What are you preserving?

[British Red]

Back on the tomatoes today - they are coming in HARD. Had about 15 kilos to preserve today

Tomorrow it's tomato powder, dried raspberries and I might make a start on pumpkins

 

[TeeDee]

Back on the tomatoes today - they are coming in HARD. Had about 15 kilos to preserve todayView attachment 76161

Tomorrow it's tomato powder, dried raspberries and I might make a start on pumpkins

Which strain of Tomato plants do you favour the most Red?

 

[British Red]

Which strain of Tomato plants do you favour the most Red?

For cooking, San Marzano and Roma VF. Really thick walls, very little goo and seeds, easy to seed save and heirloom varieties. We need a lot of tomatoes for the cooking that I prefer - Italian, Indian & Mexican all have a lot of tomatoes involved so it's a mainstay for our garden (together with garlic, onions & chillies). If my ginger growing experiment pays off (and it's looking good so far) we will be well set up

 

[British Red]

Nothing too dramatic today, some Fresno chillies (mild but lovely stuffed with cream cheese) and red Bell Peppers. Seed saved both of course

 

[punkrockcaveman]

Just drying some bayleaves and rosemary in the oven. Smells amazing, quite a heady aroma.

 

[British Red]

Just drying some bayleaves and rosemary in the oven. Smells amazing, quite a heady aroma.

I could never grow bay. Our friend gave us a volunteer from her local tree. Its now 9 feet tall. If anyone wants a sack of fresh bay...

 

[British Red]

Today was a day for tomato powder. Such a useful, space saving way to store a tomato glut. Fantastic & flavourful way to thicken and intensify Marinara, chilli, curry etc.

 

[Mesquite]

Today was a day for tomato powder. Such a useful, space saving way to store a tomato glut. Fantastic & flavourful way to thicken and intensify Marinara, chilli, curry etc.

That looks interesting Hugh. How do you make it, just dehydrate stewed tomatoes then put through a blender?

 

[British Red]

That looks interesting Hugh. How do you make it, just dehydrate stewed tomatoes then put through a blender?

We have a video on it Steve. You can either slice and dry, then powder or, with dehydrator sheets, liquidise raw, ripe tomatoes and dry the paste, then blend the dried sheets to powder. No need to stew

 

[TeeDee]

We have a video on it Steve. You can either slice and dry, then powder or, with dehydrator sheets, liquidise raw, ripe tomatoes and dry the paste, then blend the dried sheets to powder. No need to stew

I mean this in the very best of ways but your videos are becoming better and better - I hope you are seeing some merit in producing them and Youtube is being kind. No doubt the You Tube algorithms are a hard beast to understand.

 

[British Red]

I mean this in the very best of ways but your videos are becoming better and better - I hope you are seeing some merit in producing them and Youtube is being kind. No doubt the You Tube algorithms are a hard beast to understand.

Thank you! It's unlikely to make us rich but as you know, we've always enjoyed talking about what we do. I hope we can help others to enjoy this life!

 

[British Red]

We've enough whole chillies preserved now, but I can't bear to just pull up plants that are still producing



So at this stage it's chilli flakes

 

[punkrockcaveman]

Looks amazing! I bet the smell is unreal. Very, very useful dried spice. Do you save the seed too?

 

[British Red]

Looks amazing! I bet the smell is unreal. Very, very useful dried spice. Do you save the seed too?

Oh we save vast amounts of seed - no point in trying for self sufficient living unless you can produce viable, true to type seed

 

[British Red]

Very, very useful dried spice.

It apparently is accurate that at points in history, black pepper was as valuable as gold.

One of my goals is to produce good quantities of authentic spices. The trinity are, in my mind, garlic, chilli and ginger - the three legs of so many dishes. Garlic I'm great at, chilli I have down pat and I'm pretty confident that this year I have mastered ginger.

Black pepper still eludes me though....

 

[Billy-o]

Not that any I make will last long around me, but right now the mountain ash berries are big and in abundance here this year, so it'll be in jars for them this week. Might add a bit of chilli for scoffing with crackers and cheese. Thanks for the thought BR.

I remember Bob Flowerdew talking about his triple skin poly tunnel on the radio a few years ago. He had tropical fish in a pool in there and grew an actual pineapple. Maybe something like that will make the ginger a dead cert ... maybe even pepper corns. I really like those Schezuan ones - all lip-numbing hot and aniseedy

 

[Robson Valley]

Back in a south window of my old lab, we grew lots of potted ginger with magnificent clusters of violet & white flowers. Tall, grassy/bamboo-looking thing. The leaves and stems diced very nicely for a ginger accent to any suitable dish.

 

[Suffolkrafter]

Today I opened the pickled ash keys I prepared earlier in the year. This was my first attempt. I have to say they were pretty tough and fibrous. I thought I'd got them early enough, but maybe I didn't.

 

[Billy-o]

Pickled fiddleheads ... now there's a thought. You'll definitely need to get them at the right time, before they get too chewy. Probably still best stir fried fresh with bacon fat, though.

 

[slowworm]

I can recommend pickled nasturtium seeds heads, must get round to doing some this year as we've got a good crop of them. I prefer the smaller, unripe seeds.