From Spade to Plate: Pumpkins more ways than one: Part 3: Pumpkin curry and Pumpkin brownies

As colder days have now arrived a hearty pumpkin, spinach and chickpea curry

 with naan bread 




could be just the ticket, finished off with some pumpkin cake with icing sugar cream topping



Today we are showing some substitutes for what is in the recipes.

What to do when you run out of icing sugar: Make your own  use normal sugar and corn flour (put in 60% sugar and 40% cornflour)

What to do if you can't get lemon grass: Use lemon balm or lemon zest of 1 lemon to replace 2 stalks

What to do if you run out of eggs when you bake? Use Chia seeds: 3 tbsp water to 1 tbsp seeds. leave to well for 10 mins and use instead of 1 egg.

Thank you to Rozenn for sending me some more Pumpkin Recipes

Last apple pressing of the season

Mairaed suggested that I pick the apples of the tree in her allotment.
They were beautiful and hope they store well. Then, disaster strikes, when I arrived home, the bottom of the box dropped out so all the apples were bruised. Now they are no longer good for storing so change of plan we shall press them.

I put a call out to the new comers and visiting scholars and Gloria  (Spain) , Melandra (US) Oltea (Romania) and Githa my dear neighbour came to help. What a lovely morning we had. We pressed 20 litres. They took some juice apples and pears home for their families to taste and I bottled the rest for the winter.

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From Spade to plate: Monday 2nd October: Pumpkin many ways Part 2 - No bake Pumpkin Pie

As our sessions are relatively short (2 hours) I would like to start straight away with the making of the breadrolls and the pumpkin Pie.  Although these are quick 30 minute bread rolls, they need proving so hope it will be ready in time to have with our soup.



The pumpkin pie, is a no bake recipe and need refrigerating for a couple of hours, so again, hope that works for us in time.

No bake pumpkin Pie
This is a made up recipe, with inspiration of 3 other recipes I had, I have tried it and it tastes lovely. Just hope that we have enough time to refrigerate it enough to make and eat it at the same from spade to plate session.

No Bake Pumpkin Pie

1 c cooked pumpkin

1 c milk

¾ c brown sugar

2 tbsp cornstarch

¼ tsp salt

½ tsp cloves

½ tsp ginger

1 ½ tsp cinnamon

¼ tsp nutmeg

Making the shell

2 oz melted butter

7 oz crushed ginger nuts biscuits

2 tbsp maple syrup

Mix and press into the bottom of a lined pie dish

Combine all ingredients in a heavy duty pan, consistently stirring. Bring to a boil over medium heat until thicken. Pour into the pie crust and let cool before refrigerating. (have put in the freezer to speed up the cooling period)

For lunch we will make some Lentil and Zucchini Soup. The zucchini are in fact the marrows we picked a couple of weeks ago and could do with turning into something warm and hearty.

This recipe serves 4.

2 cups red lentils
1 medium onion finely chopped
1 tsp sunflower oil
2 medium zucchini diced
3 3/4 vegetable stock
1/2 tsp ground tumeric
salt and pepper
Crusty bread to serve.

Cook onion in oil until soft.
Reserve a hand full of zucchini to use later
Add the remaining zucchini to the pan. Cook for 2-3 minutes, add the stock and tumeric and bring to ta boil.
Reduce the hear over and simmer for 30 mins. Season with salt and pepper
When the soup is ready,  puree with the hand blender. Then just before serving add the reserved zucchini to the soup and cook for 1 minutes. Serve with warm crusty bread.



This coming year I hope to plant more vegetables in my back garden so that the from spade to plate group does not have to go out in wind and rain to the allotment to get the produce. Having the main ingredients in my back garden should be much easier.



This week we shall plant red baron winter onions, which we hope to harvest June 2018


This week we June, Sayoko, Glo, Simone, Maria Jose, Rozenn and Sarolta joined me.

From Spade to Plate: 25th September. Pumpkin many ways: Part 1. - Soup, Waffles and Jam

What to do with a large pumpkin?

With Halloween on the way and many people buying a pumpkin just for carving  I thought it might be nice to show a variety of recipes that can be used with the flesh.


