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Gardening

Peppers and Squash

Some of the peppers from the allotment being washed prior to being chopped and frozen.

The name of the ‘flying saucer’ squash by the way is ‘Patty Pan’. Still have to look up the chillies. I turned most of them into chilli paste – which is now in jars. I also produced a bottle of chilli oil – using olive oil as a base –  it’s hot.

I’m making a vegetable stew with some the squashes. It’s cooking on the stove even as I write. It’s still raining – so mostly indoor activities today. The cats are restless for some reason.

The Actual Allotment

I really do have an allotment. I was there only yesterday. As I live in the UK the clocks have just ‘gone back’ to allow us lighter times in the mornings – but this means that the evenings draw in very quickly. On my allotment the grass is still making a determined effort to take over. I have some grass paths to split things up, and this makes it easier to walk on in the winter – but needs constant maintenance. As well as trimming the grass with my rechargeable electric strimmer I was taking down the last of the runner beans and picking the remaining produce.

I have a lot of chillies (again) – I need to look up what variety they are. I still have a carrier bag of cayenne peppers in the freezer from last year – can’t seem to use them up! I will invent some kind of preserve this time I think. I made up something I called ‘Tiger Preserve’ last year – involving chillies and ginger. Very hot! I also have a lot of ordinary bell peppers and some nice long sweet red peppers named ‘Frigatella’. I was thinking of drying those and preserving them in oil. Also brought back some carrots, beetroot, french parsley and butternut squash. Also the last of another type of squash – looks like a dumpy flying saucer. The celeriac, parsnips and leeks are doing well.

I need to go back and finish tidying up – the grass is still winning at the moment. That’s the problem with the strimmer – it runs down quite quickly. I would go today – but it’s just started raining, and the forecast isn’t good. Besides which, I’ve promised to take my Mum shopping – she can’t get out by herself and so I usually do her shopping for her. Sometimes she likes to come with me – along with her portable oxygen tank. Ho Hum.