Why Are The Aubergines.............

.............so long and thin? I asked myself. Not the usual  pear shape.

I picked these four, despite three of them not being very big, before they could lose their shine and start getting tough skins.

Cooked up with a large onion, two tins of tomatoes, pepper, plus garlic and tomato purees they became 7 boxes of aubergine and tomato pasta sauce for the freezer.

And the reason they are long and thin? They are just doing what it says on the packet!

Although with the weather this year they should be called 'Not so Long Purple'

Back Soon

Sue

There Was Some Sun

 A much better week weather-wise - at last. The sun shone on more than one day - which is an achievement for this year so far.

I went swimming this week for the first time since October but it was crazy busy. The only other public swimming pool in the North Suffolk/Norfolk border area is in Diss and is closed for a year for complete rebuilding so more people are using Stradbroke and it's not very big!

The internet dropped out for several hours on Tuesday - a problem for several villages around I discovered and  I'm still without a heating boiler. The family business (Ian who does repairs, his wife who does the paperwork and their son who does servicing of boilers) - who usually sort out my boiler have a had a 'few' problems that rather put things into perspective - death of Ian's father, whose empty farmhouse was then ransacked and trashed on the day of the funeral, at the same time as their son needed some help moving house which all happened at the same time as the wife was injured by a horse - when I heard all that my boiler didn't seem a priority! I'm planning on having a new boiler as I'm fed up with all the repairs that have been needed since I moved in, although Ian and son only do new boilers in summer so I might go elsewhere.

It's been easy to keep warm enough in the living room and I bought a cheap oil-filled radiator to have on low in the hallway ready for this weekend when the temps are set to drop. It will keep the rest of the bungalow just a little warmer. I'm thankful that washing machines and dishwashers work from cold water inlet but going back to old fashioned ways of keeping myself clean isn't much fun! So although my electric bill will be bigger, the heating oil will be lasting longer - looking on the positive side - and a new boiler will be more energy efficient and will put off having to have a ground source heat pump for longer.

More garden tidying has been done this week and my seedlings in the propagator (aubergine, 2 types of tomatoes, and peppers)  were big enough to prick out into modules. I sowed 3 cucumber seeds, which I discovered were all I had. If all three come up that will be plenty but one failure and they'll be a shortage, plus I wanted to sow a seed later for late cucumbers so I'll need to buy some more seeds. Also sowed some Climbing French Bean seeds, they are on the windowsill beside the propagator.

 The flowers on one of the young pear trees are about to open so I hope we don't get frosts. The big Magnolia flowers are open but the petals are falling like confetti from the flowering cherry.

Flowers on the table (bookshelf) this week are my own tulips -lovely to have enough to bring in. 

Indoors, much reading has been done including a very poorly written book - 'Murder in Paradise' by Ann Cleeves. 

Published in 1988 -  ten years before starting her Vera and Shetland series - The George and Mollie Palmer-Jones books are a struggle to get through. They are written in an odd way with many short sentences and are quite confusing. All eight have been republished recently.

Much better was this children's book

"Set in Devon in 1941, 'Digging for Victory' tells the story of twelve-year-old Bonnie Roberts who is desperate to play a valuable part in the war effort. For her, tending the family vegetable patch just doesn't cut it; she wants to be a hero like her RAF pilot brother, Ralph. But when the mysterious Mr Fisher is billeted at her Devon farmhouse, and Ralph is reported missing in action, she starts to question what heroism actually involves. And as Bonnie attempts to find out who Mr Fisher really is, she embarks on a life-changing and emotional voyage of discovery. 'Digging for Victory' is an adventure-filled story, with beautiful verse and a very satisfying ending."

That's about it for my week

Hope you have a good weekend, I'll be back Monday. 

Sue

TV and Other Happenings This Week

Apologies for not replying to comments  or commenting elsewhere much this week. I've been avoiding the the lap-top in the evenings and generally cutting down on screen time - except for the TV!.

 

Imagine having a really good idea for a book, writing it and it's about to be published when you find someone else has had much the same idea and their book, with a similar title, is coming out just a few months before yours. It would be quite annoying. Last weeks issue of the Radio Times had details of lots of TV dramas featuring women detectives including the one that came second in print.

The second book was The Marlow Murder Club by Robert Thorogood (better known for writing the Death in Paradise TV series) and the one that beat him to the publishers was of course Richard Osman's Thursday Murder Club.

But Robert got one over on Richard because The Marlow Murder Club has beat The Thursday Murder Club to the screen as The Thursday Murder Club film has been delayed. I watched the two episodes of Marlow on UKTV Play channel this week and thought them very good. Haven't read the books and probably won't. Some crime stories I find are better on TV than in a book - like Vera and JK Rowling's Strike series.

