The ups and downs and ins and outs of growing your own, 2018

Kantankrus_Mare

Does anyone peel their garlic and store it so it just need chopping/slicing when a recipe calls for it? I havent got loads but it bores me peeling the fiddly things and making hands smelly so I thought I'd do it all then its just ready to use.

Had a bit of a google and was shocked to find that storing in oil (which is what I was going to do) can cause botulism.:eek:

Suffolk_lass

Kantankrus_Mare wrote: »

Does anyone peel their garlic and store it so it just need chopping/slicing when a recipe calls for it? I havent got loads but it bores me peeling the fiddly things and making hands smelly so I thought I'd do it all then its just ready to use.

Had a bit of a google and was shocked to find that storing in oil (which is what I was going to do) can cause botulism.:eek:

I peel and freeze here. No smelly fingers. I do the same with chillies - just freeze them. Easy!

Kantankrus_Mare

Ive frozen chillies before but not garlic. Do you bag them or store in airtight containers? Dont want everything else to taste of garlic.

zafiro1984

Kantankrus_Mare wrote: »

Ive frozen chillies before but not garlic. Do you bag them or store in airtight containers? Dont want everything else to taste of garlic.

Peel garlic and bag them, chillies - deseed and bag them.

I've decided to start on the autumn tidy up. I've 30 smallish raised beds so I've decided on doing one every two days. Obviously, not the beds with winter stuff. Today I cleared the one with a couple of gherkins, Swiss chard went to the hens and 6 bulbs of fennel into the kitchen, I love fennel in salads. Tomorrow I'll cover it with muck and peg some old plastic ground cover on it.

Picked 4 butternut squash yesterday. I find they don't keep for very long despite what the books say so I must turn them into soup. Unfortunately, I'll have to buy some parsnips from the supermarket as mine didn't germinate - I'm a bit mad about that so does anyone know if cubing and freezing squash works?

Suffolk_lass

Kantankrus_Mare wrote: »

Ive frozen chillies before but not garlic. Do you bag them or store in airtight containers? Dont want everything else to taste of garlic.

I just keep garlic in a bag, but chillies are in an old ice cream pot - I freeze them loose before adding them already frozen.

zafiro1984 wrote: »

Picked 4 butternut squash yesterday. I find they don't keep for very long despite what the books say so I must turn them into soup. Unfortunately, I'll have to buy some parsnips from the supermarket as mine didn't germinate - I'm a bit mad about that so does anyone know if cubing and freezing squash works?

Yes, they do freeze in chunks, raw, perfectly well. I keep mine in a hessian sack, by the way - they keep all winter normally (this year my crop is carp though)

zafiro1984

Suffolk_lass wrote: »

Yes, they do freeze in chunks, raw, perfectly well. I keep mine in a hessian sack, by the way - they keep all winter normally (this year my crop is carp though)

Thanks for that, I'll freeze them, it will give me more time to deal with crab apples as I'm a bit short on time at the moment.

With veg and fruit prices said to rise this autumn/winter I'm trying to not waste anything. Do you think crab apples will freeze? I thought of just halving them to detect any grubs and then freezing them for use in jams/jellies later.

Suffolk_lass

zafiro1984 wrote: »

crab apples

With veg and fruit prices said to rise this autumn/winter I'm trying to not waste anything. Do you think crab apples will freeze? I thought of just halving them to detect any grubs and then freezing them for use in jams/jellies later.

If you cut them, paint the cut sides with lemon juice to stop them discolouring. Or cut and make jelly base without sugar and freeze the juice?

Blackjack_Davy

Well its gone back to being incredibly dry here again. Surprisingly warm too. Keep having to water the veg plot again just to keep it alive. What a bizaare year the weather has been all over the place.

The beetroot are only half the size they should be caught them gasping from drought the other day. I've grown carrots for the first time ever and I'm amazed they've actually got some to pull!

The real success have been the runner beans I've never had so many got half a freezer full and gave the other half away. The climbing french beans which never do much in our climate have done brilliantly this year and they're still cropping whilst the runners are thoroughly finished. Goodness knows what the water bill will be though.

The big disappointment is the rhubarb its just not possible to grow it down here anymore there just isn't enough moisture during the summer to keep it alive never mind thrive.

Tomatoes under glass have been difficult blossom end rot has been a real problem the heat has just been a bit much. Got a really good crop of chili peppers though saw the exact same variety at the RHS gardens and mine were better!

unrecordings

Still trying to figure out that peppermint vodka recipe...

In the meantime lost half my fennel in the wind - I grow it for leaf and the seeds. It was a bit flappy anyway, but a couple of large fronds have snapped off. A few seed heads were ready, most are still soft - so I'll harvest those separately in case they don't keep

Dizzy_Ditzy

Kantankrus_Mare wrote: »

Does anyone peel their garlic and store it so it just need chopping/slicing when a recipe calls for it? I havent got loads but it bores me peeling the fiddly things and making hands smelly so I thought I'd do it all then its just ready to use.

Had a bit of a google and was shocked to find that storing in oil (which is what I was going to do) can cause botulism.:eek:

Probs a bit late to this party but i have one of these -

https://www.ebay.co.uk/i/263536635452?chn=ps

I peel the garlic, chuck it in there and pull the string thing as many times as I need. I put the chopped garlic in a zip lock bag and freeze flat - i just break the chunks off as and when I need them

It is a pain peeling all that garlic but its worth the effort