The Courgette Conundrum

 ‘Oh god, what do we do with all these courgettes…’

I was up at the allotment last weekend when a couple, who started renting an allotment this year, turned up with ten little courgette plants for their half plot – they would have been in for quite a surprise, as we have all learnt that one courgette plant takes up A LOT of room and is very likely to give you A LOT of courgettes!

Growing courgettes is pretty easy, but germinating them can be a little tricky. I have found the best way is to take each seed (I tend to try to germinate about five) and very loosely wrap it in a damp double layer of kitchen paper towel, then put them all in a labelled container, which goes into the airing cupboard. Make sure you keep the paper damp and watch out for the seeds sprouting. 

The great advantage to this method is that you then see which way up to sow the seed. I am pretty new to the growing your own veg thing and found that many sets of instructions told me to sow the seed on its side in the compost, which begged the question – which side?

Once the seeds have germinated, I transfer them to pots of peat-free compost, stand them on a window sill and keep well-watered. After a week or two they go out to my little plastic green house and then it is just a question of working with the weather to decide when they go outside during the day; but make sure they are not out overnight until all risk of frost has gone - so that’ll be August this year then!

Everything is running late this year, but I usually plant out my courgettes from late May to June. I planted mine up on the allotment last weekend.

Courgettes love manure, you can put some well-rotted manure or compost in the hole before you plant them and then I put a ring of it around the plants as well (though not touching the leaves).  Make sure that there is a metre between plants and don’t plant too many of them. I tend to plant three on my allotment, which is plenty for me, my parents and a number of friends.

Some good companion plants for courgettes are tansy (repels harmful insects), catnip (protects against flea beetle and attracts bees) and radishes (again repels flea beetle and other harmful insects).

Courgettes need a lot of watering and rather than just showering them from a watering can, it is a good idea to stick a plastic bottle, or sink a 15cm (6in) pot alongside the plants when planting out.  Water into the vessel to ensure it goes straight to the roots.

The courgettes are ready to harvest when they are about 10cm (4in) in length and the more you pick, the more will grow.  In fact you can be harvesting three-times a week.  However, I have often ended up with marrow-sized courgetters, which are lovely with a mince stuffing.

 

My favourite courgette recipes:

COURGETTE CAKE – yes, really

Serves:  10

Can be frozen (un-iced). – which is a perfect way to benefit from your courgettes for months and months

Ingredients

• 350g self-raising flour
• 50g cocoa powder
• 1 tsp mixed spice
• 175ml extra virgin olive oil 
• 375g golden caster sugar
• 3 eggs 
• 2 tsp vanilla extract 
• 500ml grated courgettes (measure by volume in a measuring jug, but it's about 2 medium courgettes; if using 1 overgrown one, peel first and take out seeds)
• 140g toasted hazelnuts, roughly chopped

 Icing

• 200g dark chocolate , chopped
• 100ml double cream

Method

Heat the oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4.

In a large bowl, combine the flour, cocoa powder, mixed spice and 1 tsp salt.

In another bowl, combine the olive oil, sugar, eggs, vanilla essence and grated courgette.

Mix the dry and wet mixture until just combined, then fold in the toasted hazelnuts.

Line a 24cm cake tin with greaseproof paper, then pour in your mixture.

Bake for about 40-50 mins, or until a knife inserted into the middle comes out clean.

Cool in the tin for 10 mins, then turn out onto a wire rack and leave to cool.

To make the icing, place the chocolate in a bowl and bring cream to the boil in a saucepan.

Pour the hot cream over the chocolate and stir until completely smooth and melted.

Leave the icing to cool slightly and thicken, then spread it over the cake so it's covered and the icing starts to drip down the sides.

Baking with courgettes

Courgettes can hold quite a lot of water, which can affect the finished texture of your cake. If your grated courgettes seem watery, place them into a clean cloth and wring out some of the liquid into a bowl. Then add the courgettes to the cake mixture as normal.

The timing for cakes containing courgette can depend on the water content of your courgettes, so return the cake to the oven for another 10 mins if it needs it. Simply test with a skewer and make sure it comes out clean

STIR FRIED COURGETTES

I just stir fry sliced courgettes, red onions, mushrooms with crushed garlic and Thai dipping sauce – yummy!

