Missed hopportunity

I think I’ve been in the middle of some weird space-time black hole because I have no idea, really no idea, how it is nearly November. I was working so relentlessly on Birmingham Weekender that the summer swept by, and then illness took over, and I’ve emerged to find that the world has skipped on to full blown autumn. Bye bye summer sun, sweet peas, fresh lettuce and courgettes; Hello concrete-coloured skies, chrysanthemums, golden leaves…and game.

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It’s game season again: stock up the freezer whilst it’s good and cheap

The allotment, well-behaved as she is, has been waiting patiently for the past month for someone to come and tidy her up. The sunflowers were over weeks ago, likewise the green beans, courgettes, tomatoes, chillies, cosmos and calendula. Actually, I say cosmos – the self-seeded ones were still going strong at the weekend, but without support were flopping all over the place and so I’ve called time on them all.

We found a few hours last week to begin the big Autumn Clean-Up. The greenhouse has been emptied, sunflowers felled, summer annuals razed. The biggest casualty so far has been the artichoke, who had grown far too big for her boots and so fell victim to the spade.

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Bye bye artichoke

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I will spray some of these gold to decorate the house over winter

It’s not been a bad year, but it’s not been a great one either. The greens that I planted out in April are still cropping – amazing! – keeping us in chard, spinach and sorrel. Likewise the carrots and parsnips are doing OK, and the soft fruit bushes have once again filled the freezer. But the leeks are sad with rust, the tomatoes were bland, and the beans were terrible.

The hop has shown its intentions this year, growing taller and more vigorous than we could have imagined. It was all in vain: we missed the key harvesting time and so once again, the aromatic cones are destined for the bonfire. It’s a perennial, which is perhaps our problem: there is always next year, the next harvest, and we’ll do it better then.

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The hopolisk has come down…

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…but whilst beautiful, these hops are too far gone to be useful

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Though we are now pulling monster carrots!

I’ve not bought any flowers since late spring (bar the odd lily), which is a minor personal victory. My cut flowers have not been magnificent, but (to my mind at least) better: small, charming, happy, bright little posies for the kitchen table. First came the delicate sweetpeas, ammi and nigella, then the summery cosmos, calendula and all those characterful sunflower faces, and now the dahlias and crysthanthemums finish the year with a blaze of jewel colour. Next year I hope to start cutting earlier and so I’ve put in spring bulbs – daffodils, tulips and aliums. Fingers crossed for good blooms come March.

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Autumn bulb planting has started: daffodils, tulips and aliums

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Bright blooms for the house

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This pumpkin-coloured crysanth is my absolute favourite flower of the year

Not content with flowers, I’ve been foraging for autumn windfalls. Not fruit, but hawthorn branches, old man’s beard and other dried stalks. Along with those artichoke heads, I’ll spray-paint them gold and place in a glass vase to make tall and (hopefully) eye-catching Christmas displays. This is recycling, allotment style.

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A basket of autumn delights to decorate the house

There is still work to do. The brassicas are not looking promising, something really must be done about those leeks, and we need to get on with collecting and spreading manure to give the soil a boost (all the fun jobs). But now that it’s dark at 5pm, it’s rather more appealing to curl up with a blanket and a good book. The turn of the year is upon us.

Cleared: Artichoke, courgette, tomatoes, chillies, courgette, cosmos, calendula, sunflowers, all the other summer annuals

Planted out: Winter lettuce mix, chard, mustard spinach

Harvest: Mustard spinach, winter lettuce, chard, spinach, carrots, parsnip, leeks (though they’re battered with rust), dahlia (though not many), crysanths

Blackcurrant leaf sorbet

What with the travelling, the festival organising and the general gallivanting, there’s not been much cooking and allotmenting on Veg Patch of late. This might indicate that there’s nothing going on – but that would be false. First though, let’s take a little trip to the Hills.

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View from Malvern Hills on Saturday

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Spot the foxgloves in the distance

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Up close, a brilliant pink

I went home (i.e. to the parental home) to water the greenhouse, an age-old job that for most people takes 10 minutes, but at Grove House takes at least an hour. For years, the Way to Water the Green House (and the hanging baskets) has been indoctrinated into me, in the same way that a Tiger Mother might teach their child the times-tables. My folks like their plants tended to just-so, and obviously they have a lot of plants. As my reward, I did a little scrumping.

