This Week in the Vegie Garden
It’s a sure bet that among the resolutions made around the country this New Year’s Eve plenty of gardeners determined to grow their own vegetables during 2009. Nurseries are reporting a marked increase in the sale of vegetable seedlings and fruit trees, and horticultural companies are constantly improving varieties, along with fertilisers and pest prevention measures to allow us all to go organic.
DURING MAY I have continued to feed and water my citrus, and each fortnight, to spray with PestOil to deter citrus leaf miner, and also to kill any eggs and to break the life cycle of the unpleasant bugs, the Bronze Orange Bug, which often goes by the appropriate name of ‘stink bugs.’ I have planted up my very large vegetable garden, sent by Birdies Garden Products, with 300 litres of organic soil mix. the winter veggies have been planted: more beetroot, leeks, more lettuce, along with broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower and brussells sprouts. they have been given a good dollop of blood and bone. now they need lots of lovely autumn sunshine!
Several readers have asked for the recipe for Green Tomato and Chili Jam: I make it in early autumn after it becomes clear that the last of the tomatoes are not going to ripen. How many chillies you add depends upon how hot you like it:
Green Tomato and Chilli
Ingredients:
1-2 kilos tomatoes
quantity of chillies (depending upon how hot you like it and what variety you are growing)
a few tablespoons of brown sugar, according to taste.
A variety of spices, including ground cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon.
3-4 brown onions.
Finely chopped red chilli, seeds discarded (optional)
Several cloves garlic, again, according to taste.
Method:
Finely dice onions, and crush garlic. Fry in 2tbspoons olive oil.
Add and fry for a few minutes chillies.
Add brown sugar and cook for a few minutes.
Add chopped tomatoes and simmer for 20minutes.
Once the ‘jam’ is cooked down to the consistency you prefer, cool and bottle in clean jars. (I freeze several quantities in sturdy plastic containers.)
Serve with a variety of cold meats. It is particularly good, I think, with ham.
Above: Grosse Lisse tomatoes thriving in Above: Lois and Walter McVitty's vegie
a small space! garden in December 2008