RIVER COTTAGE (www.rivercottage.net) STUFFED COURGETTE FLOWERS

Serves:  4

Ingredients

• 10 courgette flowers, washed to remove and dirt or bugs
• 2-3 litres sunflower oil

Filling 1

• 200g ricotta
• 3-4tbs grated Parmesan
• 1tbs Basil, finely chopped
• 1 tbs Chives, finely snipped
• 1 tbs Mint, finely chopped
• Salt & Pepper

Filling 2

• Sliced buffalo mozzarella
• Basil leaves 

Batter

• 4 heaped tbs plain flour
• 1 rounded tbs corn flour
• ½ tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp sea salt
• 200ml ice-cold sparkling mineral water

Method

Heat the oil to about 180C or until a cube of bread turns brown in 45-60 seconds.

To prepare the ricotta filling: chop herbs finely and snip chives with scissors into small pieces. Add herbs to the ricotta and stir in the parmesan, season with pepper and taste before adding salt.

To assemble flowers: fill with 3 teaspoons of ricotta or risotto, twist the tips of the petals to secure the filling.  To make the mozzarella cut a thick slice of mozzarella and place in a courgette flower with basil leaves either side, twist petals to seal.

Make the batter by putting the flower, corn flower, baking powder and salt in a large bowl, give it a whisk to remove any lumps. 

Slowly add sparkling water whisking as you pour to achieve a batter with the consistency of single cream.

Carefully place 3-4 filled courgette flowers into the hot oil, gently turn to ensure they cook evenly. 

When golden, remove and place on kitchen paper to drain.  Repeat with remaining flowers. 

Serve immediately.

And of course the couple with the 10 courgette plants were given a heads up about how prolific they can be, as we all learn from those around us, from experience, or from Monty!

Dandelions – hear this super food roar

‘A great year for dandelions’

Well, the conditions have certainly been right for dandelions this year – or they have in this area. They are lining the allotment paths and there is a carpet of them on any patches of grass that haven’t been destroyed by weed killers.

Please don’t kill your dandelions, they give a wonderful splash of colour from February right through to November, but especially at this time of year and bees love them. However, I know that many gardeners hate them because they are so tenacious, but if you harvest the flowers then you avoid the point when they turn to seeds anyway.

Dandelions are a key item on the foragers’ menu, as the roots, leaves and flowers can all be utilised, whether it be to make wine, coffee, ale, in salads and soups, or even making use of the florets as a ‘poor man’s saffron’ to colour rice etc.

The dandelion leaves are best picked young and once thoroughly washed can be used raw in salads, fried with bacon and some wild garlic or marinated in vinegar. They do get a more bitter taste as they get older, but blanching them takes the bitterness away and they can be used in recipes as an alternative to spinach.

In Italy they combine these blanched leaves with anchovies, garlic, capers, olives and pine kernels to make pizza di scarola – also known as peasant’s pie.

The leaves are also a key ingredient in Dandelion and Burdock ale. I have yet to try making this and apparently the smell can be pretty bad, which doesn’t sound promising.

The other alcoholic beverage the dandelion provides is wine:

Midday Dandelion Wine

·      2 qts dandelion flowers (prepared by removing as much of the green material from the flower heads as you can)

·      2 lbs 11 ozs granulated sugar

·      4 oranges

·      1 gallon water

·      Yeast and yeast nutrient

As the name suggests you need to pick the flowers at midday, so that they are fully open.

Boil your gallon of water, pour it over the flowers, cover with a cloth and leave to seep for just two days.

Pour this mixture back into your pot and bring to the boil.

Add the peelings from the 4 oranges (no white pith) and boil for 10 minutes.

Put the sugar into a pail (or jam making pot) and strain the liquid through a muslin cloth onto it.  Stir the sugar to dissolve.

Once cool add the juice of the oranges, the yeast and yeast nutrient.

Pour the mixture into a secondary fermentation vessel, fit the fermentation trap and allow it to ferment completely.

Once the wine clears rack and bottle it.

Now comes the hard bit, leave it for at least 6 months in the bottle before tasting. If you can manage it, then leave it for a year, as the taste is even better.

The golden flowers can also be used to make fritters

Come the autumn when the roots are at their fattest, they can be harvested and roasted to make dandelion coffee, which is one alternative to decaf coffee. However, as a lover of very strong, black, caffeinated, coffee, I’m afraid I cannot recommend it. Some foragers add hot chocolate to it to make it more palatable, or even mix it with some decaff coffee, but it is not the drink for me.

