Harvest Monday - pesto

I had a load of basil that needed picking this week so decided to make a pesto.

Pesto usually has cheese in it but I tend to just use basil (or rocket) plus toasted walnuts (instead of pine nuts) plus garlic and olive oil

Because of the mixture of green and purple basil leaves the pesto ended up being a delightful brown colour....it tasted good though and goes well in sandwiches, here with a gooey goats cheese on sourdough

I also harvested the first small courgettes this week, yippee

Plus a whole load of broad beans and some marjoram

So I made a broad bean and egg stew, based on Shaheen's recipe but using marjoram instead of dill. Last year I made this so many times, it's quick and easy. Adding sweet just-picked courgettes gives it an extra dimension too (though it's delicious without the courgettes anyway.)

A few days later there were some more small courgettes ready for picking, plus I lifted a couple of onions to cook with too, here using up one to make another broad bean stew because I ended up harvesting the rest of my broad beans aswell (not pictured).... I was going away for a few days and it had been quite dry, the plants were dying off, so i worried the beans might get past their best by the time I'm back. Jan and I spent a busy evening podding them all and then blanching/freezing a few bagfuls to eat another time.

We enjoyed the stew with some more early potatoes. When harvesting, I've found that for some of the plants the seed potatoes still had a bit of oomph left in them, so I tried not to disturb the plants too much whilst rooting around for tubers, with the idea that they might continue to grow a bit more / produce more potatoes. This has worked in the past but the tops don't look too healthy so it might not be that successful this year. Soon I'll be clearing the area to plant-out leeks anyway.

The raspberries and other soft fruits have come along this week though.....yuuuum. My strawberries are nearly over so it's good to get some others to take their place. Bottom-left are saskatoons which are a bit like blueberries but the plants are less fussy about soil

Raspberries are my favourite though. They seem to be really good this year - I think the rain has helped them (I don't tend to water things on the allotment very much so they sometimes dry out a bit)

I'm still away but have left Jan in charge of watering the tomatoes in the lean-to and picking more fruit. I hear she had a good raspberry harvest yesterday, thanks Jan. I'm looking forward to seeing how things have grown-on when I get back tomorrow - it's amazing how much changes in just a few days at this time of year.

 

Thanks for reading this week. I'm linking in with Harvest Monday hosted by Dave at Our Happy Acres

 

 

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Harvest Monday - saskatoons

A quick round up of the harvests as I'm feeling rather pooped tonight...

Basil and rocket to make a pesto

With toasted walnuts and olive oil added

Looks a bit grim...

But tastes real good, here with goats cheese And sourdough bread

I put the rest of the pesto into a jar and covered with oil to preserve it, and stored in the fridge

Ok, not a harvest of mine but these were so nice I had to share. I worked at the Royal Norfolk Show on a stand last week and in my lunch break paid a visit to the food hall. Full of local produce, this lovely selection of tomatoes were from Cornerways, who use a reclaimed heat from a factory next door to warm the greenhouses. These were only £3 (reduced from £5) and the first tomatoes I've bought for months.

They were very sweet and a yummy snack. It's made me want to try and grow different varieties.

I had my first proper courgette harvest this week, hopefully the first of many

More rocket, with the infamous Squashage rolls, Mmm.

Another good fruit week, but now pretty much the strawbs have ended, this is from earlier in the week when there were still quite a few. Plus some redcurrants (I've picked a couple more tubs of these too, jan's mum helped pick one day - they were visiting this weekend). The eagle- eyed will see the first raspberries, which since this piccie have speeded up ripening. I need to tie them in a bit better to make them easier to harvest, they're flopping all over the place. I do love raspberries though!

I thought I'd try to make a strawberry leather, because the lean-to gets really hot and we had a bit of a heat wave. It's just strawb whizzed with some lemon juice

Spread thinly on baking parchment

Covered with muslin. I didn't get the weights right first and the material dipped into the fruit, oopsie

Well, after two days it had dried around the edges but not in the middle, so I ate the dried bits and scraped some of the soft fruit off too then composted the rest so a bit of a fail. I've tried to do it in the oven before but can't get a low enough temp, even with the door open, so the edges burnt. I'll have to think of some other way of doing it though I prob won't try again this year.

The two thin layers of leather didn't use up much of the strawb mush so I added the rhubarb from last week, cooked it down a bit, whizzed it up and froze for later use.

Here's the promised saskatoons (purple berries) nice and plump. These two tubs were from last night, I'll probably need to head out tomorrow and pick some more before the birdies get them, it's been quite rainy inbetween the sun, so hopefully things will come on nicely

Ah, I nearly forgot, there have also been a few pods of delicious peas that haven't made it into the house for photographing. A little treat.

Linking in with Harvest Monday on Daphne's Dandelions

 

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