Son and DiL finally got news from their insurance company that their car has been written off - as they thought - pity that it took more than 2 weeks to decide - of course the  money they are getting off the insurance is nowhere near enough for a new-to-them car so good thing I have no mortgage and have savings to lend! That's what Mum's are for I guess. If Colin was alive he probably would have repaired their car but I can't help in that way so help out in the only way I can. They are borrowing my car again this weekend to go and look at something to buy. Thankfully the cracked windscreen was replaced yesterday so is OK for them to drive and for the car's annual service and MOT next week.

I begun to prepare for seed sowing by checking that my little window-sill electric propagator was still working and after finding it was fine, I filled up the seed trays and brought them in to warm up. Today I'll put in seeds of two sorts of tomatoes, aubergines and red peppers. Cucumbers will be sown later.

Back to Six Nations Rugby on TV this weekend and I'm still watching my way through the umpteen episodes of Bones on the Channel 4 catch up.

I shall be back Monday after a hopefully mostly dry weekend - if it is it will be the first for ages.

Sue

Growing Well

 I had a fright one morning in the week before last - looked in the greenhouse and all my babies were looking a bit limp - of course it was a night when they'd not been covered with fleece and the temperature must have dropped lower than the forecast. Thank goodness a while later they were all standing up straight again....phew!

These photos were taken on Saturday - Before the Coronation I worked in the greenhouse for an hour filling up some of the big pots ready for all these to go into later.

There are too many peppers and  too many aubergines here...........

and too many tomatoes too!

and just one cucumber............so far. There are two more babies on the living room windowsill although I only need one because the plan is to sow another cucumber seed in June for a later crop.

Also on the living-room window sill are some teeny squash seedlings - a second sowing after the first three didn't germinate - thought I was going to have to buy new seeds but they seem to be OK.

The raspberry bed is looking more hopeful, considering how sad they looked through the heat of last summer when there was no sign of any new canes appearing. Brother in Law hammered in two metal posts - from his neighbour's old gazebo- early last year and now I've put string along the top and two rows of wires below and fixed a new piece of netting right over the top. The netting cost me over £20 and I wondered aloud if I would get the value back in raspberries but as Lesley (who sold me it ) said -"well without it you won't get any!" - Very True

One more thing looking good is the plant stand. The pots have been standing on the patio all winter after the trellis collapsed but now they are back and the whole thing is tied to the post. There is someone at the car-boot sale who sells succulents so I may be tempted to buy two small ones for the top two shelves and I lost a lovely pink flowered Saxifrage over winter so could replace that.

 You can see the difference in temperatures this spring compared to last if you look at THIS PHOTO of the Plant Stand taken at much the same time last year.

And my 3 Minarette Apple trees are in flower. I know it looks weedy around them but the plants there are mainly Phacelia which are a green manure - self seeded from last year - and after they've flowered for the bees I'll hoe them up and leave them on the soil as a mulch.

Fingers crossed for an edible harvest later.

Back Tomorrow

Sue

Day 21 + Seedlings

I've always grown some leeks from seed - they are so expensive to buy from the supermarket in winter and well worth growing. I had a fail last year when all the plants got trampled on when the new oil tank was moved in or they were eaten by pigeons - not sure which. I bought new seeds for this year and will sow later.

Then I spotted trays of seedlings outside the pet/garden shop in Diss and thought it would be good to have some earlier leeks too. They were £1.90 for these below which is much cheaper than buying from one of the garden seed catalogues where they are £7.95 for 20 plants.

I gently lifted the seedlings from these pots and teased them separate to re-pot as they are still too small to go out. There were 26 in total.

Meanwhile indoors all 8 Aubergine seedlings are growing but only 2 pepper seeds germinated so I sowed a few more..............and then five more appeared from the first sowing! I may have too many peppers! Yesterday the tomato seeds went into the electric propagator - just 2 varieties this year and both have been grown before. Usually I try something new and I do more different sorts so I hope there's no crop failure. Just Cucumbers left to do indoors now.

Meal 21 was a Fish Pie. Using a couple of small pieces of the frozen White Fish (which is actually Basa), I poached them in milk/water then used it to make a white sauce and added a handful of the mixed vegetables and a hard boiled egg, plenty of pepper and some parsley. Topped with mashed potato that I'd cooked up in the first week and frozen. With a little cheese sprinkled over before final cooking.

 Now considering I'd been avoiding mashed potato since Colin died (he loved mash and I don't) this was a strange thing for me to make. But it was the obvious way to use a couple of pieces of the Asda Value Range White Fish which were 7 small pieces for £2.50.

It certainly needed the black pepper and a little salt and could have done with more cheese too. But it was good and very filling which is what's needed if you are trying to make meals without spending too much.

Running Total £64.25 + £2.20 box of 8 decaf frothy coffees (up 20p from last week) for the end of third week = £66.45

There are two things here from the Value Ranges that I will use again, the fish and the bag of grated cheddar cheese. I've used the cheese for so many things and still some left, lasting much longer than a block of cheese (mainly because I'm not tempted to eat it by the slice like I do with a block of Extra Mature cheddar!)