Dandelions are rich in vitamins A, B, C, and D, as well as containing iron, potassium and zinc. They are said to boost the immune system, fight anemia, and help prevent the development of type II diabetes. They have been used in traditional medicine to treat liver and kidney problems as well as digestive disorders. You can even use the milky liquid that comes out of the stem to treat bee stings.

One word of caution – the dandelion also has the nickname ‘Piss-a-bed’, which comes from its distinct diuretic properties…

These blogs are just intended to give you a feel for foraging, growing and making your own produce and to share my journey as I try various things.  As you know from previous blogs there are some very dangerous plants in our countryside, so please be careful out there.  There are plenty of foraging courses and you should probably do one before you go charging round the countryside with your basket picking leaves!

A Busy time for planting and sowing

Spring looks like it has finally arrived

but more importantly for us growers, the soil temperature has reached a reasonable level and we are now playing catch up to get vegetables, fruit, herbs and flowers sown or planted.

However, I am just going to sound a word of caution here. Don’t go mad and throw all your seeds into the ground, as there are still some reports of frosts coming later this week. I recommend making good use of window sills, greenhouses etc to protect seeds and seedlings; or if you prefer to sow straight into the ground, then you may want to wait a while.

If you have sown seeds in trays or pots then don’t forget to water them. It sounds obvious, but it is easy to forget and can dry out pretty quickly, especially if they are just in the little pots – I have put a reminder on my phone!

My sweet peas and marigolds are doing brilliantly. I am now putting them out during the day (if it is warm), but being sure to bring them in at night. Marigolds are fantastic companion plants and I will be planting these alongside my potatoes and squash as well as in my flower bed.

In fact when it comes to companion planting, marigolds definitely rock! They keep the soil free of bad nematodes and have rather a strong aroma which discourages harmful insects, including whitefly. You can also use the leaves to make a spray.

Take some leaves and crushed stems and add to a bucket of water, leave to stand and just stir every so often. After seven days, sieve the liquid to get rid of the plant material. I dilute the liquid with the same amount of water, mixed with some soft soap and use this to spray on my potatoes and tomatoes to try to prevent blight. There are different varieties of marigolds and the Mexican ones are not happy bed fellows for beans and brassicas.

Speaking of brassicas, most of mine were sown a couple of weeks ago and are settling in well in the new greenhouse. I open the front of this up, if is a warm day, but am sure to zip it up at night to keep them snug.

 This weekend was a very exciting one, as I managed to plant my spuds! Touch wood, that since having an allotment for the last couple of years, I have had some really good crops of potatoes that have lasted right through the winter.

My seed potatoes are from the organic gardening catalogue and I have found the Robinta, Orla and Desiree varieties to be a nice combination. I haven’t tried planting new potatoes and would welcome any feedback/suggestions on this.

I tend to order my seed potatoes in January and put them in egg boxes on a window sill to chit, before planting them from mid-March or April, depending on the weather. By the way, chitting is the process which encourages the seed potato to sprout before planting. Your seed potatoes will have a blunt end with some ‘eyes’ on it. This end should be stood up in the egg trays and the shoots will take about 6 weeks to develop.

Now digging a potato trench can sound a bit daunting, but don’t worry it does not need to be something from the Somme! You are aiming for it to be about 3 – 5inches deep (or about a spade depth). Leave about 30 cm between each row. Place the seed potatoes gently in the bottom of the trench (with the shoots pointing up), then cover them lightly with soil.  The exact spacings and timings are affected by whether your potatoes are ‘earlies’, ‘mids’ or ‘lates’.

As the shoots appear you need to earth up the soil so that the shoots are just covered and keep doing this. You will end up with a ridge about 15cm high when it comes to harvesting the potatoes. It is important to do this and to keep the potatoes covered. If they are exposed to sunlight then they will turn green and you certainly don’t want to be eating them.

The other key task achieved over the weekend was sowing my parsnips. You really want these to go in situ as they don’t like to be moved. The finer the soil, the better as this means the root can grow unchecked and therefore nice and straight! I had dug the bed a few times and finished it off by raking.

I have to confess that this is not my favourite job, as I find it rather monotonous and it is only when I look at an un-raked bed that I really see any benefit. However, there is no denying that it gives a nice fine tilth to the top which no doubt, the seeds appreciate.

I planted two seeds at around 15cm intervals, about 1.5cm deep in rows that were 30cm apart. Don’t forget to label your rows, as it is very handy for knowing where to water, before the leaves start to appear.

