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Little Green Space |
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Little Green Space |
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LITTLE GREEN SPACE Originally published in the Peak Advertiser on 21 September 2009
Around this time last year, we were inundated with apples. The old apple
tree in our garden, which reliably produces an excellent crop every year,
surpassed itself and we had apples coming out of our ears. I hate to see good food go to waste so we ate and processed as many of the
apples as possible. We ate apple crumbles, pies and cakes, and portions of
stewed apple were stashed away in the freezer, to be used during the
winter. Jars of chutney and jam were made and stored, and I had a go at
making cider. The cider worked out remarkably well. It was “freezer cider” – as we
have no apple press, I chopped small batches of fruit in a food processor,
then put it into bags and into the freezer. After a couple of days the
frozen apple pulp was put into a large fermentation bucket, along with
some champagne yeast (steady on!) and sugar, and the whole lot was left
for several weeks to complete the fermentation process. First
taste When we first came to try it, on New Year’s Day, we braced ourselves for
an unpleasant experience. The bottle was opened and glasses were poured.
We held our glasses up to the light, and sniffed gingerly at their
contents. It certainly looked
like cider and it smelt like cider too. A promising start. Then for the big moment: the first sip. We said cheers and raised our
glasses. Amazingly, the amber liquid that slipped down our throats
actually tasted like cider! A little rough around the edges maybe, but
unmistakably cider nonetheless. It was pretty good. Alas, there will be no cider this year. This year our apple tree has
produced eight apples. Not eight kilos or even eight pounds of apples.
Just eight apples. Barely enough for a crumble. The tree has possibly become a biennial bearer. This is when a very heavy
crop one year prevents the flower buds forming correctly the following
year. There are ways to prevent this. When a heavy crop looks likely, you
can thin the fruits by removing some of them to leave a single apple every
six to eight inches. Of course, on a big tree such as ours this would be a
very time-consuming task. I think I’m happy to just let our tree have a year off – it deserves a
rest, after all. And anyway, I still have stewed apple in the freezer from
last year! Plums The other mature fruit tree in our garden is a This year though, it has sorted itself out and produced a bumper crop.
Perhaps it heard on the grapevine (we don’t actually have one of those
– now there’s a thought…) that the apple tree was having a rest. We came home after a week away to discover huge quantities of large ripe
fruits weighing down the branches. Unfortunately, wasps had discovered
this too and had begun to feast. Plums are possibly a wasp’s favourite
fruit, and word had got out – in fact I think wasps may have travelled
in from as far as Nottinghamshire, judging by the swarms circling the plum
tree. If we didn’t act soon, they’d eat the lot! It’s a good idea to get some help in these situations, so I called my
friend Alison (a different Alison to the salad-leaf growing friend
previously mentioned in this column!) who arrived with a ladder, some
long-handled loppers and various containers in which to put the plums. Between us we picked over 36 pounds of plums – and without getting
stung, which was a minor miracle under the circumstances. The plums are sweet and delicious raw, but unfortunately do not store
well. Alison took a basketful home with her and we spent that afternoon
doing the same thing in our respective kitchens: making jam. Raw plums can also be halved, stoned and frozen for later use in crumbles,
pies and puddings. I prefer to take the skins off first, by placing halved
and stoned plums into a bowl of very hot water for a couple of minutes.
The skins then peel off easily – but be warned that this does stain your
fingers! An Internet search produced all sorts of recipes for plums. In fact,
typing “plum recipes” into Google produces 2,270,000 entries. I
didn’t look at them all, needless to say, but I did find two excellent
websites offering recipes for seasonal fruits and vegetables. www.vegbox-recipes.co.uk is
useful if you grow your own, are part of a vegbox scheme or want to make
the most of cheap, seasonal vegetables from your local farmer’s market. And www.eatseasonably.co.uk
has a great interactive calendar that tells you which fruit and veg are
currently in season, with cooking and storage suggestions. It also has a
section on what to plant when. If you manage to get hold of a basket of plums, try making this tasty jam: Spiced 1kg
plums, stoned and halved 250ml
water 1kg
sugar 1
tablespoon lemon juice 1teaspoon
ground cinnamon 1/2
teaspoon mixed spice Put the
plums and water into a large pan. Simmer for 20 minutes until soft. Remove
from heat and stir in the sugar, lemon juice and spices, then boil rapidly
for 10 - 15 minutes, until jam reaches setting point. (To find setting
point, drizzle a little jam onto a cold plate and put into the fridge for
a couple of minutes. If the jam’s surface wrinkles when you run your
finger over it, it’s ready; otherwise boil for a few more minutes and
re-test.) When
setting point is reached, remove from heat. Leave to stand for 15 minutes
– this prevents the fruit from rising in the jar. Pour into warm, clean
jars, cover and label. Store in a cool, dark place. Penny
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