the start. Here's a picture of a normal patty pan squash next to my huge one.

It was so big, I wasn't sure if it was still going to be worth eating. But it seemed a shame to waste it, so I thought it would be worth giving it a try. When I cut it in half, it had far more prominent seeds that the little squash:

It also weighed around 800 g, so I didn't think it was sensible to eat the whole thing at once. Instead, I cut myself a quarter of it, scooped out the seeds and peeled it (because I thought the skin might be too tough to eat) and cut it into bite-sized slices. The little, yellow patty pan squash didn't seem too prickly, so I simply cut that one up without peeling it. The seeds were so tiny that there was no need to remove them. I then put both in the recipe below (no photo, because it didn't occur to me at the time that I was going to be including this recipe on the blog until after I'd eaten it and realised how nice it was):

Cream cheese, patty pan squash and tomato pasta recipe

Serves 1 (ingredients can be doubled, tripled, quadrupled etc.)

Ingredients

Up to 250 g of patty pan squashes

Up to 250 g tomatoes (ripe)

40-50 g Philadelphia-style cream cheese

80 g pasta (e.g. penne)

salt

freshly ground pepper

Method:

1. Boil water in a pan.

2. Add the pasta and put the buzzer on for 4 minutes less than the recommended cooking time.

3. While the pasta is cooking, prepare the squash. If necessary peel the squash (if big or prickly) and remove the seeds (if the seeds are big), then cut into bite-sized slices.

4. When the buzzer goes, add the slices of squash to the pan and set the buzzer for the final four minutes.

5. Meanwhile, chop the tomatoes into approximately 1 cm chunks and remove the hard core beneath where the stem was.

6. When the buzzer goes, thoroughly drain the pasta and squash in a sieve or colander and put the tomatoes in the pan. Add the pasta and squash back to the pan and return to the heat for around 30 seconds to warm the chopped tomatoes.

7. Add the cream cheese, salt and pepper (make sure you add a decent amount of pepper, it really brings out the flavour of the cream cheese).

8. Stir thoroughly.

9. Serve.

I've been doing very well with avoiding powdery mildew on the squashes so far this year. The leaves of a few of the squashes, especially the patty pan ones, became infected with powdery mildew after the torrential rain we had. But I removed the leaves and tied the squash plants up better so more of the plant was off the ground, and now they look good.

Orange and raspberry muffin recipe

I had one orange and one egg to use up plus more raspberries growing than you can shake a stick at, so I halved the quantities of a recipe for orange and raspberry muffins that I found online. The recipe was in cups, which was a bit of a pain (and reading it back, I notice I accidentally made some adaptations), but it turned out so delicious, I thought it was worth writing out a metric version, so here it is with my accidental adaptations (you'll need to halve the quantities if, like me, you've only got one orange and one egg left):

Ingredients (makes 12)

320 g plain flour

170 g cup white or golden sugar (plus extra for sprinkling)

3 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 pinch of ground nutmeg

1/2 cup  of vegetable oil (I used non-virgin olive oil)

235 ml whole milk

2 eggs (medium or large)

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 oranges (zest only)

570 ml fresh or frozen raspberries (approx.)

12 muffin cases

1. Put one of your oven racks in the middle position, then turn on the oven to 190 degrees C (no fan). Take out your muffin pans and put large muffin cases in 12 of the cups (in my muffin tin, the large cases stick over the top of the muffin tin - see photo above). Make sure you only have one case in each, I accidentally put doubles in several.

2. Stir the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and nutmeg together in a medium bowl. Whisk the oil, milk, eggs, and vanilla together in another bowl. Finely grate the zest from the oranges, than add to the wet ingredients.

3. Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients. Pour the wet ingredients and the raspberries into the centre (if you put them in frozen they will keep their form, if they are fresh or allowed to defrost they'll break up when you stir, which was delicious). Stir the wet and dry ingredients together until the dry ingredients are moistened but still a bit lumpy – do not over-mix the batter. Divide the batter evenly among the muffin cases (mine were only about 3 mm off full - you could also make smaller ones by 3/4 filling the cases). Sprinkle the tops of the muffins with sugar (about 1/4 teaspoon per muffin).

4. If you went with 12 nearly full muffin cases, bake for about 30 minutes. If you went for 15  3/4 filled ones, bake for about 25 to 30 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through cooking. You’ll know they are ready when they are golden brown (and a cake skewer comes out clean). Cool muffins in the pan on a rack for 5 to 10 minutes. Turn the muffins out of the pan and cool on the rack. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Harvest is coming

It's taken me a long time to get much to eat out of the garden this year, possibly largely due to slug and snail problems, but harvest is finally coming. Many of my apples are ripe. I know this because not only are they bright red, but they keep falling off the tree, and I keep eating them.

The raspberries are now producing more than I can usually eat in a day – I stir them into porridge – and I am freezing the rest.

The patty-pan squashes have also started producing edible squashes. You're meant to eat them when they're small. They have an incredibly boring flavour, so you have to put them with something more interesting. I've been having them with green beans and pasta and pesto and the few tomatoes that have ripened. It's nice to have a second sort of vegetable alongside the beans, and the plants seem to be producing fairly reliably now - not in the quantities a courgette would, but they're much lower FODMAP than courgettes.

My tomatoes have mainly yet to ripen, but they're getting pretty big, so I live in hope that they will soon.

The Maxima squashes are also coming along. This is my biggest one, and if it's anything to go by, the name is no lie: they're going to be huge.

I've accidentally also grown my most interesting sweet corn yet:

It's without any leaves covering it and it made me realise that each of the silks that stick out of the top connects directly to a different kernel of corn. It'll be interesting to watch it ripen.

The garden as a whole is looking dry anywhere I haven't watered (i.e. the grass), but I'm no longer worrying about whether I'm going to manage to harvest anything.