Did you watch the little bit of annual tradition on TV yesterday? The University Boat Race is something I've watched as long as I can remember, always supporting Cambridge as it's just over the county border from Suffolk. 

Back Tomorrow

Sue

Using Up Odd Bits of Vegetables

 A couple of weeks ago I used a Morrison's Red Thai Curry Kit (£2) to make a big pan of good looking vegetable curry to go in the freezer. The Kit has a sachet of curry paste, a sachet of coconut milk and a sachet of dried spices.

 I used up various vegetables from the garden. Starting with 2 onions and two medium sized aubergines,

then a green pepper that had a hole in it, four red tomatoes - cutting off the blossom end rot bits and the last of the green beans. I cooked the beans in water in the microwave for a few minutes first.

It looked very good (better in real life than the photo!)and divided up into several portions which are in the freezer. They will make a change from my usual batch-made curries which I make using curry powder. I'm waiting for the butternut squash to be ready to do that.

Today I'm being brave and buying a new lap top - they will transfer some things from the old one onto the new. I shall be lap top less  (hopefully not all weekend!). It will be good to have a keyboard with all the keys still there and a space bar that doesn't stick and to be able to do things that this old clogged up machine won't do because I'm "unsupported". Oh how I wish I knew more about computers.

I've got another busy week coming up so I shall be back sometime but I know not when! Apologies in advance for not commenting anywhere or replying to comments here.

(I've added the Cheese Straws recipe to the recipe page for CLM and anyone interested)

 

Sue

All About Aubergines

A colour plate dating from the C19 in a little book about vegetables I picked up for £2.46 from Abebooks. Been waiting for it to appear cheap with free postage after it popped up somewhere as a recommendation. (I'm a sucker for little books with interesting illustrations and bits of random information!)

 

And 21st Century Aubergines from my greenhouse

Somewhere on line I read about their possible health benefits

  Full of vitamins, minerals and dietary fibre and with the potential to lower cholesterol and help manage weight, aubergines are a great choice for salads, stews and beyond. .
Aubergines are rich in antioxidants, specifically nasunin  found in aubergine skin - which gives it its purple colour. ( I know someone who doesn't eat the skins - better tell them about this!) A potent antioxidant and free radical scavenger, nasunin has been found to protect the lipids (fats) in brain cell membranes. Cell membranes are almost entirely composed of lipids and are responsible for protecting the cell and helping it to function. The lipid layer is crucial for letting nutrients in, wastes out and receiving instructions from messenger molecules that tell the cell what to do.

 Aubergines are very ancient vegetables first recorded in India where it is called Brinjal. In Spanish it is Berengenas (apples of Love), Aubergines  here or Eggplants in the USA (they were originally white and smaller), are members of the the nightshade family Solanaceae.

On the history of Aubergines........ Wiki says..........
 The aubergine is unrecorded in England until the 16th century. An English botany book in 1597 described the madde or raging Apple:

This plant groweth in Egypt almost everywhere... bringing foorth fruite of the bignes of a great Cucumber.... We have had the same in our London gardens, where it hath borne flowers, but the winter approching before the time of ripening, it perished: notwithstanding it came to beare fruite of the bignes of a goose egge one extraordinarie temperate yeere... but never to the full ripenesse.

Because of the plant's relationship with various other nightshades, the fruit was at one time believed to be extremely poisonous.(Like tomatoes and potatoes were when they were first brought here) The flowers and leaves can be poisonous if consumed in large quantities due to the presence of solanine.

 Originally they were really bitter and needed salting and draining before eating but in Europe and the Americas the bitterness has been bred out. In Africa and oriental cooking there are still some bitter varieties that are used.

And as  it's such an old and widely used vegetable there are recipes from many cultures and it can be steamed, stir-fried, pan fried, deep fried, barbecued, roasted, baked, stewed, curried, stuffed or pickled.

 I've been growing them for many years now, although before I started growing them I'd never eaten one.  I start seeds in the electric propagator in early March, then pot up into small pots and keep in at night until the weather is warm enough to leave them in the greenhouse all night.They go into bigger pots and need plenty of water and before producing the first fruits which are ready just before mid July.

I use them in a few recipes but my favourite is to make a big batch of pasta sauce using aubergines, onions, tinned tomatoes, tomato puree, garlic puree and black pepper. (there's a courgette chucked in there too this time as I'm adding them to everything!). Portioned up and in the freezer for quick meals later in the year.

 

There's never a mention anywhere of the very vicious short spines on the green calyx so that aubergines need cutting from the plant with scissors and carrying into the kitchen very carefully.

 

Back Tomorrow

Sue

Another Book Found and Aubergine Answer

I found a comment from Elizabeth left on the gardening post over a week ago asking what Aubergines seeds I grew.This year they were 'Genie' from the Marshalls seed company. Started with heat in the electric propagator  around the first week of March. I have no idea if I've ever grown this variety before but I know a couple of years ago I had some called Moneymaker.