My carrots were sown a while ago, in a bath – but that is a story for another blog…

Second Rule of Foraging

‘Don’t pick lower than a dog’s cocked leg’

This was the mantra that went round and round in my head whilst blackberry picking last autumn. I was even starting to turn it into a song – foraging is great fun, but your mind can start to wander a little bit!

Rule number two – remembering that these are just ones I have put together and aren’t some sort of foraging bible - is really about being aware of the environment that the food you are collecting comes from. For example, if you pick blackberries from beside the road then they are going to have a rather nasty coating of exhaust fumes and roadside waste, which means they won’t taste nice or be very good for you.

Other potential hazards include farmers spraying their crops (and the hedgerows) with fertilizer and pesticides; contaminated ground water; human waste and factory pollution.

It is just about being observant: 

• If you are foraging by water and it is smelly, then you may be near a sewage outlet or industrial pollutant and should move to another area.

• Gardens and allotments are potentially excellent sites for foraging (taking vegetables from somebody’s beloved plot is undeniably stealing, not ‘foraging’) so it should definitely be yours or one belonging to a friend. However, many allotmenteers use herbicides and insecticides and you do not want to be eating food that has been sprayed. The signs to look for are a whitish deposit on the leaves, if the leaves are wilting, or someone walking around with a spray labelled herbicide or insecticide. 

• If there is a lot of evidence of dogs, then my rule is especially relevant. Of course some plants, such as nettles, aren’t higher than a cocked leg. But use your common sense and pick from behind the front row, as it is a brave dog that will go in amongst the nettles…

One of the joys of foraging is being out and about in our beautiful countryside, which means that you are likely to be away from many contaminates. However, I would advise taking time to study your foraging environment, as this is all part of the joy of reconnecting with and getting to know nature and its wildlife.

Don’t forget to always wash your foraged plants, berries, leaves etc

Gardening jobs I would have expected to have done…

… except that it is still snowing

It has been a tough start to the year for gardeners, thanks to a very wet winter and a snowy start to spring making it difficult to get outside and get the beds cleared, dug and prepared.

This late cold snap also means the soil is still very cold. I recently heard that you shouldn’t start your spring sowing/planting until you can sit comfortably (bare cheeked) on your soil. Since hearing this bit of gardening ‘wisdom’ I have been rather traumatised by the image of many of my allotment neighbours sitting on their plots with their trousers round their ankles, which would not be a pretty sight!

Anyway - pushing that image to the back of my mind - by the end of March I would usually expect to have a sown or planted a number of the crops on my allotment and to be enjoying the longer sunny days.

My chitted potatoes would definitely be in the ground, but they are still sitting on the window ledge. I would usually have started to sow carrots, parsnips and various other crops, but these are also delayed.

So what can we be doing? Well, I have covered my beds with some black fabric, not only to keep the weeds at bay, but also to try to absorb any warmth we get into the soil. The clocks have gone forward, so there are more hours of daylight (and hopefully sunshine) even if the wind chill factor is high.

I think the key thing to remember is to sow/plant by what the weather is doing, rather than just following what the seed packets say. Many of the crops that I would have expected to be underway can still be sown/planted in April or May.

However, I did spend the Easter weekend sowing seeds, including leeks, calabrese, Brussels sprouts and lettuces. These have all gone into my new purchase (pictured), as they don’t need to be indoors or in a snug greenhouse. I know that many of you will have fantastic greenhouse real-estate, but I am quite new to all of this and am rather proud of my little shelter. 

I don't sow carrots in pots or trays, as transplanting carrot seedlings wafts the smell around and the carrot flies come running, hopping, or whatever it is they do. Anyway, better to just sow them thinly where you want them.

However, I have sown courgettes, squashes, sweet peas and marigolds in pots and they are settled in on various window ledges and other surfaces around the house. I did have a slight mishap with this task - we all know that it is important to clearly label your pots/ seed trays etc with what you have sown, variety, dates etc. I must have been a little distracted as I ended up with a tray of sweat peas! Just have to hope that they don’t live up to this name…

Selling Jam and Chutneys part 2...

Trading Standards

After a successful meeting with my local Environmental Health Office, the next step in selling my own jams and chutneys was to arrange a meeting with Trading Standards.

Trading Standards cover a number of areas including age restricted products, animal health and warfare, haulage etc.  They are also responsible for food labelling, so it has been rather a busy time for them recently!

