God I love growing our own

[JamezF]

Late getting around to it this year, but fortunately quite a few of the apple varieties I have keep fairly well...

I'm not sure what weight of apples I pressed. I did mean to record the weights of each sack, but I was racing against the weather which was being quite sneaky. As well as the wind blowing the hairs all over the place, it waited until I'd left the last of the juice running from one pressing and gone indoors to have some lunch before trying to rain over everything (including the electrics). I'd estimate that in the end I got through somewhere around 100kg, producing a fraction under 60 litres of juice. I'm not geared up to pasteurise it right now, so I'll put at least some into plastic bottles and freeze it.

More to do tomorrow, but I think I'll ask my father-in-law to move his car outside and work under cover for a change.

James

 

[JamezF]

Needs quite a bit of work on the presentation, but today I have made my first cheese -- 1.5kg of (cow's milk) halloumi.

Could be a lot of halloumi being eaten for lunches this week

James

 

[JamezF]

For reasons I don't as yet understand, when I heated the whey to complete the final stage of the halloumi I didn't get any additional whey proteins rising to the surface to make anari (same sort of idea as ricotta, but Cypriot rather than Italian). Possibly that's down to the milk I used, which thanks to struggling to find a more direct supply was Duchy organic unhomogenised whole milk from the supermarket. Perhaps that wasn't such a bad thing overall given that this was my first foray into making cheese. At least I only had one product to deal with.

I've read up a little about anari this evening though and it turns out that it's often eaten for breakfast with, as it happens, honey. Not sure I'd last until lunchtime on that, but if I can make some in the future it's definitely got to be tried.

Assuming the halloumi turns out ok (I tried a small piece after pressing the curds and it was definitely squeaky, so I'm well on the way), I'm tempted to try mozarrella next. We often make our own pizzas and it would be great to be able to top them with home-made cheese. In fact, my daughter really likes Margherita pizzas so we could do a home-made pizza base topped with home-made tomato paste, home-made mozarrella and home-grown basil

James

 

[judy12]

James, have you tried the press we have at the Greenhouse in Wivey. It works entirely by water pressure - a garden hose will do. We hire out complete sets of kit and people regularly report that they've juiced and pasteurised over 100 bottles in a day.

 

[JamezF]

James, have you tried the press we have at the Greenhouse in Wivey. It works entirely by water pressure - a garden hose will do. We hire out complete sets of kit and people regularly report that they've juiced and pasteurised over 100 bottles in a day.

I haven't, though I was aware of their existence. I have to admit that I'm not entirely comfortable with hydropresses, which may be down to my own ignorance rather than the fault of the hydropress to be fair. As far as I can see it appears that once a pressing is complete the water used is generally just poured down the drain which I personally feel is a dreadful waste of drinking-quality water that consumes a fair amount of energy to produce. Obviously I could collect the water and do something useful with it, but apple pressing tends to be done at a time when non-potable water (in the south west, at least) isn't generally in short supply.

I do love the efficiency of a hydropress though. Depending on the apple variety and how ripe they are I estimate that I get around 60% extraction using my press. A hydropress might well get somewhere near 80%, which would be lovely. Fortunately the difference doesn't go to waste as all my spent pomace (probably a couple of hundred kilos this year) goes back onto the compost heap which in turn will end up on the veggie plot.

James

 

[judy12]

I'd not thought of the water, being so taken with the non-electric aspect - when we press at home, of course it's collected and sloshed over the veg beds - a bucketful each time I'd guess. When we press again I'll make sure to collect the waste water and measure it.

 

[JamezF]

I'd not thought of the water, being so taken with the non-electric aspect - when we press at home, of course it's collected and sloshed over the veg beds - a bucketful each time I'd guess. When we press again I'll make sure to collect the waste water and measure it.

That would be really useful to know. I'll ask Terry too, to see if he knows.

James

 

[JamezF]

Sadly it turns out that Frankenstein's Greenhouse can't protect pepper and tomato plants when it gets down to -6°C without some additional heating. So today I removed the tomatoes and cut back the peppers to see if they manage to make it through the rest of the winter.

I also took a final harvest of everything that was still worth having. Given that it's 5th December, I'm actually quite impressed. Building the greenhouse was a bit of a gamble as I had no idea whether the heat storage would work and I was very much making things up as I went along, but the plants have outlasted those in the polytunnel by at least a month. The tomatoes will hopefully ripen if I leave them in the window and we can eat the sweet peppers in salads. There might even be enough jalapenos to fill another couple of jars if I pickle them.

James

 

[Goran]

We are having too much of roasted hazelnuts also roasted pumpkin.. Today while I was eating pumpkin " wondered" would I get orange face color as Donald Trump if I continue to eat so much of it.. It would be soo funny..
We still have some lettuce in greenhouse ( non heated), the rest we are preparing for onions and garlic ( mostly we eat in greenhouse as scallions - softer, tastier than ones outside). Patch of asparagus and mangold is left as it is.

 

[enrico]

Sadly it turns out that Frankenstein's Greenhouse can't protect pepper and tomato plants when it gets down to -6°C without some additional heating. So today I removed the tomatoes and cut back the peppers to see if they manage to make it through the rest of the winter.