Thank you also to Sarah who left a lovely long comment about vegetable growing on that same post that I'd not spotted.

 

From a boot-sale recently I came home with this little book for 50p. It's got some good illustrations.

I had to smile as I walked away from  the man who was selling it because when I asked "how much?" he held out his hand for the book, looked at the front and then at the back and then inside the title page and then he flicked through it and after all that said "you can have it for 50p"! (Was he very indecisive or perhaps he thought he'd left a £10 note inside! and did he dither like that over everything he was selling).

This means that since the beginning of April I've added 8 countryside type books to my shelves. The six from last month

  and one from the sale shelf in a church a while ago.

and the new one. 

So far I've read 2 out of the 8 during my weeks of enforced reading-from-my-shelves.

Well, Wimbledon is all over for another year. With the various finals spread out over more days, there seemed more opportunity to watch - including some of the amazing the wheelchair finals. Now I'll be watching the rest of the Tour of France and then the Commonwealth Games to look forward to starting at the end of the month.

Back Tomorrow

Sue

 

Food Production in Early July

 Things are coming along OK - although we need rain. I filled up the big water butt from the mains a couple of weeks ago and now it's empty again.

Had the first picking of French Climbing Beans yesterday. I discovered one of the plants absolutely covered with Black Fly - never had that on this sort of beans before. I filled a spray bottle with water and washing up liquid and tried that - hope it works as I don't want to lose the plants so soon and also don't want to use anything nasty.

 

Sweetcorn plants - too close ( a common theme) , behind them is the space where I shall put the Kale and Brussels Sprout plants when they arrive. I've got the wire netting frames BiL made for me and enviromesh to put round and over them.

 

Beetroot - too close with a couple of rows of leeks squashed in behind them and 4 courgette plants - Two too many!

 

Onions in front - which I won't bother with again ( don't know why I grew them this year as I'd decided not to grow them again a few years ago - cheap to buy and too dry is the reason). There are 3 squash plants - with room to trail - just about! and empty canes for the runner beans on the right some have been sown here and some in a small tray and the French Climbing on the left.

In the greenhouse are too many tomato plants, 3 cucumber plants at the end, one aubergine standing on the water butt and one more on the ground. I moved one tomato plant to outside a few weeks ago but could really have moved two more out before they got too big to move.

Four pepper plants, the basil and two more aubergines standing up on the staging

 

Pointy peppers beginning to get pointy

 

Some of the aubergines flowers have set but others just fell off. There will be enough to a big batch of make my favourite aubergine/tomato pasta sauce

Nice to get back to growing food again after my enforced year off last year. 

Back Tomorrow

Sue

Half Past March

 The car went for it's annual service and MOT on Monday and I didn't even have to take it the 3 miles because Ashley,one of mechanics, now lives in the next village so left his car here and picked up mine as he passed by on his way to work. Later in the morning Tom, the boss, rang up to warn me that out of the four tyres, one would be a MOT fail, one was on the cusp and the two front ones, which were only replaced by them 3 years ago were not going to last much longer either! I resigned myself to a large bill ((sigh)) At least I now have a car with 4 good tyres which should last longer than 3 years as they are a better quality than the make they'd been using............... until they had so many problems.

 Good job I know and trust them or I'd think they were ripping off a helpless old woman!

They managed to order the tyres in ,service the car, and get the  MOT done all in one day and Ashley swapped cars again on his way home. The bill was huge...........

The Council Tax statement thing for the year arrived, I eventually managed to get through to the District Council to change it to direct debit so that I'll get the £150 "gift" from the government without having to claim it. My bungalow here is Band D, Clay Cottage was Band F - a saving of £60 a month - thank goodness!

 

Growing Food..................If only germination was always like this....................

 

 

Do I need 8 Aubergine plants? No, but I sowed 8 seeds, just in case, and all 8 have germinated.

Do I need 4 Pointy Red Peppers? No, but I sowed 4 seeds, just in case, and all 4 have germinated.

There are also 5 out of 6 Orange block peppers beginning to pop up. Fingers crossed they stay alive until big enough to be transplanted!

I've being growing my own food for 40 years but every spring I  still get scared of a total failure !

On Wednesday  late evening there was a storm here with rain and  gusts of wind and this is what greeted me on Thursday morning. I'd only moved it from out of the corner where it had stood sheltered all winter just the day before. What a mess.

The stand itself is OK but the clay saucers have either cracked or broken. The wet and windy weather also carried in lots of Saharan sand so the windows, car and everything else are splattered. This happens at least once a year, more usually in Summer and always gets mentioned on the news as if it's never happened before. The sand is just a fine dust so doesn't do any damage, it gets carried here high in the atmosphere then lands on Suffolk and Norfolk.