I had already done a bit of research about food labelling including looking at the Trading Standards websites, reading European legislation (life’s too short…) and speaking to a couple of people selling their own home made jams at Farmers Markets.  This all resulted in me being rather confused and overwhelmed about the whole thing. 

I think it is usually helpful to speak to someone face-to-face and arranged a meeting with an officer from my local Trading Standards.  At the moment they come out to you for free, but this may change.

I have heard some horror stories about Trading Standards, but I found them helpful, sensible and realistic.  However, this lady did note that you should always talk to your local Trading Standards as they can differ about how prescriptive they can be.

The key pieces of advice I received included:

·      If you are doing direct sales, as I am initially planning to, you need less information on the label than if you are selling via a shop or other distributor

·      If you are selling jams then you will need to show fruit content (grams per kilogram)

·      It is advisory to include a ‘Best Before’ date but it isn’t currently a legal requirement (be aware that regulations do change)

·      You should have a batch number

·      Recommended jam and pickle making kit includes a trade-approved weighing machine to check the jar size and a refractometre, which measures sugar levels including what occurs naturally in fruit.

·      They would frown on your label showing an idyllic country cottage if you live in a housing estate

·      I can put homemade on the label, but if my business takes off and I need to scale up to having an industrial unit then I won’t be able to put this on the label.

·      You need to be aware of allergens, which include nuts (obviously) and celery (who knew!)

As a result of this meeting I have now designed my labels and started working out the fruit contents in jams, jellies and onion content in chutneys (which still makes my brain hurt).

The next step will be to bite the bullet -not literally, as that would definitely count as a ‘foreign body’ in my blackberry jam! - and start selling at a community, country or farmers market.

Selling Jam and Chutneys

Food Hygiene

The next block in the building of the Auntie Allie Empire is to sell my own jams and chutneys, made from produce I have foraged, grown on my allotment or sourced from local, organic suppliers.  (Of course when I say ‘Empire’ I am just planning to sell a few jars at a local community market but, as they say, from small acorns…)

There are certain rules and regulations concerning the selling of your home made produce most of which can be found on the Food Standards Agency and your local council websites.

However, it can all be rather confusing and I believe the best approach is to make contact with people directly.  I phoned my local Environmental Health Office from the District Council and set up a meeting with them.

A lovely lady came out to my house (which is where I am going to be making my produce) for an informal chat and to pass on all the advice she could, which included:

• My kitchen didn’t need to permanently be at a business level of cleanliness in case of checks.  When I’m making produce for my business I need to ‘close it’ from being a normal kitchen, give it a top to bottom clean, ensure the surfaces are tidy, that any hand washing is done in the cloak room sink, that there is no other food preparation taking place.
• You should have a checklist for each batch made to show the cleaning and food safety checks you have done, which would need to be shown at any inspection.
• You should have good systems for stock control and logging of suppliers etc.
• It is fine to use an environmentally friendly multi-purpose cleaner, rather than an industrial strength disinfectant.
• That it was sensible to get separate ‘business’ equipment, including washing up bowl, a bowl for washing fruit, utensils etc.
• That the biggest problem they find is ‘foreign bodies’ in produce and so it is advisory, but not compulsory, to wear a catering style hat, as well as clean clothes and an apron.

If you are going to be selling your own produce you need to do a food hygiene course.  Because I am planning such a small-scale business, an on-line food hygiene course is sufficient.  The Environmental Health Officer also noted that I had demonstrated a sound understanding of food hygiene principles (or common sense as I like to call it) and she was therefore happy to recommend that level of course.

The visit enabled her to confirm that my kitchen is suitable for making homemade produce and the surfaces are a material, which they are happy with.

You hear some horror stories about how unfair the officials have been, but I believe that a face-to-face meeting is helpful in establishing a personal contact and opening the lines of communication.  Most of the complaints they deal with concern supermarkets and foreign bodies in food.  They get very few complaints about artisan producers because we take such pride in producing good food.  However, having met me, if there were now to be a complaint, she would be inclined to know it was a genuine mistake and feel happy to contact me informally in the first instance.

At the moment this visit is free, but with all the cuts taking place in councils, I don’t know how long this will be the case.

I was also given the phone number to order a useful document called ‘Safer Food Better Business for Caterers’, which is a jargon-free pack demonstrating what you do to sell food that is safe to eat and have records of this.  Again, this document is currently free, but it may not be for long.

So, that is now another step on the path to selling my own produce.

Right, must just wash my hands (again).