Grow » Kavey Eats

Over the last decade, perhaps more, Pete and I have slowly converted our back garden to a kitchen garden. In autumn 2010, we also took on an allotment. Read about our efforts and recipes made from our home-grown bounties.

Allotment Helpers and Purple Sprouting Broccoli

27 Mar 2012 7 Responses »

Mar 272012

It’s that time of the year when we are rushing to catch up with work we really ought to have done over the autumn or winter. That means some quick heavier digging and turning over, letting the weather break down the clods a bit and then working it over more finely in preparation for sowing seeds and planting seedlings.

This weekend, a friend came to help on Sunday afternoon. The sun was shining; it really was a beautiful day.

Last year was a poor year for us, harvest wise and the combined yield from both garden and allotment was less than we’d enjoyed from the garden alone for the several years previous. There were a number of factors including weather, the added workload of having a new allotment on top of the garden and a poorly timed spring holiday which impacted seed propagating for many more weeks than it lasted.

The purple sprouting broccoli we planted in 2010 was ready for harvesting from mid-January 2011, very early indeed. So when we saw nothing much at all by the same time this year, I assumed it had failed. Very happy then, to see it starting to show growth late February and early March.

On Sunday we harvested the first florets, sharing them half half with our kind helper.

photo by Gina Navato

Gina cooked the PSB and some cauliflower florets with anchovies, pine nuts and capers, for a very simple evening meal.

We did ours as a snack. It was nuked, only briefly, in the microwave (with a knob of butter and a little salt sprinkled over first). Crunchy, tasty, fresh, delicious!

If any other friends want to get some exercise of a weekend, and fancy helping, give us a shout.

Grow Your Own With Seed Parade (Competition Closed)

15 Mar 2012 72 Responses »

Mar 152012

For many years, Pete and I have been enjoying fruit and vegetables we’ve grown ourselves, gradually increasing the variety of things we’ve grown and the space given over to them, until eventually, a few years back, we gave over our entire back garden to a kitchen garden, or what we often call the home allotment.

Now we have an actual allotment too, so our seed buying has increased even more!

For me, choosing what to grow and which varieties to try is one of the most enjoyable times of the year – so full of promise and expectation.

Over the weekend, Pete and I discussed what we wanted to grow in 2012, and went through the seeds we had left from last year.

I’ve been following Seed Parade on twitter for many months. As we wanted to buy more seeds, I tweeted them to ask about any current discounts, as they regularly have one or more of their seeds on special offer. In response, business founder Lajos Szabo got in touch, asking if I might like to run a competition for my readers.

Well, of course!

There are many online seed retailers to choose from. One of the reasons I am interested in Seed Parade is their commitment to keeping packaging to a minimum, using only what is necessary to ensure that your seeds arrive safely, and in good condition.

Also, they are DEFRA registered, which means that the business is regularly inspected to ensure adherence to sound environmental practices.

Handily, they stock a couple of varieties we had already decided on, and also have a nice selection of other seeds to choose from, both newer varieties and some traditional and heirloom ones.

And their prices are good. Some of the retailers I’ve looked at are charging double or more for the same seed varieties, and putting far less seeds into each packet to boot!

I have chosen a lovely basket of seeds including Sungold, Black Russian, San Marzano and Tigarella tomatoes, leeks, onions, cape gooseberries, a selection of herbs, three different beans including Cosse Violette, Borlotto and Purple Queen, Swiss Rainbow chard and Chocolate Habanero chillis.

Now it’s your turn!

WIN!

Seed Parade are offering not one but two winners their own choice of up to £25 of seeds, delivered free to any UK mainland address. That’s a lot of seeds, meaning a lot of fantastic fruit and vegetables over the coming year!

HOW TO ENTER

You can enter the competition in 2 ways.

Entry 1 – Answer the question
Leave a comment below, answering the following question:
Why would you like to win and what would you like to grow?