 The buds on the Magnolias are all beginning to open. Still think it's a bit odd to have two Magnolia trees side by side in one small garden but they will stay as they're both a good size.

What gorgeous weather we had here in Suffolk after the Wednesday storm. Lovely sunshine, although a chilly wind in places..........it is only March after all............but I took a chair into the greenhouse and soaked up some sun. The weatherman said yesterday that it might be dry for the rest of the month that sounds very good.

This week I have been grateful for

• Living in a safe country
  
• Sunshine
• Car service and MOT sorted.
• Seeds germinating

Guess where I'll be this morning - and with better weather there might be more people selling than on previous Saturdays.

 Have a good weekend, I shall return, with or without treasures, on Monday.

Sue

Saturday Once More

Notes from the week....................

Wanted.......... someone with a strong boot to dig out 4 dead-ish rose bushes. They were here when I came and despite regular dead-heading are now more dead than alive. Either they are bushes that  should have been cut right back or they've just come to the end of their natural life. I don't really know much about roses, not something I ever choose to grow in any of the 7 homes so have only inherited them in various gardens. But as it's a dedicated rose garden, edged with bricks and has obviously been there a long time it would be nice to add some new bushes after I've remove the old, dug over the rock hard bed and added some soil improver. Just have no idea how to get the darn things out - might have to wait for a big down pour and a strong man!

It's sad when some things change..............it's nothing serious, just my next door but one neighbours putting their beautiful home up for sale, they are such a lovely young couple, Suffolk people who've lived there since they built it mostly themselves 6 years ago on the site of an old cottage.
Who will afford it - it's very expensive but costs nothing to run as it has every energy saving feature you can think of.  I will miss them and their two daughters. It means I'll have lived up the lane longer than everyone else yet I've only been here 3½ years.

Here's another change......... making me feel old................my eldest grandson down in Surrey has started school as he'll be 5 next May. Eldest daughter sent me a lovely photo of him looking so grown up in his uniform,which I'll be able to print out and pop in my 4 space photo frame.

On Thursday it was the regular every-three-years Boob Squashing! Just a quick trip up to Eye and the mobile unit. Thank goodness for this service, I shall await the results and hope all is OK. Still don't understand people who refuse to go for this easy check up. Although there is one thing I was invited for this week............ my first flu-jab -  that I'm not sure about having it at all. I've heard some folk get a bad reaction and other people don't and as I spend very little time mixing with people other than family indoors and even less this winter plus we'll all be wearing masks when out, maybe it's better to avoid the jab.

These are the last of the aubergines, less than egg sized egg-plants!. Too late now for them to get much bigger so I brought them all in, even the ones no bigger than a large grape and turned them into a batch of aubergine, pepper, tomato and onion sauce for pasta. Nothing going to waste here.

 

 

 Clearing stuff out.

The last mention of clearing things out was at the end of February before everything came to a standstill. But now I can get started again. So....................

•  5 Jigsaw puzzles have gone to my sister ( I decided I'd rather read or write than do a jigsaw - I really only like them when they are finished!)
• A large cardboard box full of old wrapping paper and bubble wrap that's been stood in the corner of the garage for 3 years has been sorted and chucked or kept for sending parcels.
• Bag of books to charity shop
• 2 Bookcases are on their way to Son and DiL when they can fetch them

 This week I'm grateful for...........

1.  The Lifeguard at the pool seeing sense last Monday - when there were only two of us in half the pool she wanted us to go round and round - we objected and told her that all the other lifeguards let people swim up and down if there were only 2 people swimming. She had to radio the"boss" who agreed with us two ladies in the pool! It's much easier to swim up and down than to try and swim round corners. Of course if more than 2 people then we do have to follow pool lane-protocol. 
2. No hills in Suffolk like the men cycling in the Tour De France have to cope with!
   

Lovely weather forecast for the next few days - a burst of summer to cheer us in September.

Hope everyone has a good weekend

Back Monday

Sue

One Week Eating Local (2) Part 6 and Aubergines

Since I wrote about how quickly the first aubergine was growing on the 23rd June, the greenhouse has produced lots of aubergines, I sent some home with Eldest Daughter. It's always better to have too many than too few, yet until maybe 10 or 12 years ago I'd never even eaten one and certainly not grown them.
We didn't really grow many to sell at the smallholding until we had the third polytunnel up, that was when Col packed up County Council full time to go self-employed in 2012.
Aubergines or Eggplants (they were originally white and smaller) or Brinjal - so many names in different parts of the world, are members of the the nightshade family Solanaceae.

 Wikiwotsit says
 The aubergine is unrecorded in England until the 16th century. An English botany book in 1597 described the madde or raging Apple:

This plant groweth in Egypt almost everywhere... bringing foorth fruite of the bignes of a great Cucumber.... We have had the same in our London gardens, where it hath borne flowers, but the winter approching before the time of ripening, it perished: notwithstanding it came to beare fruite of the bignes of a goose egge one extraordinarie temperate yeere... but never to the full ripenesse.