I also took a final harvest of everything that was still worth having. Given that it's 5th December, I'm actually quite impressed. Building the greenhouse was a bit of a gamble as I had no idea whether the heat storage would work and I was very much making things up as I went along, but the plants have outlasted those in the polytunnel by at least a month. The tomatoes will hopefully ripen if I leave them in the window and we can eat the sweet peppers in salads. There might even be enough jalapenos to fill another couple of jars if I pickle them.

James

James. what type of soil do you have that side of Taunton and what winter cabbages do you grow successfully, We are finding it hard to get a variety that hearts up well on our clay. Thanks

 

[Amari]

As far as I can see it appears that once a pressing is complete the water used is generally just poured down the drain which I personally feel is a dreadful waste of drinking-quality water that consumes a fair amount of energy to produce.

James

My tip for saving drinking-quality water is to pee somewhere in the garden - several times a day because of a dodgy prostate. Saves flushing......

 

[JamezF]

James. what type of soil do you have that side of Taunton and what winter cabbages do you grow successfully, We are finding it hard to get a variety that hearts up well on our clay. Thanks

Wouldn't be surprised if it's quite different from yours. We have the red soil common to the area around Exmoor, over very porous soft shale. Quite light to work (though I don't) when it's well looked after, but rapidly turns to very slippery mud when it gets wet and then dries out rock hard. It's quite shallow too. My veggie plot has had so much organic matter on it over the last few years though that it's nowhere near as bad now.

I'm trying some new cabbages this year -- "Des Vertus" (a savoy style cabbage) for the Winter and "Baccalan de Rennes" for Spring. The Winter ones seem to have done ok so far, though my late brassicas generally haven't been as good as other years, I suspect due to the poor weather in the latter part of the year.

James

 

[enrico]

Wouldn't be surprised if it's quite different from yours. We have the red soil common to the area around Exmoor, over very porous soft shale. Quite light to work (though I don't) when it's well looked after, but rapidly turns to very slippery mud when it gets wet and then dries out rock hard. It's quite shallow too. My veggie plot has had so much organic matter on it over the last few years though that it's nowhere near as bad now.

I'm trying some new cabbages this year -- "Des Vertus" (a savoy style cabbage) for the Winter and "Baccalan de Rennes" for Spring. The Winter ones seem to have done ok so far, though my late brassicas generally haven't been as good as other years, I suspect due to the poor weather in the latter part of the year.

James

Oh yes, totally different, thanks for the info on the cabbages though, may well try them.small brussels this year but apart from that and the cabbages the cauliflower and broccoli wasn't too bad. Blowing a hoolie now though

 

[pargyle]

Oh yes, totally different, thanks for the info on the cabbages though, may well try them.small brussels this year but apart from that and the cabbages the cauliflower and broccoli wasn't too bad. Blowing a hoolie now though

My cauliflowers were dreadful this year .. so much rain they rotted. Brussels are so small I can't even pick them .. kale murdered by the wood pigeons when I accidentally left the nets off ... Not a great year for brassicas all round. On a plus side .. my chillies are surviving and even still ripening in the greenhouse ! A few bits will need trimming off the plants where the cold has got at them but they still look strong ... who knows - they may yet survive overwinter. I've never had that happen before - if they do survive will they flower and fruit again next year ?

The butternut squash have all turned a nice shade of butternut ... not the biggest ones we've ever grown but there's a good few bowls of soup in them.

 

[JamezF]

if they do survive will they flower and fruit again next year ?

They will. They're perennial plants in their natural habitat.

James

 

[enrico]

My cauliflowers were dreadful this year .. so much rain they rotted. Brussels are so small I can't even pick them .. kale murdered by the wood pigeons when I accidentally left the nets off ... Not a great year for brassicas all round. On a plus side .. my chillies are surviving and even still ripening in the greenhouse ! A few bits will need trimming off the plants where the cold has got at them but they still look strong ... who knows - they may yet survive overwinter. I've never had that happen before - if they do survive will they flower and fruit again next year ?

The butternut squash have all turned a nice shade of butternut ... not the biggest ones we've ever grown but there's a good few bowls of soup in them.

We have often cut our chillies back to a few small branches at the bottom and covered them in the greenhouse and they shoot and fruit again the following year. We have never managed to get one into a third year yet though!

 

[Amari]

Swmbo is in charge of squashes - we find that they keep until at least Easter. This one germinated in our compost heap so she grew it on, , warts and all....

 

[pargyle]

We have often cut our chillies back to a few small branches at the bottom and covered them in the greenhouse and they shoot and fruit again the following year. We have never managed to get one into a third year yet though!

I'll try that ... I've still got fruit ripening - goodness knows why ! Once those are harvested I'll cut them back and make a proper bubblewrap tent to cover them in the greenhouse During the frosty days last week I had them covered in fleece and they seemed to be OK. I'd like to see them go through winter - I love a lost cause !

 

[JamezF]

I've spent a few hours out in the veggie plot today catching up on jobs that were overtaken by higher priority stuff. Things really are so messed up I last had a decent weeding session at the start of September, but now they're coming back with a vengeance. There is Hairy Bittercress that's actually flowering! One or two of the cabbages have clearly decided that it's time to flower too. And there are leaf buds on the currants that are on the point of opening. I lifted a few left-over carrots and noticed that they are producing new leaves. It feels very wrong. Perhaps things will return to something closer to "normal" next year, but my confidence is not high.

James

 

[JamezF]

Swmbo is in charge of squashes - we find that they keep until at least Easter. This one germinated in our compost heap so she grew it on, , warts and all....

Are you sure that's not someone's brain?

James