Digging

It could not have started off better, after a very sweet text from a friends wishing me a great day (I was still in bed reading, he was out in his garden), I got out there in the perfect autumn weather and started to put the compost down, after coffee the first of the winter digging in the vegetable garden started, the area where the sunflower had spent the summer is the start this year, I will then move to where we had the potatoes, it looked so good by the end of the day, my back will get use to it again. 

 

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A fresh start

The season has come to an end for us here, the garden is now closed to the public till Spring, the only big event still to come is our great Christmas Fair. I love this moment, we can put our mistakes behind us and now clean up the garden and start to think about next summer and what we are going to do differently, the big thing for me is to get the seeds in earlier, some of the crops did not get enough summer. May the clean up begin!

Clubroot

Reading bad news in the bath can spoil a hot bubble bath, and make one want to put ones head under and not come up again, well it was not so bad but I was reading about clubroot as my brassica crop has come down with it, right in the middle of the patch, I have read that it may last in the ground for some 20 years and there really does not seem to be a great deal that one can do about it. The Cauliflower have been hit rather badly, I have a half row that I could enter in a show, the other half have gone  down to the fire pit. Next year I really need to make sure that a good amount of lime is added to our clay soil, this they say may help, we already do this but with bad results this year, I may lime the area tomorrow, it may take it down to 15 years……..

Kadikoy

Not only is Kadikoy the place to visit for the marzipan but also to the vegetable market where you can see a great collection of vegetables displayed in the most beautiful way, seeing this does make one think about the poor displays that we see in our everyday life, I am to blame as much as anyone and hope to do something about this next season. These displays are worked on each day, they have great pride in what they are selling. 

 

Istanbul

I got back from a great trip to Turkey on the weekend with dear friends. I have such a greed for marzipan that it drives me to take the boat from the Golden Horn to Kadikoy, in Kadikoy there is a shop where you can get some of the best marzipan that I have found, not only does it have a great taste but is themed on fruit and vegetables, I like to sit at the table on the side of the street and watch people go by while enjoying a good coffee and a treat. 

Freeze

The tomatoes have kept fruiting, this may have come to an end today as it has become very cold. We did a big pick a few days ago and have baked them in a closed dish in the oven, I think it is a great way to cook things you want to freeze, they cook in there own juice, the taste is so good, we cook plums in the same way, I also do leave the skin on the tomatoes as I like to use them in slow cooking and the skin will give a little body to the dish. 

 

Kitchen floor

The kitchen is looking more like a market stand today, we are hosting the Plant Fair here this weekend so a lot of cooking is needed, great that it is all used so well, the Tomatoes are in full production now.

Stored

We have now moved the pumpkins into the larder for the winter, from where we will eat them, it is so good to have another lot of vegetables in and ready for the winter, not too sure when I will start to cook them, or how, I do think roast pumpkin is not used enough in this country, as a child it was part of our diet, we had English friends over for a meal and they said it was cow food, it was a shock for me as a child that we where eating cow food, I got over it rather quickly as I was often known to eat the horse food in the winter when feeding them, hot molasses and oats.

Beans

It is that time of the year when the vegetables that are going to be sorted over winter are picked and dried out, this week it is the time to dry out the “Borlotto Lingua di Fuoco’, we did eat and sell some in the summer but now they are ready to be dried to be used in the winter for stew, before they are cooked again they will need to be soaked over night as they get very hard when dry but add great body to stew. 

Memphis

I had a great trip over to the Southern States to America, both Ladies how hosted me where named Linda and gave me a great trip, the longer part of my trip was Memphis, with Linda Smith a dear friend who is a great gardener and has the kind of garden that I would love, Linda does not have a vegetable garden yet but will have one before I go there next, I think…..of course a visit to Graceland was made.