Because of the plant's relationship with various other nightshades, the fruit was at one time believed to be extremely poisonous. The flowers and leaves can be poisonous if consumed in large quantities due to the presence of solanine.
The eggplant has a special place in folklore. In 13th-century Italian traditional folklore, the eggplant can cause insanity. In 19th-century Egypt, insanity was said to be "more common and more violent" when the eggplant is in season in the summer.

 In the past......before I started growing them........ they were very bitter. Old recipes always say that the slices need salting and rinsing to draw out the bitterness, but that's been bred out of them, making them easier to use. 

Last year I made lots of Aubergine and Tomato Sauce for the freezer which was a good use. Later in the year I did boxes of roasted mixed vegetables including aubergines - which wasn't a good idea. Roasted chunks of aubergines frozen and re-heated are  not nice!

 Need new ideas and when I searched among all the photocopies and cuttings in my folder I found

Aubergines with Goats Cheese
For each person
One aubergine, halved lengthways
Olive oil (I used rape seed oil)
Sun Dried tomato paste (I used one of my own plum tomatoes sliced)
Fresh Basil leaves - torn
Goats cheese (or brie or cheddar)

1. Preheat grill. Brush both sides of aubergine with Olive oil and season. Place aubergines cut side up on a baking sheet and grill for 7 minutes. Turn them over and grill for 5 minutes
2. Spread the cut sides with tomato paste and arrange basil leaves on top. Slice goats/brie cheese and arrange on the aubergines. Season and grill until bubbling.
3. Serve with salad leaves and crusty bread.

I tried this a couple of weeks ago with goat cheese and then last week bought Suffolk Gold because as far as I know there are no local-ish producers of goats cheese selling it in Suffolk.

Grated it over the top and it was better than goats cheese as it melted really well

This is so quick and easy to do and  I ate it with one of my homemade herby bread rolls.

I've got one other aubergine recipe to try (if I can find it again) which is a layered aubergine and potato concoction. But for freezing for winter I'm definitely doing some batches of the tomato and aubergine pasta sauce.

Back Tomorrow
Sue

Growing V Buying

Thanks for comments on yesterday's post. As I said it was theoretical - just a look at what was available for £9 and how close I could get to a weeks worth of food for one person.

One thing raised on yesterday's post was - How much do I spend on growing my own and is it worth it?

My first thought was that growing your own fruit and vegetables is not so much about the money but more about mental health, freshness, lack of chemicals and self reliance. Of course that's because I can afford to do it - but disregarding all the other benefits - is it worth the money spent?

Because I keep accounts it's easy to see what was spent this year on............

Multi purpose compost
Seeds
Onion setts
Pheromone Moth Traps for both Apple and Plum Trees
Seed Potatoes
A huge planting tub
Ant powder
Pepper Plants
16 Various Brassica Plants

The total spent on this was around £87. Of course the big pot will be around for years. The ant powder will last more than one year and the moth traps have sticky bits and pheromone things for next year and then I'll only need refills, and some seeds are still in the tin for next year too.

Now the difficult bit .......will my harvest be worth that spend? This is so hard to work out because some of the seeds I've used were bought last year, some were my own saved seed. Plus I'm harvesting things that were planted years ago - like rhubarb and  raspberries that would cost several pounds to buy but have cost me nothing.
I've harvest 14 cucumbers so far and given 8 away, do I count those? do I value them as equivalent to the cheapest at 50p, the large at 85p or the organic at £1 each.


My brain seized up............I gave up thinking.

Instead I  ate my first home grown aubergine in a delicious aubergine and tomato sauce. They are just 50p in the shop, but I don't know where they've come from, how many days they've taken to get here, what the people who grew them were paid and what they've been sprayed with.
 My aubergine took me 10 seconds from greenhouse plant to pan....................and THAT'S one good reason to grow my own.

Back Tomorrow
Sue

Saying Thank You, Felixstowe and a Look in the Greenhouse

Thank you to everyone for comments about the Bee-Orchids. I love the randomness of how they just pop up one at a time unannounced and still quite rare too.

Yesterday morning early I headed out to see the sea at  Felixstowe - what an adventure! Sadly the A14 is back to being full of trucks and just as busy as it ever was. I met up there with Son, DiL and the two youngest grandchildren for breakfast on the beach and a short paddle. Son took Youngest Granddaughter in the sea and she didn't want to come out saying........ as 2 year old's do............ "I NOT cold" through chattering teeth! There were lots of people there by mid morning - but plenty of room to keep well spaced. I took my camera but for some reason it wouldn't take a photo - hope I haven't got sand in the works. The wind was straight off the North Sea so a bit chilly and we all headed home again by noon.

