Monthly Archives: September 2015

How To Freeze Runner Beans

How To Freeze Runner Beans

Blanched and cooled runner beans packed ready for freezing.

This is the first in what is planned to be a series of posts on preserving runner beans. In future posts we hope to cover salting and pickling, but today’s post is about freezing. Freezing runner beans is the most modern, and arguably the most convenient, method of preserving runner beans. Our runner beans were a little late this year owing to the fact that we moved house in May. But once they got going we struggled to keep up. Preserving runner beans is a rewarding process that allows us to enjoy our crops over an extended season, and also…

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Last Batch of Mushrooms Harvested

One decent sized mushroom

The entirety of the second batch of chestnut mushrooms.

I thought it time I posted an update on our mushroom growing project. I posted back in July how we had harvested (and thoroughly enjoyed) our first batch of chestnut mushrooms, and that despite the warnings in the instructions that allowing them to grow too large would result in a smaller second crop, we let them grow too large. Well just a week after posting that, another decent sized mushroom grew and it looked as though a few more were on their way too. So we harvested the fully formed mushroom and waited eagerly for the rest to mature. But…

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Making Plum Wine

Plum wine in a demijohn

Our plum wine in a demijohn

I’ve mentioned before just how many plum trees there are in our garden. We used many of their plums in jams and chutneys, but I’m sad to say we struggled to keep up. Part of the problem was that most of the trees are self-seeded, and so close together that they have grown quite leggy and all of the branches are out of reach. I’d often come out to the garden of an evening and find a mass of plums had fallen, burst and been like that in the summer sun all day. In these conditions mother nature had started…

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Pumpkin Patch Update

A winter squash of the variety 'Turk's Turban'

A 'Turk's Turban' Squash Growing in the Pumpkin Patch. There are a couple of smaller ones too.

Here at Slightly Self-Sufficient HQ we’ve been very excited about growing our own winter squashes. We’ve never had enough space to grow them before. We did try a dwarf ‘Butternut’ squash variety last year in a large pot, but it didn’t produce any fruit. So upon seeing the garden in our new house for the first time, Liz and I exclaimed in unison that we could finally grow squashes! Why have we been so excited to grow winter squashes? First and foremost, they make for excellent eating. They are a very versatile ingredient. They make fantastic soups and, unlike their…

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