The Thor F1 sweet peppers have also done better than expected as last year we had less the 50% germination. This year with the bonus seed we had in the packet we have 21 seeds growing so far with maybe a couple more to come. Problem is, I can only fit maybe 10-12 plants in the green house. A Nice problem to have.
The Oca tubers also known as New Zealand Yam arrived today from Ebay. They are quite a bit smaller than I had expected. Most about 1cm in size, with a few larger 2cm ones. However the listing said that it was for 40, and we received 60 so that’s a plus. They where quite a pricey purchase at £9.54 inc P&P so I hope they grow well.
From what I have read about these, the small tubers should still produce a good crop. If I can get these to grow ok, I’ll keep back some of the bigger tubers we grow for a future crops if we like them, as a bigger tuber would have more energy stores, and hopefully giving better yield in future years.
Unpacked the tubers and put them in some old paper packing I had, and will keep them inside until we are ready to plant them up in pots in February, grow them on a bit in the seedling poly-tunnel at home, then plant them out once the weather warms in April/May.
These plants are going to take a long time to produce a harvest in late winter so I really hope they are worth the effort and expense.
Pulled up the last of the Parsnip Gladiator F1 today, took some hard work to dig these things up as they have really grown well and deep this year. We only really wanted enough to make some Parsnip wine, but we have had so many this year it’s been amazing.
The butternut squash in the photo’s where a parsnip swap with another allotment grower, so I can’t claim these as my own.
Lifted 4 almost perfect specimens, 2.41 kg for just these 4 alone.
All in all, I gathered in about 5.5kg of Parsnip Gladiator F1 this trip to the allotment, so in total we managed to grow about 15kg of parsnips this season.
Supermarket price (as of 12th Jan 21) is around £0.90/kg, so we grew £13.50 worth of these root veg, less the price of the seed at £0.60 for 75 seed, so £12.90 net. Not bad. Nearly paid for last years Allotment fees in just these. If we add in the 3 butternut squashes, at £1.50/kg. Which we swapped 2kg worth, that is plus £3.00. So lets say £15.90 net.
New years day, my traditional day for starting the Chillies for the new season. A little change this year however as we have so many frozen, dried, and powdered hot chillies still unused from previous years that this year we are going to mainly grow sweet peppers.
Last year we tried Thor F1 sweet peppers, they grew really well in the ground inside the poly-tunnel and produced a good amount of green sweet peppers, but unfortunately they didn’t ripen to red. This year we will have another go but this time in the greenhouse and planted in my 10 litre chilli pots.
We bought 2 packs of seeds, 7 seeds in each (£5.10), had a nice surprise as when I opened the second packet of seeds there where lots of extra seeds inside, 20 in fact. So I now have 27 pots planted up with a single seed in each in the propagators.
I wasn’t going to grow any hot peppers this year, but had a little bit of space left in the propagators, enough for three more small pots. So after a look though my saved seeds from other years sowed multiple seeds in a single pot of Havana Gold saved 2019, a single pot with Scotch Bonnets (Yellow) saved 2013, and Ancho saved from 2014. I’m not expecting much from these, but if I get a single plant from each that would be a nice bonus for the year.
Well it’s Xmas Eve 2020, so off to the allotment to get our veg for dinner tomorrow. A wet and cold day but it’s good to get outside with Covid lockdown still going on.
Picked the Cabbage (Kilaton F1) that I had set aside for the big day, and it proved to be a very good one, really tight head of cabbage. Two stalks of Brussels Sprouts (‘Bright’ F1 Hybrid), the sprouts are still quite small but there are plenty there for dinner or two. One full head of the Kale Borecole Vates Blue Curled. Some more Parsnip Gladiator F1 to roast.
From the freezer we will be also cooking some Cobra green beans that with grew earlier in the season. Home made Red Currant jelly and a Black Currant wine from fruit we also grew this year.
So on the dinner table tomorrow will be SEVEN items that we grew and/or made ourselves.
A really soggy day, so not a lot to do at the Allotment, too wet to do any proper weeding. Nice to see the Aquadulce Claudia Broad Beans growing nicely even with the rain and the frosts over the last few days. The Elephant garlic and the Lautrec Wight garlic are all doing well. Both beds need a good weed, and maybe some sort of fertiliser or mulch to help them grow nice and strong, but we will get around to that in the new year.
Hot Sauce time again, using up all of the Tabasco chilli from the allotment greenhouse. 391g of ripe and unripe chillies. Harvested the plants clean.