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It would be good to have a time lapse camera to watch this  first Aubergine grow. It looks bigger every day, took this photo last Friday and it's now nearly big enough to eat

Once again something has gone seriously wrong with my tomato labeling, these are NOT the small yellow plum Ildi that they ought to be!

These are definitely red Big Mama! But when you're waiting for your first homegrown tomato of the year then anything will do.

And this is something I've been meaning to try for ages
It's not a tomato plant grown from seed but a pinched out side shoot.

 I shoved it in a pot of soil to see if it would root and as it thrived I've just moved it into a bigger pot and if it keeps growing it will go into a much bigger pot and hopefully produce tomatoes well into the late autumn.

Back Tomorrow
Sue

Saturday 10th August

A Yellow weather warning in force today for high winds. It was already windy yesterday afternoon but  incredibly warm........... I had windows open all over and curtains going crazy. The heavy rain forecast didn't happen here and neither did a big power outage which affected some areas of the country.


Because of baking 3 cakes for the show and bringing them home and popping in the freezer I won't need to do any baking for weeks - very handy. The 1st prize-winning tomatoes were skinned and added to the bag in the freezer and that made 2lb so far towards my Red Hot Relish and I picked the rest of the mange-tout, added the ones I'd shown on my pathetic 'tray of vegetables' class and they went in the freezer too. I gave away the prize winning cucumbers on Saturday and shoved the courgettes in the fridge with the peppers and aubergines while I decided what to do with them.

On Tuesday I went to Ipswich, hadn't been for months but there were a couple of things I needed from Lakeland and Wilkinsons. Goodness me the town looked sad, so many empty shops that weren't empty last year. The only thing cheering was the Hospice Elmer trail. This is one of 55 to track down. I looked on line to see the story behind the design and found............

This sculpture is based around the life and early years of local boy Ed Sheeran. The design shows mini murals depicting the special and memorable events of his life, many of which are featured in his single Castle on the Hill, and which have shaped him into the man, and very talented artist, that he is today. Among the patches are many images of his tattoo characters and items that have featured heavily in his life and music.

This is the second time I've seen the "Cornhill Improvements" and I still don't understand the huge amount of money spent. Water fountains - like so many other towns and the concrete "stonehenge" and there were deckchairs too

And behind you can see one of the huge empty shops. A family run department store for years until 1996.
Looking on line for the date it closed I found this........................
Could a new tenant soon be found for the former Grimwades store on the edge of the Cornhill as the council prepares to replace the controversial plinths outside it?

As we revealed yesterday, the concrete "Four Arches" structure - described by many as "Cornhenge" - are to be replaced at the end of the summer with polished plinths that meet the original specification.

This has prompted some people to ask why they are being replaced and not removed altogether - but a spokesman for Ipswich Council said they were a "Marmite feature" with as many supporters as those wanting to see them gone.

He said: "They add an element of height to the redevelopment of the Cornhill and once the final plinths are put in place, we're confident more people will like them - we have already heard from many people who like the concept even if the concrete doesn't look very good."

As the debate on the plinths continues, construction workers have moved in to fit out the former Grimwades store that was being converted into a Pret a Manger last year.

The up-market sandwich chain pulled out of the deal just before Christmas with the interior unfinished. It is understood that the building's landlords have found it difficult to find a new tenant to move into a half-completed unit and have decided to finish fitting it out themselves.

They hope this will make it easier to find a new tenant within the next few months - although no one is lined up at present.

During the fine summer days the Cornhill has been full - many families with young children enjoy sitting down near the fountains that have become a popular feature.

The safety work on the Cornhill is expected to get underway within the next weeks after the borough got the recommendations of an independent expert - the full report cannot be published until after the completion of the inquest into John Stow who died the day after falling down steps there in January.

The council is to install extra handrails, a permanent barrier beside the tapered step in front of the Old Post Office, and improve the definition of the steps so they can be more easily seen by people on the Cornhill.

This work is due to be completed over the summer - with the new plinths installed by October half term.

Not sure all that work will help fill empty shops!


2 pairs of shorts were an extremely good surprising bargain at the Wednesday Boot sale, I paid just 50p each and one pair still have tag attached , I would have paid more as it's rare to find big-bum clothes at boot sales! And another 50p spent on a Sudoku book because the one I bought from The Works was infuriating once I got passed the Easy and Medium....turned the page to Hard and got completely stuck so never even made it to the Extra Hard pages!

Decided to use some of the aubergines with courgettes, peppers, potatoes and onions all from home plus a few bought carrots to do a big tray of roasted mixed vegetables. One lot to eat and 3 boxes popped into the freezer. I think I might do another batch next week, when more courgettes appear.

Youngest and Florence visited me this week which was good....... And that was another week gone.

This week I'm grateful for.........
Food from the garden
Clothes from a boot sale
The Internet to find out interesting things


Back Monday............Have a good weekend everyone....look out for those Yellow Weather warnings!
Sue

So Many Aubergines

Now is when I start to wonder why I have so many Aubergine Plants producing so many Aubergines!