Entry 2 – Tweet
Tweet the (exact) sentence below:
I’d love to win £25 of @seedparade seeds from Kavey Eats! #KaveySeedParade

RULES & DETAILS

The deadline for entries is midnight GMT Friday 23 March 2012.
One blog entry per person only. One twitter entry per person only. You do not have to enter both ways for your entries to be valid.
The two winners will be selected from all valid entries using a random number generator.
The prize is the winner’s choice of seeds up to a value of £25, chosen from in-stock items on the Seed Parade website. Delivery to UK mainland addresses is included.
The prize cannot be redeemed for cash.
The prize is offered directly by Seed Parade.
Valid entries must contain either an email address or twitter account, for contacting the winner. For those leaving a comment using their blogger/ Google ID, please make sure an email address is visible in your profile.
The winners will be notified by email or twitter. If no response is received by the end of Monday 26 March, their prize will be forfeit and a new winner will be picked and contacted.

*If you don’t have a secondary email address already and are nervous about sharing your main email address on the internet, why not set up a new free email account on hotmail, gmail or yahoo, that you can use to enter competitions like this?

Kavey Eats received a complimentary basket of seeds from Seed Parade.

This competition is closed. Congratulations to winners Pigling Bland and Hilda Hazel Wright.

Rhubarb

14 Mar 2012 8 Responses »

Mar 142012

First of the year’s rhubarb, harvested from the allotment on Sunday morning.

Plum Jelly: Sunshine In A Jar

18 Oct 2011 10 Responses »

Oct 182011

Although we’ve not achieved as much as we’d hoped over at the new allotment (which we took on this time last year) we have enjoyed harvesting fruits from the existing trees and bushes.

Our plum tree gave us a fair crop of juicy sweet fruit.

I’m glad we picked nearly all of them on one day as, when we returned just a few days later to collect any remaining, we found they’d been shrivelled up by brown rot.

I had a hankering to make plum jelly just like my mum makes. When I was growing up, we had plum trees in the back garden, so she’d make some every year.

Plum Jelly

Ingredients
Plums
Sugar
Water
Pectin or lemon juice (optional)

Note: You won’t know how much sugar you need until you’ve cooked the plums down and strained the juices. For each litre of juice, you’ll need a kilo of sugar.

Note: If your plums are a little tart, or you include some slightly unripe ones in the mix, you probably won’t need to add extra pectin. However, if all the plums are very ripe, additional pectin may be needed. This can be added in powdered or liquid form, or via lemon juice, which is naturally high in pectin, or you can use jam sugar, which has extra pectin.

Method

Halve the plums. I find this quick and easy to do by drawing a sharp knife right around each plum and then twisting both halves in opposite directions; the halves come apart easily.

Place halved plums into a large pan, leaving the skins on and stones in.
Add just enough water to cover most of the plums. (It’s better to be frugal with water and add more during the cooking down process – add too much and your resulting juice will be too thin).

Cook down the plums until they disintegrate completely. Add more water only if the mixture is looking dry and might catch.

Pour the cooked pulp into a muslin straining bag or cloth. Either tie closed and hang over a pan or, as I did, place into a colander inside a pan, so that the juices can easily run down. I left mine to strain overnight, with a clean towel loosely covering everything.

To avoid cloudy jelly, resist the urge to squeeze the pulp to extract extra liquid.
Discard the pulp (on your compost heap or into your green bin).

At this stage, if you think your juice may be too watered down, boil to reduce volume.
Do a pectin test if you think you might need to boost the pectin before making the jelly.
Measure the juice and put into a large pan, with caster sugar. Use a kilo of sugar per litre of juice, adjusting for your volume of juice.

If you need to add pectin, add it now (or use jam sugar, which has extra pectin).
Boil the juice and sugar hard. I use a jam thermometer to make sure I reach 104 °C (219 °F).
Pour your hot jelly into hot sterilised jars. I sterilise my jars in the oven (and boil the lids at the same time, draining them onto a clean tea towel). Pouring the jelly into the jars while it and they are still hot minimises the risk of the glass cracking from a sudden and extreme change in temperature. Actually, I ask Pete to do the pouring as holding large jugs of very hot liquid scares me!