In May I sowed the pumpkin and protected it from pests (slugs) as it was sown in a no dig allotment I did not have to worry about watering it. If I had been a farmer I would have had to spend lots of time and care to get this pumpkin to market and only to see it rot at the side of the road after it had been carved..  The truth is, you can do both. Enjoy the decorating. and use the seeds and flesh for some delicious treats.

Over the next few From Spade to Plate sessions I will do a variety of Pumpkin recipes.
It was a true united nations event

Bella - German
Rozenn - France
Lucy- Brasil
Yasmine - Canada
Simone - Italy
June - United Kingdom
Andrea - Canada
Karina - The Netherlands
Sayoko - Japan

For the main course we have Pumpkin Soup

As a dessert pumpkin Waffles and lemon Marrow  jam.

Ingredients for Marrow Jam: (makes 2 bonne Maman jars)

• 1lb x marrow peeled, seeded and diced (1 x 1 inch cubes)
• 1/3 pack of Dutch reduced sugar Jelly sugar. 
• 1 x lemon, zested and juices
• 1 oz x root ginger, (optional)  chopped & bruised (bashed with a rolling pin to release the natural ginger oils) 

Put marrow, lemon juice and rind in a pan with a little water and heat until the marrow is soft.

Puree with hand blender, then add the jelly sugar and boil for 1 minute.

Pour into sterilized jars and leave to cool.

Tomatoes, chillies and Peppers

We had a great year for tomatoes, although the ones I am using today I picked last week when they were still green and had to ripen off the vine due to blight.


I made 4 jars of tomatoes to use in soups (added basil and salt) and boiled for 30 minutes.

My other favourite this time of the year is to turn my peppers, tomatoes and chillies into sweet chilli Jam.  Thank you to Paola who gave me a few more jars as now I have run out! No doubt soon she will be able to taste some of this delicious jam.

Good place for pears and eating apples (late)

Went to St Edmunds college today thinking there would be loads of apples to pick as per usual.
However when I showed up, there was not an apple on the tree. I think the season is about 2-3 weeks early so missed the boat here.

Then went via French's road, where I normally go for late eating apples, and the kind owners were very happy for me to pick and tidy up the rotten ones.  Also their neighbours were happy for me to pick.

Then went on to Kate L. on Gough Road to pick Conference pears from her garden as well as some crab apples to make some apple cider vinegar. In her road in the verge was a pear tree which extremely large pears. Won't know yet if they will ripen or juice but will find out very soon.

Apples Galore - From Spade to plate Monday 5th Septembr

At the moment we are over run with cooking apples. Although at first I would have loved to press apples with the group, I could not get hold of any eaters so the juice would have been far too tart. Therefore change of plan.

We shall turn some of these beauties into delicious apple chutney which would take most of the time allocated for the From Spade to Plate group.

As the day started with rather dull and dreary weather, we stayed in and started the preparation but once the sun came through,  Bella, Rozenn and Simone went to the allotment with me to pick some leafbeet for the soup, sneaked in some tasty yellow raspberries and hidden cherry tomatoes.

We used some sage to 'clean' our teeth and explained the no dig method of gardening I use here.

Today we have some new visitors as well as the familiar ones:
June, Serolta, Bella, Rozenn, Glo, Gail and Simone

For lunch we make some cream of spinach soup with some Herby Feta Scones  Potato scones

Trial: mix between the potato scone recipe and the herby feta scones.

The Gluten Free version was delicious and light, well worth doing again.

450 gr potatoes
12 tsp salt
2 oz butter
4 oz Self Raising flour/ gluten free version
1/2 cup feta cheese
1 tbsp chives
1 tsp Thyme,

bake on griddle.

Abundance Cambridge - Apple pressing for the Victoria Homes

As this Sunday we shall be having the annual Victoria Homes bring and share event, I went to pick the apples from Alison's and Fernando's trees to turn them into apple juice for Sunday's event.
As the weather was good, some of the children are not yet in school and could do with an activity and I had some keen members from Spade to Plate group, I decided to use this gorgeous day to press and bottle. We also picked some of the apples from 70 VR as they started to drop.

Grape and Apple cordial

I received a call from Glo (26CRHC) to say that her grapes were ready to harvest. She had had loads herself but wanted to make sure that something nice was done with these sweet, seedless purple grapes.