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Scrumped from my mother’s garden

In Birmingham, our plant tending is a little more laid back. As is my flower arranging. I like mixing up the flowers and the veg because, well, it’s all so pretty!

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A 2015 posy: chard, spinach, rosemary, sweetpeas, lavender

The recent hot weather has brought everything on, everything apart from the French beans of course which remain sad and stunted. The greens, meanwhile, are fresh and zingy and beautifully slug-free.

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Am mightily pleased with my greens this year. From L-R, Red Russian kale, stripy beetroot, bright lights chard and a kind of white chard whose proper name I forget

I love greens. But perhaps, just perhaps, we might have too many?

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This, dear readers, is ALOT of lettuce

In other news, the artichoke we inherited is proving to be a bully with more style than substance. For starters, it is HUGE and threatens to overrun both the currants and the strawberries. Last year I spent an entire weekend turning about 40 globes into antipasti; I’ve eaten less than one jar because although they tasted great, the texture was stringy. I wondered if they were better used for boiling. So yesterday I boiled up two of the larger specimens and ugh! I couldn’t even finish one. They tasted sludgy and herbaceous, but not in a good way. So I will let all these remaining buds turn to flower and unless they are amazing beautiful, the whole thing is coming out to be replaced with something a little more useful.

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The artichoke, all style over substance

The cosmos and dahlia are starting to bloom, along with a few self-seeded interlopers. I’ll let them off; they’re pretty good.

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Gorgeous self-seeded poppy after the rain

However, some other interlopers have had their day. I removed the netting from the redcurrants and blackcurrants, to be greeted not only with bounteous fruit, but a forest of blackberry saplings that were hidden in plain sight.

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Baubles of perfect red currants

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Hidden in plain view: blackberry saplings discovered in the blackcurrants

And so we move to today’s recipe. It’s an odd one, but a really really good one. The recent hot weather demands an ice or two, and I really can not think of anything better than a sorbet delicately fragranced with fresh blackcurrant leaves. This is one of those recipes that is probably age-old, known only to country folk and people who grow-their-own, but my God, it’s amazing. The flavour is somewhere between lemon citrus and blackcurrant, but it’s more herbal and delicate than either of those two descriptions allow. There’s an element of elderflower in there; it’s ephemeral and light, but flavourful. If you have access to a blackcurrant bush, just give it a go and you’ll see what I mean.

First, get yourself a few fistfuls of fresh blackcurrant leaves. Check for bugs. We don’t want any bugs.

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Take a tubful of blackcurrant leaves

Then make up a simple syrup flavoured with lemon zest. It occurs to me that those Amalfi lemons I scooped up in Italy would be lovely in this, but alas they’ve all gone.

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Make a lemon-infused stock syrup

Now it all gets a bit witch’s brew. Chuck your leaves into the hot stock, wilt them down a little bit, and add the juice of three lemons. Then just pop a lid on and leave to infuse for a few hours, stirring occasionally.

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Complete the witch’s brew with the blackcurrant leaves and juice of three lemons

When it’s properly stewed, strain it through muslin into a jug. I recommend that you wear an apron for this and do not do what I did, which is to come home from a media event in your poshest frock, remember that you have not yet strained the brew, then splash it down front of said frock and onto the floor. That would be an error.

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A day later, strain

Then chill the syrup down and put it into an ice-cream maker to churn. Half-way through the churning, add a lightly whisked egg white. I’m not 100% sure why this is necessary, but I think it’s something to do with making a smoother sorbet.

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Whilst churning add a lightly-whisked egg white

After a few minutes in the machine you’ll have a pale ice. Give it a good stir to make sure it’s smooth, then put in the freezer to firm up.

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Fragrant lemony blackcurranty sorbet

To serve, soften for a few minutes and serve a scoopful at a time, perhaps with a trickle of double cream over the top (it will freeze like that 1980s oddity, Ice Magic). Or just steal from the freezer when you get hot. Whatever works for you. I’ve also been known to swirl blackcurrant compote through this to make a grown-up ripple ice.