My finished jelly is a soft set, as I chose not to add any extra pectin.

It’s delicious, and has such a gorgeous colour, tinged pink from the skins of the fruit.

I used some recently to glaze a home-made blackberry, raspberry and banana fruit tart. It worked beautifully. And of course, it’s lovely on toast or scones. And I bet it’d be nice between two layers of soft sponge cake…

My Beautiful Fruit Tart with Blackberries, Golden Raspberries, Bananas and Chocolate

17 Sep 2011 15 Responses »

Sep 172011

The yellow raspberries I harvested from the allotment recently were so beautiful I wanted to make something pretty enough to do them justice. Having filled a couple of tubs with blackberries too, a fruit tart seemed an ideal way of putting both to good use.

I’ve peered through the windows of countless patisseries, admiring the artful creations – fruit oh so neatly arranged over crème pâtissière, in little pastry cases. I’ve eaten a fair few too. But until now, I’ve never remotely considered making my own.

A quick Google revealed thousands of recipes, but I liked the quick and easy nature of a James Martin recipe for French fruit tart, which I used as a starting point.

Blackberry, Golden Raspberry, Banana and Chocolate Fruit Tart

Adapted from a James Martin recipe

Ingredients
packet ready-rolled puff pastry (approximately 400 grams)
1 egg, beaten
50 grams dark chocolate
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
170 ml double cream
170 ml fresh custard
small punnet blackberries
small punnet raspberries
1 banana, halved lengthwise and then thinly sliced
4 tablespoons plum jelly (I used some I’d made a week or so earlier, from allotment plums)

Method

Preheat the oven to 200 C.
Divide the ready rolled puff pastry according to the size and number of tarts you want to make. I divided my sheet into two.
Lay the puff pastry rectangles on a baking tray covered with either a silicon baking mat or baking paper.
Using a sharp knife, score a frame around the edge, making sure you don’t cut the pastry all the way through and prick the base of the tart (excluding the border) with a fork.

Brush the border with a wash of beaten egg.

Bake the pastry until golden brown and crisp (20-25 minutes).
Remove from the oven and allow to cool.

Once cooled, gently press the centre of the pastry down to leave a raised frame around the edge.

Melt the chocolate using short bursts of 10-20 seconds in a microwave, or using the traditional bain marie technique.
Brush the melted chocolate over the bottom of the pastry. Be delicate as a heavy hand will cause layers of the pastry to come loose and shift.

Leave to the side to allow the chocolate to set.
In the meantime, mix the vanilla extract into the double cream and whip to stiff peaks. Fold the custard into the whipped cream.

Spoon and spread the cream mixture over the pastry base.

Arrange the fruit on top as you like.

Heat the plum jelly and, using a pastry brush, glaze the fruit generously but gently.

Allow the tart to set before serving.

The tart was magnificent, if I do say so myself, and by far the prettiest thing I’ve made, even though I know it looks messy next to the work of skilled patisserie makers, amateur and professional alike.

I was particularly happy with the invisible chocolate layer which added both a thin layer of solid bite and a lovely flavour too.

And the plum jelly worked better than I could have hoped for as a thick, protective and glossy glaze.

I was a little too free-handed when adding the custard (hence the amounts above). I’d adjust the ratios slightly back in favour of the whipped double cream, to give a slightly stiffer texture to the finished cream filling. It tasted fabulous but was a touch runnier than ideal.

Other than that, I can’t wait to make these again with whatever berries and fruits I have to hand.

Berry Delights

23 Aug 2011 6 Responses »

Aug 232011

Every few days, Pete harvests a handful of plump sweet raspberries and tiny wild strawberries from the back garden.

The raspberries have that perfect balance between tart and sweet and that special flavour that distinguishes them from their fellow Rubus fruits.

The teeny tiny wild strawberries in particular are a revelation; the flavour is very different to the domesticated strawberries we’re all familiar with; to me, it’s reminiscent of bubble gum and perfume.

