Fruit, Veg, Flowers and Slugs

I have pulled a number of the  Carrot Eskimo  this week and will be blanching and freezing a couple of batches at least as I have far more than required for now. Most are  lovely long thick straight  roots but there are naturally a few slightly wonky ones, one that is three for the price of one and naturally one with a willy, there is always one  with a willy for the annual rude carrot picture on social media see below.  Carrot Eskimo were new to me this year and they have grown and cropped well, and I am happy to report those that I have eaten so far have been very tasty. There are a number of ways you can store Carrots, the most basic being keeping in the ground until needed; as the name suggests this particular  variety apparently resists splitting and retains its flavour throughout the autumn and winter if left in the ground according to the marketing blurb - I will be testing that by leaving a few where they are.  Blan ching and Freezing Carrots  Prepare the carrots by washing the

With such a glut of Tomatoes coming from the Greenhouse at the moment and the  Buffalo Steak  variety fruits averaging just shy of a pound in weight each, the biggest so far just over the pound at 530 grams, I have decided it's that time of year again to start making Tomato Ketchup.  I really do need to do something as the outdoor plants haven't begun ripening yet but the  Yellow Pear  plants are ladened with little pear-shaped fruits and the two American Heritage variety Pink  Brandywine   plants both have a number of fruits on as well, see pictures below. It's a nice problem to have! My recipe for Tomato Ketchup is pretty standard but if you are interested it can be found below; Jamie Oliver I aint:  3.5kg tomatoes roughly chopped 1 onion roughly sliced and diced 1 head of garlic peeled and chopped/crushed  110g salt 1kg light brown soft sugar 600ml red wine vinegar 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce 4/5 whole cloves Few turns of black pepper Little oil (of your choice) fo

I am currently enjoying a bit of a glut on the Tomato front, no bad thing, and find myself experimenting with a number of recipes; that said an oven baked Beefsteak Tomato is still one of my favourite guilty pleasures. The   Buffalo Steak Tomatoes  from the Greenhouse have been a roaring success, baked, fried, in a salad, on a burger or in a sandwich I have used them in multiple ways for breakfast, lunch and dinner recently and these will definitely be grown again in the future - absolutely brilliant. The  Gigantomo  variety are also cropping strongly with a number of large fruits on the plants I have allowed them to grow on. I have a couple of very large fruits on one plant I deliberately left only a few tomatoes on but no world record breaker.  The Tomato varieties I am growing outside on the veg patch following the disaster that was the Limoncito and Black Cherry seedlings failing on me are now of course the  Yellow Pear  and  Pink  Brandywine   and these are going well I am happy t