Time to up our compost game.

The time has come!

That's right the time has come to sort out our compost. We have had a compost heap for as long as I can remember, but what have we done with it?

In short.....Nothing!

So its now time to do something about it.

This is what our compost heap looks like at the moment.

It contains the usual suspects like grass cuttings and garden waste. The heap starts off fairly high and does indeed compost down quite a lot. But we never do anything with it. And with the price of compost getting more and more expensive we should really be using what we have got.

So we built a temporary compost bin!

I say temporary as we have some works planned for next year which shall include more permanent compost bins.

But this will do for now, the plan is to compost all garden waste, kitchen waste and brown waste.

Brown waste will be stuff like cardboard, egg cartons, egg shells.

I'm not sure of the ratios that are needed, but I'm guessing to aim for about 50/50

From what I have found out from the internet and of course the good ole YouTube it seems you fill you compost bin up and leave it for a few months, turn it out into another compost bin if you have one and let it sit for a good eight months. This should complete the composting process and it should be ready to use on your garden.

Bear in mind though that any large or woody waste from your garden should be either chopped up small or put through a shredder. We don't have a shredder at the moment so its the old fashioned way for us.
This just helps the material break down easier and quicker.
I'm going to source a thermometer to keep a check on the heat in the compost, ideally it should range between 65ºc - 75ºc.

So its as simple as that really, most of us don't do it as there is always something better to do, but we are going to make an effort and see how we get on.

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Bacon wrapped Jalapeno poppers.

Until recently I hadn't even heard of Jalapeno Poppers. But when we had a glut of peppers from the plants we had growing I did a quick search online to find something to do with them. That's when I came across 'Poppers'. It seems they are quite popular in the USA and this is my own take on them.

For this you will need: Jalapeno Peppers, Thin bacon or Jambon cru, Cream cheese and then what ever filling you want to put with the cheese.

First you will need to take your Jalapenos and cut them along the length, some people leave the stalks on to prevent the pepper from folding outwards. I take the stalks off as I have never had that problem. What you do is up to you!
Now you will need to remove the seeds and the membranes.

Next step is the Cream Cheese! Here you can try anything, it's just down to your own imagination. I have tried mixing the cheese with Sweet chilli sauce, dried chilli flakes and I have even cut up some hotter chillis and mixed those in with the cream che…

Planning ahead for next year (a Chilli special)

Well this doesn't happen very often! Preparing for next year, getting organised. It's unheard of in this house.
So yesterday afternoon I had a cheeky look on premier seeds website. http://www.premierseedsdirect.com/ And whilst ordering five litres of Chilli Focus fertiliser I got some of next years seeds in. We are going to mainly focus on chilli plants for next year, giving the sweet peppers a miss and cutting back a little on the Tomatoes.
So for starters we are going to be planting......... Maule Hot, these go up to about 30,000 on the Scoville scale. So not too hot. Satans Kiss, a small chilli pepper from Italy. The Italians stuff them with Anchovies and Mozzarella, they get to around 50,000 Scoville units. Birds Eye Demon. We have grown these this year and starred in one of our chilli challenge videos........ https://youtu.be/rDdQ8tdd240 They were mighty hot when just eaten raw and have proved to be very useful in cooking, they can get up to 225,000 Scoville units. Scotch Bonnet (r…

Stuffed Chicken, wrapped in Bacon.

Here's a different take on the good old chicken breast. Why not open it up, stuff it and then wrap it in Bacon.
Sound like a good idea? Trust me, they are lovely.

As with any of these recipes that calls for you to stuff something. The world is your Oyster! Only your imagination limits what you can put in there.
Tina is a dab hand at making these and this last time she made them I asked her to put a Scotch Bonnet chilli in mine, that gave it some serious heat!

This recipe will feed two, if you need more you can just adjust the ingredients to suit.

You will need:
2 Chicken breasts
6 Rashers of bacon/jambon sec
Raclette cheese, you can use cream cheese or any other cheese.
1 Scotch Bonnet chilli (optional)

Method/ How Tina does it.

Open up the chicken breast, scoring the side of it with a knife to flatten it out.
Put the cheese and optional chilli on top of the chicken breast. Then roll it so the filling is inside.
Lay out two rashers of Bacon and place the chicken breast on them, wrap the bre…

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