Accidentally Great Chutney

Yes, this is a gardening blog, but lots of my food comes from the garden and this recipe was particularly good so I'm going to share it. Nearly every year I make green tomato chutney from the last of the tomato crop. First comes my usual recipe, adapted many years ago from a Cordon Bleu recipe for a larger quantity.

2.7 kg green tomatoes, chopped
3 lge red capsicums, chopped
1 kg brown onions, peeled and chopped
1.4 kg Granny Smith apples, peeled and chopped
300 g sultanas
1.2 lt white wine vinegar
1 kg brown sugar
1 tsp dill seed
2 x 15 g pkts pickling spices
1/2 tsp ground paprika
1 lge root of ginger, removed at end
1 dsp salt

Combine all ingredients, bring to boil and cook until thick, 2 - 3 hours. Do not let it reach boiling point until all sugar has dissolved. Remove ginger root, decant hot mixture into hot sterilised jars and seal straight away.

Now here is what happened this year.

First, I went shopping without my list. However, I've made this recipe many times and thought I could remember everything. Many ingredients were already in the pantry anyway, and, of course, I had the tomatoes.

I used red onion instead of brown, just because I like them better. Anyone allergic to onions can substitute more capsicums and some zucchini and/or eggplant. As long as you keep the proportions of vegie:vinegar:sugar about right there should be no problem. As you can see, playing around with the ingredients, adapting to suit your own needs, can have unexpectedly good results.

I thought there was enough white wine vinegar in the pantry. There wasn't. Sure, there were two bottles, but both were less than half full, giving me 800 ml. There was a little apple cider vinegar, so in it went. Still not enough for 1.2 litres. In went some balsamic to make up the difference.

The brown sugar that was  in the pantry was only half a kg. In went some dark brown sugar to make up the quantity. It left a couple of tablespoons of dark brown sugar in the canister. That's no good for anything, might as well use it up. In it went.

I wasn't able to find the little packets of pickling spice in the supermarket, so decided to use a mixture of what was in the pantry. This turned out to be cardamom seeds, whole black peppercorns, cloves and ground allspice, about a tsp of each.

Instead of the ground paprika, I used two hot peppers from the garden, finely diced.

I'm pretty sure I completely forgot the salt.

Despite, or because of, all the changes, I think the finished chutney is the best ever.

Because I didn't have enough sterilised jars prepared, there was some mixture left over. This was stored in the fridge until I decided what to do with it. A couple of days later, I vitamised the mixture with enough apple juice to bring it to a thick pouring consistency (250 ml), boiled it up again for about 15 minutes then poured it into sterilised bottles. It is quite spicy and will make a great flavour addition to many winter meals as well as being used straight on meat dishes. 

Making chutney is a lot of work; this took four hours from set up to clean up, plus a little time later to make the sauce, but the result is worth it.

Sometimes I make summer relish with a variety of vegies from the garden, including zucchinis, eggplant and cucumber. One such recipe is in my book, Gardens For All Seasons. This relies on having the vegies ready to use at the same time, which does not always happen.

Ladybird, Ladybird, Fly Away From My Cucumbers

A couple of years ago a friend asked me to identify some mysterious yellow caterpillar-type creatures that were eating her cucumber leaves. Though I had never encountered them before, it did not take long to find out that they were the larvae of the 26-spotted ladybird.

It was apparently a very good year for this pest. After I had identified it for my friend, I discovered it in my own garden, then a number of other vegie growers in the area mentioned that it was in their gardens. I decided to break the pest ladybird's life cycle by squashing every one I saw and pulling up the cucumbers, their favourite snack (in my garden at least). I did wear my specs to make sure I was correctly identifying and only destroying the pest species and not any beneficial ladybirds.

Last year, I did not see any. This year, there were a few early in the season, which I quickly squashed. However, in the last week they have returned in large numbers. The giveaway sign is skeletonised leaves on cucumbers, canteloupes, pumpkins, zucchinis and potatoes. They might also feed on beans and tomatoes so be watchful for leaf skeletonising on all crops. Look on the backs of the leaves and you will see the grubs munching away, usually they are yellow, but sometimes can be a brownish ochre colour. There could also be clusters of yellowish eggs. The adult beetles feed on leaves too, but they are usually found on the tops of the leaves.

Pyrethrum sprayed directly onto the grubs will kill them. However, all I have done is squash any adults and larvae I've found and brush eggs off the leaves. At this stage of the season, in this area, the cucumbers and other curcubits have passed their best and are usually ready to come out of the ground; yesterday I pulled most of them out. The one zucchini that is still producing well was checked all over and had damaged leaves and pest inhabitants removed.

You can drop the pests into a jar with a little methylated spirits in the bottom if you are averse to squashing.

Most ladybirds are friends in the garden. Some eat small pests such as aphids, mealybugs and spider mites, others browse on powdery mildew that might be on plant leaves. Do not make the mistake of thinking that all ladybirds are benign or beneficial. If you are in any doubt, catch one and count the spots, then get rid of the pest species before they get rid of your crops. The 28-spotted ladybird is a different species from the 26-spotted, but is also a garden pest.

This website is a useful guide to ladybird identification: http://www.brisbaneinsects.com/brisbane_ladybirds/LadybirdFieldGuide.html

Green Gardening Meets Pragmatism

A few weeks ago I discovered, very painfully, numerous times, the presence of a paper wasp nest in the garden. My practice has always been to leave them alone. They are a valuable part of the garden's biodiversity: the adults feed on nectar and hunt caterpillars (many of which are larvae of garden pests) to feed their own larvae.

These wasps deliver an intensely painful sting when anyone gets too close to their nest and I had been stung several times without discovering the location of the nest. One night recently, I was watering at dusk when a clump of what I first thought to be a dried buddleia flowers caught my eye. Surprised that I had not noticed a flower cluster of that size before it dried out, I put my hand up to break it off the twig. I was centimetres away from it when it moved. A cluster of wasps. I don't think I had moved that fast for years, but I did avoid receiving multiple stings.

The location of the nest, dangling above a frequently used pathway made it a nuisance. However, I still might have left it alone and simply tried to avoid the area for a while if it was not for the fact that my young granddaughters were visiting for a few days. Visions of hysterical toddlers and possible allergic reactions to wasp stings persuaded me that, in this case, the wasps had to go.

I gave them some time to settle back around the nest I had disturbed them from and crept out with the can of insect spray. The wasps have gone. I do feel disappointed that I had to do it, but when the safety of children comes up against free pest control in the garden, pragmatism wins. I'm hoping next time paper wasps decide to make a home in my garden, it is in the bushy area furthest from the house.