On the way there I remembered that I had seen some amazing cooking apples in the hedge so decided to cycle past to see if they were ready. They were so picked enough to fill my panier and went on my way. Offered Glo some for her breakfast and set off to pick the grapes.

This morning, I decided to use some of them for the coming week's breakfast treat but the turn the rest into grape and apple cordial, this time I am using the steamjuicer rather than the press.
Although I once bought it from Tchibo you could also buy it online for £30

First Apple pressing of the season

The apple press is coming out of hibernation.
A chilly morning followed by a gloriously sunny morning.  It always is a sign of autumn being on the way.
Walking by 203VR  I noticed that eating apples are ready, so armed with picker and wheelbarrow I set off to return 1 hour later with a barrow full of delicious eating apples. I managed to tidy up the garden and pavement in time to see Sandy and Brice have a chat and be home in time to turn this lovely produce into 20 litres of gorgeous apple juice.

As my wheelie bin was full (of blighted tomatoes😞, I emptied one from the allotments (had trimmings from the garden in it so used it as a base layer for the next compost row) and took it home to fill with the pressing left overs. (checked with Linda if that would be fine)

I returned later to give D and Ron, and Margaret a bottle of apple juice and as I saw David on the way there, gave him some juice too. Could not have been any fresher. (well, the juice I drank when pressing was the best of course, such a treat!)

As on Sunday we have our annual bring and share in the allotment, I went to pick all the eating apples of Alyson T's tree. She does not harvest them as she does not like them much, so thought to mix them with the crate I took of Fernando's cooking apple tree to make a  truly local juice. I will turn them into juice tomorrow with Ruth's children and some members of the Cambridge Abundance group.

Should be a nice occasion, always very sociable.

end of August and one more day of strong sunshine forecasted

As the US is battling with hurricane Gert, I am expecting lots of rain and wind in a week or so, so now the weather is hot for another day, I decided to turn a cardboard box into a solar drier so that the tomatoes I harvested yesterday with the from Spade to Plate group can be turned into sundried tomatoes.
 Some very large tomatoes from the back garden. Next year, I need to grow more red, blight resisting cherry pear tomatoes (had too many yellow ones, albeit sweet and delicious) a few red ones would have been nicer for the gaspacho and sun dried tomatoes.

sundrying red and yellow tomatoes with salt and basil. in 11.55 am

Just made a sundrier for the tomatoes, the apples are drying on the washing up rack

Selection of tomatoes to be dried

From Spade to Plate: Sundried apples and tomatoes

Making a sunbox

This morning I found a perfect box for my Sun box so I can dry my tomatoes

It was perfect because my oven tray fitted exactly and it was not too deep

I got some aluminium foil, scissors and spray glue to line the lids.

These are the apples I am drying in the sun, it is very hot inside it and expect them to be dry within hours

Here I am drying the apples on a rack and on sticks.

One day in the sun and Githa's apples became divine treats.

From Spade to Plate: 28th August Gazpachio, bean salad and poached pears

Coming back from holiday and 10 days of no harvest the garden is full of goodies that need immediate attention.

Constanza, Serolta, maria Jose and June picking sunflowers

The tomatoes have started to show signs of blight so will be harvested immediately and turned into soups, sauces, cakes and will be dried.

Where are the tomatoes?

yellow pear and cherry tomatoes for the soup

Today we will make a Gazpachio as it is lovely and warm outside, a perfect cold soup for a hot day.

Gazpachio
1kg tomatoes
1 red pepper
1 green pepper
1 cucumber
2 garlic cloves
100ml olive oil
2 tblsp balsamic vinegar
pepper and salt

Maria Jose dishing up the Gazpacho

Cut the vegetables roughly and put in fruit processor together with the oil and vinegar.  Puree until very smooth if too thin add some bread crumbs. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Top with finely chopped cucumber, yellow tomatoes and basil.

Constanza 

The beans that we sowed a few weeks ago are ready for harvest and we will turn them into a warm bean salad à la Jamie Oliver.

As a desert we will have poached pears with chocolate ice cream and a splash of blackberry cordial
To make the syrup I use 1 liter of water to 250gr sugar and  a vanilla pod.

June picking her pear for the dessert

Sharing our meal together

A bag of eating apples appeared on my doorstep this morning, so we will turn them into some nice nibbles, Personally I will dry them in the sun the next few days