Summer Bounty

Although it’s been wet and dull at least the garden doesn’t need watering. Thankful for small mercies! Just the polytunnels and greenhouse need regular sprinkling and the plants don’t seem to mind the grey skies.

Lots of lovely food growing in the tunnels. Whenever a crop is finished I replace it with fresh seeds of something else.

This week I’ve sown “Autumn King” carrots, “Little Gem” lettuce, “White Lisbon” spring onions, “French Breakfast ” radishes and I have new peas and French beans just beginning to grow.

Chilli peppers and bell peppers are coming on nicely in their pots in the greenhouse. The bell peppers are a funny shape but I’m confident they’ll still be tasty.

I have parsnips, leeks, carrots, sprouts, kale and squashes growing for use in Winter. Right now I’m enjoying some lovely yellow beans, runner beans, kohl rabi, carrots, basil, parsley and lettuce. Harvested the last of the cauliflowers and frozen some more florets. Tiny outdoor cucumbers are looking promising and the tomatoes are just beginning to ripen in the greenhouse. Isn’t Summer wonderful when you have a garden?

Basil is a lovely herb when it’s fresh. So good in an Italian-style salad with tomatoes and cheese. Recipe for this in my Earthy Homemaker’s Cookbook.

https://geni.us/eANQu

I also make my version of pesto and freeze portions for winter use. I don’t like pine nuts and I love Lancashire cheese so I came up with an alternative recipe which I love.

Here’s my version of pesto.

Cashew Nuts
Lancashire Cheese
Garlic
Basil leaves
Olive Oil
Salt and Pepper

You can add more or less of each ingredient according to taste. 
Grind the nuts in a food processor. Add crumbled cheese and crushed garlic (amount depends on how strong you like it). Add salt and pepper.
Wash and pat dry the basil leaves and add to other ingredients.
Whiz to combine well then add olive oil a little at a time until a soft consistency is formed.
Freezes well in small containers and is just like fresh when thawed. Great on pasta but also on baked potatoes or spread on crackers.

Other pleasing things in the garden this week while the sky cleared for a while.

Nectarines are in season. One of my favourite fruits, but the supermarket ones are a bit tasteless and hardly ever sweet. I usually stew them with some sugar. I admit it’s not as healthy as eating the raw fruit but it turns bland, disappointing fruit into a taste sensation. The softened slices and sweetened juice are just so delicious and it’s simple to do.

I just wash the nectarines, slice them, discard the hard stone and put them into a saucepan with a small amount of water. Heating them gently releases the juice and softens the fruit.

As the nectarines soften, I stir in about three tablespoons of sugar or a bit more if the fruit was sour. The juice and sugar make a delicious syrup.

Good served warm with ice-cream or cold on their own or with Greek yoghurt.

I baked my ginger sponge in a big tin and cut it into squares. A very easy recipe with stem ginger for an added sweet treat. All my cake recipes are quick and uncomplicated because life’s too short for endless hours in the kitchen but it’s lovely to have freshly baked cakes. My sweet-treat square recipes are also in my cookbook.

Thank you to my regular readers for your requests for my recipes and suggesting I write a cookbook. It took months of work but I enjoyed it. Thank you to everyone who has bought it and I hope you’re finding the food easy to prepare and good to eat.

I haven’t painted for a while but I’ve started sketching for a new picture. I will share it when I begin the painting.

Meantime here’s an old one. These are opium poppies which pop up spontaneously every year in the garden. We had the old crazy paving when I painted this. The garden looks very different now. I took a photo and drew the image in pencil, then I painted it with gouache paint.

With you again next week. I hope we have some sunny days but if not there are many enjoyable things to do indoors. Enjoy your own pastimes. Bye for now.