September In My Kitchen

Well to be truthful, much of what I am sharing is from August, but there will be some things that will take us into September.  

But before i start sharing, some of you have been asking about my fur friend.  Here is a recent picture of him. 

I made this Apple and Blackberry vegan pie three times in the last couple of months.     

The recipe comes from Post Punk Kitchen vegan chefs Isa Chandra Moscowitz and Terry Hope Romero in their publication Vegan Pie In The Sky. 

The blackberries were foraged.    

The cooking apples from the garden.    

Last of October Harvest

I started writing this post early October and then every Monday since, but I never actually got round to sharing it.    

 I've just been busy and tired a bit like this dead sunflower and artichokes. 

I think I am looking forward to November when things around me will be a bit quiet, so that I can also tend to the garden that is looking rather bleak.  I haven't had the opportunity to go out and tidy it up as its been raining, pretty much every weekend. 

 I picked this courgette and a strawberry early October.

And the tomatoes from early this month

I I know its looks like the same bowl of tomatoes, but I assure you its not - just take a closer, these were picked the second week of October 

I adapted a recipe for Briam - Easy Greek Vegetable Bake with some of the vegetables from the garden.

I had picked all the pears and made a Savoury and Sweet pear tart .  Excuse the ugly picture, but the tart was lovely, the pear almost tasted like marzipan.  

We still have Rainbow Swiss Chard in the garden, but not much else. 

Oh and some chillies - growing outdoors would you believe?!

I am sharing this blog post with Dave over at Happy Acres who hosts Harvest Monday every week.

Harvest: Red Yellow and Green

Well it is truly autumn now, the weather has started to turn cold. 

Out come the big coats and comfy jumpers.

The garden harvest is beginning to slow down. 

We still have tomatoes from the greenhouse and some chillies (not shown). 

 I Our neighbour gave us some good looking red apples. 

Raspberries from the garden. 

Turning Autumnal for Harvest Monday

So it must be turning autumnal in the UK, as my most popular recipe this week was Butternut Squash Scones.  

I've been tidying up the garden plot. I pulled out the purple curly kale as it had been destroyed by pests, so no homegrown kale for me this year.  I definitely need to invest in some netting for next year, but we still have plenty of beans coming, by the way that is me picking some beans (above)

These runner beans, purple and green pole beans (and the last pea pods) have already been consumed. 

The autumn raspberries are coming along nicely, they are double the size of those we harvested last year. 

We have some brambles snaking over from the neighbours fence.  These will be snipped soon as there is more thorny vine than blackberries, and the blackberries that are growing are small. 

The pears are still very firm.  I picked up four that had fallen to the ground, I guess that is natures way of saying they are ready.  So I need to pick them all over this weekend and make something with them.  I will be poaching them in syrup - Thanks Sue .

The greenhouse is still feeding us well with tomatoes, but I am not going to share any photographs of tomatoes today, instead i share with you this chilli plant.  I swapped a courgette seedling with a colleague for a chilli seedling a few months back.  We had a catch up recently and she told me that she still has not chillies on her plant, but has courgettes.  I told her that I have some chillies.  I think she was envious, I forgot to tell her though that mine are growing in the greenhouse!

I am ending with these nasturtiums that are bringing the bees to my garden which makes me happy.  I have used some of the nasturtium flowers for salads, leaves for pesto, as well as pancakes.  I will soon be collecting the green seeds to make a pickle. 

I am sharing this blog post with Dave over at Happy Acres who hosts Harvest Monday every week.

Changing Colours of My Seasonal Harvest

I promised regular blog readers last week that I would share a photograph of the tall Russian Giant Sunflower in my garden, I have fibbed.  I will, just it was hard to take a photograph with the gusty winds bashing the sunflowers from side to side and then came the pouring rain.  I will try again for you all next week and perhaps by then there will be more sunflowers growing from the offshoots on its side.   

I do have some shiny shiny fruits and vegetables to share wiht you though.  

Some tasty strawberries and a bowl full of tomatoes

Red Apples from the neigbours in exchange for some plums.  He described these as Cider Apples.  Last year I used them in cake, may do so again this year.  

Plenty of Beetroot and Last of the Courgettes

I started writing this Harvest Monday blog post last week, but I never completed it, so here is it a week later with some old and new harvest.