So to make Sriracha, it’s just chilli, garlic and salt from looking around the internet. I’ve added some white onion as well.
Recipe so Far :
391g Tabasco chilli.
89g White Onion, rough chopped.
47g Fresh garlic, crushed.
300g Water.
21g Sea Salt.
Using the same method for the brine as last time.
527g Veg + 300g Water x 0.025 = Salt for brine (20.67g) 2.5%
There is a cabbage leaf keeping it all under the brine, hopefully that will help things along.
I still have to work out the quantities of vinegar and sugar etc, but the shop bought Sriracha I have in the fridge, says on the WWW that it’s ingredients are,
With 5g salt per 100ml and 21g Carbohydrate, of which 17g sugars.
So that will give me something to work from, so to break it down so far.
61% Pickled Red Chillies Mash
10% Garlic
5% Salt
So that leaves me with 24% of something else. 17% sugar I guess, so only 7% left. However if you go to the products website and look in the back of the bottle. The ingredients are:
So to reproduce it that’s thrown in a problem, I guess the 37% Chilli is without the 24% pickling brine included.
So as a break down of what I have fermenting and the final recipe I think the following ingredients will work for a litre of sauce :
391g Fermented Chilli
47g Fermented Garlic
89g White onion
170g Sugar
50g Brine from the Ferment
200g Red Wine Vinegar
5g Mild Smoked paprika
Day 13: 11th Dec 2020
The ferment seems to have finished now, so time to make the sauce up.
Into the blender went:
530g of the Brine soaked Chillies, Garlic and Onion.
56g of the fermenting Brine.
118g sugar.
202g Red Wine Vinegar.
5g Mild smoked Paprika.
Blended all together until it was as smooth as possible. Then passed it through a sieve to remove the remaining solids. Heated the smooth sauce in pan for 5 mins to help pasteurise the sauce, returned to the blender, whizzed up the hot sauce and slowly added 5g of Xanthan gum. Decanted hot into clean sanitised bottles.
Dam this sauce is very very hot, the consistency is perfect for a Sriracha, full favoured with a great taste of the chillies and garlic. But it’s so spicy hot, i’ll do this again, but really need to temper the heat down some next time.
The Tabasco chillies have been suffering a bit from the cold over the last week or so, so today I picked all the fruit, ripe and unripe from the plants. From all NINE plants I harvested only 391g of peppers at various stages from line green to deep red. So in total from these plants this year I have got a total of only 607g of Tabasco peppers. So won’t be doing these in the future.
Composted five of the plants that where the ones on the bench, but kept the four on the floor for now after removing any decaying growth that was visible as there where a few signs of white mold on the stems in places, these have only been kept as the plants looked quite healthy and if we get a mild winter they may make it till spring. It’s not a problem if they don’t survive it just felt a shame to bin these at this stage.
Brought home another cabbage and some kale for meals this again week. Got a Cabbage (Kilaton F1) set aside for Xmas that get extra attention as I think we have a outbreak of Brassica Alternaria Leaf Spot.
Looks like we still have a shout at having our own home grown Brussels Sprouts (‘Bright’ F1 Hybrid) for Christmas, they have a few weeks left to grow some more, but looking pretty good.
On the Christmas veg list from the Allotment are, Green beans that we froze in the spring, Fresh Brussels, Cabbage, Kale and Parsnips. Five home grown veg on the Xmas dinner plate. Plus red currant jelly that I also made from currants from the Allotment, along with probably a couple of bottles of home made country wine, also from fruit from the plot. Maybe a beer or three, with the Hops that I also grew this year. Almost a homegrown Xmas.
One of the black currants got all leggy last year, so as a bit of fun, I turned it into bit of allotment art, platted up 3-4 stems in bundles then joined them all at the top like a kinda wigwam. No idea what this might do to it come spring so I’ll just have to wait and see.
The Aquadulce Claudia Broad Beans seem to have survived the 1st frost of the year and are doing great, I think I said before that this is the 1st time we have grown these to get a early crop, so far I have been pleased with the progress of this variety. The birds and bugs have left them alone as well.
The Lautrec Wight garlic look like we got nearly 100% germination and are doing well, I’m really happy that these are doing good as these where all saved bulbs from last years crop.
And all four of the Elephant garlic are also above ground, so 100% germination here.
The Cabin Brewery and Smoke House, Allotment plot 119 