Small Fruits

11 Jul 2011 5 Responses »

Jul 112011

Popping over to the allotment yesterday to show it to a visiting friend, we harvested a small box of fruit and some pretty borage flowers, for use as a salad garnish. (The lettuce is growing in the kitchen garden at home and is very nice indeed now it’s hearting up, meaning lots more crunch).

Fruit wise, we picked raspberries, tayberries and blackcurrants plus about 5 gooseberries that the birds had failed to spot. That said, we hope that a really rigorous pruning of all the fruiting bushes will result in higher yields next year.

Very variable weather (from extremely hot to monsoon-like rain) plus a large dose of laziness has meant we’ve been a bit lax. Weeds and tall grasses are rampant, though our own planting continues to fight it’s way through.

Apple and plum trees are heavily laden, so we look forward to a great crop of both.

Potatoes are pushing through the weeds and seem to be doing fine.

The wheat is growing well, and remains reasonably weed free, surprisingly.

Honey Goats’ Cheese Toasts On Little Gem Leaves

14 Jun 2011 6 Responses »

Jun 142011

Incorporating home grown produce into your meals needn’t be complicated. This recent lunch used romaine lettuce picked fresh from the garden and served as it was, without any dressing.

This is a very quick and simple lunch using just four ingredients.

Honey Goats’ Cheese Toasts On Little Gem Leaves

Ingredients

Bread – your choice, ours was home-made soft white; a recipe from Tom Herbert, that I’ll blog soon
Goats’ cheese – your choice, this time we used Montrachet from Burgundy via La Cave à Fromage
Lettuce – your choice, ours was Romaine picked fresh from the garden
Honey – your choice, we used a London one from The London Honey Company

Method

Pick and wash the lettuce, tear by hand into small pieces.
Slice bread and toast one side under the grill.

Slice the goats’ cheese – approximately half a centimetre thickness.

Turn over the bread and lay the goats’ cheese slices on the untoasted sides.
Spoon a little honey over the cheese.

Grill until the honey has melted and the surface of the cheese shows a little browning.

Serve the toasts over the lettuce.

You could make a simple dressing for the salad if you wish. If so, I’d keep it simple again; just a little of the same honey, some decent oil and vinegar, ratios to your own taste, shake in a jam jar to combine and then toss with the lettuce before plating.

Purple Sprouting Broccoli

19 Jan 2011 11 Responses »

Jan 192011

We enjoyed our first crop of 2011 this weekend – purple sprouting broccoli; a very early variety that came free with seed packs for other vegetables grown during the last year.

There’s something very wonderful about opening the back door and harvesting something colourful and delicious, under grey cloudy skies.

We served it very simply – steamed and with melted butter and Maldon sea salt.

It was delicious! I am not a fan of normal broccoli but have discovered only very recently that I rather like this purple sprouting stuff. I’m looking forward to subsequent pickings over the next month or two.

My Hallowe’en Courgette

30 Oct 2010 7 Responses »

Oct 302010

You’ve seen my (first ever) Hallowe’en Pumpkin.

Now, please put your hands together for my Hallowe’en Courgette!

We grow courgettes in our back garden most years and usually choose the spherical yellow ones, just because they’re a bit different.

This little guy, though much smaller than most carving pumpkins, was a little long in the tooth for eating, so Pete suggested I might like to carve him à la pumpkin!

To my surprise, he was much tougher to carve than the pumpkin – his skin was really hard to pierce and saw through. So I’m glad I went for a simple design (which I chose because of his small size).

What do you think? Will it catch on? :)

Older Entries

Allotment Helpers and Purple Sprouting Broccoli

Grow Your Own With Seed Parade (Competition Closed)

Rhubarb

Plum Jelly: Sunshine In A Jar

My Beautiful Fruit Tart with Blackberries, Golden Raspberries, Bananas and Chocolate

Berry Delights

Small Fruits

Honey Goats’ Cheese Toasts On Little Gem Leaves

Purple Sprouting Broccoli

My Hallowe’en Courgette

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