Last week I cleared the around the plum tree where lots of plums had fallen and rotted, but I loved the colours in this photograph that I really wanted to share it with Harvest Monday, hope you good folks don't mind.

Unwashed dirty Beetroot now all picked from the garden plot.  Once peeled and boiled, I've made a few dishes with the beetroot.

One is this Beetroot and Potato Gratin.

Another this Beetroot, Feta Cheese and Chive Quiche.

Above are courgettes that I picked last weekend.  

These couple of golden courgettes are the last picked yesterday.  I think we may one more harvest of the cherry tomatoes in the greenhouse, then next weekend it will be time for clearing it out for next year.

We spent a few good hours yesterday in the garden, digging the ground and burning the weeds

Other than some raspberries, Swiss chard  and hardy herbs, we don't have much more in the garden plot, so participating in Harvest Monday the next few months may be difficult but I will try, regarless I will still come by and see what is happening in other bloggers garden plots. 

For those of you who remember my harvested nasturtium seed pods, well here are the jars of pickled nasturtium seeds.  Click here for the recipe.  I am sharing this post with  Harvest Monday is hosted by Dave over Our Happy Acres

Last of the Hanging Tomatoes and Trailing Nasturtiums

I don't have very much to share, sadly the only squash I had growing in the garden collapsed and rotted.  The garden is a proper mess, like an abandoned allotment plot.  We are hoping to tidy up the garden plot on Sunday.

Oh did  I mention that we were away for a week a couple of weeks back to the South of France, Marseille to be more specific.  Anyway, these are the last lot of tomatoes harvested from the garden.

Most of them are fine and dandy, but as you can see some are split - especially the Black Russian variety. 

Other than the odd raspberry here and there, the only colour in the garden is coming from the nasturtiums.  

I am loving the way they are trailing along the border of the path and trying to creep over.  

 Moreso, it was lovely to see a bumbling bee bull dozing in and out of them - just look closely. 

Plenty of shredded green leaves, but kneel down and you will find some Brussels Sprouts.  I harvested some over the weekend for a simple meal.  I am sharing this measly harvest with Dave over at Our Happy Acres who is hosting Harvest Monday on behalf of Daphne's Dandelions .

Late Autumn day

The rain stayed away, so we spend a couple of hours at the plot. One of our priority jobs was to work on the hut where the rainwater was getting in, so D focused on that whilst I did the exciting job of weeding and harvesting.
Here's our harvest of the day. There are also some Jerusalem artichokes in there somewhere. I decided not to pick any chard today. I thought it would be better to pick it when we needed it and we have plenty at home in the garden plot too.

As well as being dry, it was relatively warm too.

I pulled out some purple haze carrots, this is the first one I have come across that has not grown straight.

Although the little Brussels sprouts are starting to plump up, I don't think they will be as 'fat' as those you find at the supermarkets, but I don't mind.

I can't remember the name of these cabbages and think they should really be harvested, but decided to leave it as we have enough to be getting on with for this week.

This is what the fenugreek looks like, all battered. I hope it grows a bit more...otherwise no fenugreek meals for me.

These are really small finale fennel. They seem to have self-seeded from the previous lot. A bonus for the winter!

I chopped of part of the leeks leaves, as some were getting to heavy and getting damp and soggy. If you look closely, you can see that they are all varying in size. I haven't harvested any yet.

This is the PSB from which I managed to harvest some more stems to eat. Oh yeah, that's me in the back too - weeding. I also cleared part of the strawberry bed. It really is a mess.

This is the last of the colourful lupins. I actually cut them all back today, as they have a tendency to self-seed. Oh the next picture is not a particularly pleasant one, so if you are of a nervous disposition or get squeezy easy, I would say stop reading. If not, please go on...

Whilst weeding and lifting stones up, I came across a number of slug eggs....eewwwww....I know...I don't them either, but this is a brilliant photograph take by D. Look closer and you can see some of the eggs cracked open. Amazing or what?!

This is my home-made compost bin. This is the first time every it has been overflowing. It will rot down eventually.

Okay that was my afternoon. Now I am off to enjoy the rest of the weekend or what's left of it.