Blackcurrant leaf sorbet

Recipe adapted from Sarah Raven’s Garden Cookbook

An ice-cream tub of good fresh blackcurrant leaves

Grated zest of 2 (unwaxed) lemons

Juice of 3 lemons

175g sugar

575ml water (I used Malvern water, obviously)

1 egg white, lightly whisked with a fork

First, bash the leaves a little to release the fragrance. Make a stock syrup by melting the sugar into the water, then add the lemon zest. Bring to a simmer then remove from the heat. Add the leaves and let cool. Add the lemon juice. Cover and leave to infuse for a few hours or overnight. Strain the syrup through muslin and chill. Churn in an ice-cream maker for 5 minutes, then add the egg white and continue churning until frozen. Give it a stir to make sure it’s all incorporated and smooth. Freeze until firm.

 

June Bobby broad-bean salad

What a difference a few weeks makes. At the start of June, with a chill remaining in the air, I was despairing of ever getting a crop of anything. But now – the pictures tell the story.

First up the tomatoes. My Dad told me that I’d caused them un-necessary stress (he often says that about his children) but maybe a bit of pressure early in life did them good, for they are now enormous and bear fruit.

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Greenhouse on 9 June

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Greenhouse on 21 June; everything has pretty much doubled in size

Outside, the lettuce, spinach, chard and beets were teeny tiny at the start of June. Now, the lettuce have hearts and I am gifting bags of greens to anyone polite enough to say they’d like some.

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The greens patch on 9 June…

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…and on 27 June. Actual proper lettuces!

On the other side of the patch, the artichoke and hops are trying to out-do each other with bolshy behaviour. The hops are taller, but the artichoke has the edge when it comes to statuesque elegance.

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The artichoke now reaches top of the (un-used) fruit cage

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Hops to the top of the hopolisk

Newly fashionable, the crysanths have been planted out  with the hope of long-lived stems for cutting later in the year. They nestle alongside the leeks and onions; autumn bounty.

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Crysanths and leeks out and proud in the summer sun

For now though it’s season’s pickings. Sweet peas and love in a mist; rocket and lettuce and spinach; redcurrants and (nearly) blackcurrants.

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Nigella in bloom – love in a mist

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Redcurrant dripping in fruit, glistening like glass beads

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Late June pickings

It’s not all unbridled success. I’ve had to ditch the cavalo nero and purple sprouting broccoli seedings, both neglected for too long, and half the climbing beans are a write off.

Speaking of beans, the first bobby beans are now to be found in Worcestershire farm shops; Matt claims they are Not A Real Thing and are actually French beans. But I’ve always known these super-long green pods as bobby beans. A Worcestershire oddity? Perhaps. Try them blanched and then tossed with savoury, herby, parmesan-y cream for a lovely side-dish. If bobby beans are Not A Real Thing where you live, this is also good with broad beans, French beans, runner beans and peas.

June bobby broad-bean salad 

Beans, sufficient for your dinner (bobby, broad, runner, French or peas)

Double cream

Chopped herbs, about 1 tablespoon. Soft ones are best; consider hyssop, savoury, tarragon, thyme, oregano.

Garlic – 1 fat clove, bashed and peeled but left whole

Salt and pepper

Parmesan

Lemon juice, to taste

First, trim your beans (I’ve used a handful of bobby beans and some sweet baby broad beans from the allotment). Blanch them in boiling water until just soft, then refresh under the cold tap.

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Blanch the beans and rinse under cold water

Meanwhile, warm a good splash of double cream in a wide pan with a smashed clove of garlic (leave it whole) and a handful of chopped soft herbs. I’ve used hyssop, tarragon, thyme and oregano. Savoury would also be good. Leave it to stand for a few minutes for the flavours to mingle, then remove the garlic.

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Warm garlic and herbs with cream

Finally, add the beans to the herby cream and toss the lot together, season with salt and pepper, and warm it all through over a low heat. Serve topped with lots of parmesan and perhaps a splash of lemon juice.

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Toss it all together, top with parmesan and slurp up the goodness

Planted out: leeks, crysanths

Picking: lettuce, spinach, sorrel, edible flowers, broad beans, strawberries, herbs, sweet peas, pinks

Chucked out: PSB and cavalo nero seedlings

Other jobs: Started feeding the tomatoes