I’ve always liked chutney. When I was a child my mother used to make a “no cook” apple chutney from the apples in the orchard. We always had way more apples than we knew what to do with, so she’d make lots of different things with them during the season. The “no cook” chutney was a big hit, though, as it was just so simple. Unfortunately she’s misplaced the recipe.
I’ve also been growing apples, though I don’t have anything like the amount of space the orchard we had access to had when I was a child.
However I am quite pleased with the crop of apples I’ve managed to get:
And of course the tomatoes have been doing pretty well also. I’m considering picking some of the green tomatoes and using them, as I’m afraid that after 10 days they’ll ripen and start going bad.
For some odd reason the cucumber plant seems to hate me, or maybe it’s just not happy? Either way it hasn’t been producing much, though I did get this rather large cucumber off it a couple of days ago:
As I’m heading off to the US next week I won’t have time to use the fruit in the kitchen, so rather than let it go to waste I’ll probably make more chutney to preserve it. It’s also a good way to use some of my chilli peppers!
A couple of weeks back I made my first attempts at chutney from my garden. It was also the first time I’d tried making chutney solo. I’d only ever helped my mother in the past, so this was a new culinary adventure!
I made two chutneys – a cucumber one and a tomato one.
Both chutneys used a bit of chilli to give them a bit of extra “kick” and so far the feedback I’ve had on them was quite positive!
Last year I didn’t get round to doing anything with the cucumbers or what tomatoes I managed to salvage from the garden, so having enough this year to both enjoy them in my cooking, as well as preserving them in various chutneys is wonderful!
I need to get better organised collecting jars for making preserves, as buying them is a silly waste of money, especially as they’re invariably overpriced.
As I work with this year’s crop I’m already thinking about what I will (and won’t) be growing next season. Like courgette, which tends to take up a lot of space, while I do like it and all that the amount of space it takes up compared to the yield you get from it simply doesn’t make sense. I might consider growing it outdoors if I have a bit of space left, but space in the greenhouse is at a premium.
For now it’s time to think about garlic and onion planting …
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