This could be why I grow them...........

 Full of vitamins, minerals and dietary fibre and with the potential to lower cholesterol and help manage weight, aubergines are a great choice for salads, stews and beyond. .
Aubergines are rich in antioxidants, specifically nasunin  found in aubergine skin - which gives it its purple colour. A potent antioxidant and free radical scavenger, nasunin has been found to protect the lipids (fats) in brain cell membranes. Cell membranes are almost entirely composed of lipids and are responsible for protecting the cell and helping it to function. The lipid layer is crucial for letting nutrients in, wastes out and receiving instructions from messenger molecules that tell the cell what to do.

Or maybe it's just because I like them and they are very useful in vegetarian dishes.

The first two, several weeks ago now, were used to make a big batch of  my simple aubergine and tomato sauce for pasta.(Recipe on the Recipe page) and 4 tubs were put in the freezer.

Then I ran out of tubs so  I gave 3 aubergines away.

Thought I'd better look for more recipes and  I found this one for a rather large Aubergine Gratin
But I'll need to wait for more tomatoes to turn red first..........and make it a lot smaller as this serves 4 - 6.

• 3 aubergines sliced thin lengthways
  
• 2 medium red onions, very thinly sliced
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed
• 500g waxy potatoes
• 5 large plum tomatoes, thinly sliced
• 4 lemon thyme sprigs, leaves picked
• zest ½ unwaxed lemon
• 175g soft goat's cheese, crumbled
• 100g good-quality black olives, pitted and chopped

Method

1. Heat oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4. Heat 11 /2 tbsp of olive oil in a frying pan and cook the aubergines in batches, browning on both sides, then lower the heat and cook until they are soft.
2. Heat another 1 tbsp of oil in the pan and add the onions. Cook over a medium heat until softening, about 10-12 mins, then add the garlic and cook for another few mins.
3. Slice the potatoes very, very finely.
4. Brush the bottom of a gratin dish with olive oil, and arrange the vegetables in layers. Start with half the potatoes, then half the aubergine, onions and tomatoes. Sprinkle the thyme, lemon zest, goat’s cheese, olives and seasoning, along with little drizzles of olive oil on the layers as you go. Add another layer of aubergine, onions and tomatoes, again adding the other ingredients as you go. Finish with the rest of the potatoes, arranging them neatly on top. Brush with olive oil and bake for 45 mins. The gratin should be soft, the potatoes tender and the top golden.

 A couple of weeks ago I tried a recipe which involved baking slices of oiled aubergine in the oven for a few minutes then layering up in a baking dish with courgette, tomato and mozzarella cheese finishing with mozzarella  over the top and baking. It was edible but apart from the sliced tomatoes looked like a grey goo! and not a lot of flavour either.

Last week when some freezer tubs were emptied I remembered a Morrisons Thai Red Curry Kit in the cupboard, bought on a whim to try a couple of months ago when I'd noticed it on offer.

I used it to make a big pan of veggie curry with aubergines, tin of tomatoes, courgette, onion, green beans and potatoes.
Very good it was too and a nice colour and flavour change from my usual curry which I make from scratch with curry powder. 1 portion to eat and 4 for the freezer, now I'm out of freezer boxes again.

What next I wonder.

(There is one other reason for growing as I'll be able to use them for one of the classes in Bacton produce show next month!)


Back Tomorrow
Sue

From Little Seeds..............

...................Good Things Grow

Coming along nicely in the greenhouse...............

Four of the Cascade tomato plants are in the baskets on the garage wall and there was one left over so instead of chucking it out it's standing in the greenhouse and is producing some teeny weeny tomatoes.......... as are the ones outside.

These are Big Mama Plum tomatoes.

I really do have too many tomato plants in the greenhouse. Each plant is much too tall - searching for the light with the trusses of tomatoes very sparse.  There are a few Sun Grape mini plum tomatoes but the 2 Ildi Yellow plums plants are way behind. Must remember FEWER PLANTS NEXT YEAR!


I have aubergines and these grow almost as you watch them. I'm looking forward to making the aubergine and tomato pasta sauce to put in the freezer.

 Lots more aubergine flowers, hopefully will produce lots more aubergines

 And 'pointy' sweet peppers

 Cucumbers lurking among the lush greenery, and I've already eaten 3 cucumbers and given 2 away.
 

I let plant number 4, that I didn't really have room for, produce two cucumbers -while I took the teeny ones off the other 3 plants. Then plant 4 went in the compost heap and the other 3 are now climbing halfway round the greenhouse.


And from outside I have the first slightly manky (word origin - British, meaning - slightly inferior!) raspberries - just one cane is obviously a yellow fruited raspberry. 

And that's why I love growing things to eat.


Back Tomorrow
Sue