The Paraplegic Farmer

It's a bit fresh outside today, is it a sign that Autumn is on its way? The forecast for the next ten days doesn't show much above 20°c with some rain thrown in for good measure. Hopefully we will still get some warmer weather, we have only just got into September after all. But the Tomatoes in the grow bags have finished, Tina has stripped the plants of fruit this morning and has since removed the plants. They never really did do that well, just planted straight in the grow bag! They did produce tasty Tomatoes, but not that many.  I think we found what the problem was, and that was that there was not enough room in the grow bag for the roots. So we invested in some of these........... Plant Halos, Growbag Halos whatever you want to call them. You cut a hole in your grow bag to fit them in, they have about six spikes that go down into the compost and that's where the water goes. You plant in the neck of the Halo and the roots can then go down into

Not as hot as part 2 was but it was quite nice.

I've been pondering over something for the last few days!  What is it? And where did it come from? So I have been searching the internet and browsing through old orders I had placed with Premier Seeds Direct. http://www.premierseedsdirect.com/   And I can't find anything that looks similar to this plant, the fruit is quite distinctive and like nothing we have growing at the moment. Then I remembered this............ Three types of seeds came with this kit, Jalepeno's, Cayenne's and some that were called "Hot Scotch". I've just read the instruction book and it called them "Scotch Bonnets". So there you go, problem solved. I've had this kit since Christmas 2015, but as I spent most of 2016 in hospital they never got planted. And then this year we had a greenhouse catastrophe! The pop up greenhouse we started with took flight across the garden and all the seeds got mixed up.  There are quite a few recipes

We are running out of ideas of what to do with all the tomatoes we are getting. Tina has been dehydrating them then vacuum sealing them for the freezer, she has also pulped some up for sauce bases and some have made it into a sauce which is getting bottled up as we speak. So another idea we have seen doing the rounds on the internet is smoking!        But we don't have a smoker! No problem, we have a gas BBQ and this little trick should turn your BBQ (if it has a lid) into a smoker.  First off your going to need some wood chip, so I spent an hour in the garage chopping up some old Oak we had. Once that was done I soaked the wood chip in some water for about an hour and a half.  Then your going to need some aluminum foil. Double the bottom part and leave enough to fold over for the top. Place the wood chip on the bottom part of the aluminum foil and then bring the top part over and seal it up.  When its all folded up you need to poke some holes in the top to rele

The time has come! The Big Jim chillis have ripened, so what to do with them? Well how about stuffed and battered! And the size of them you won't need many for a meal, so lets give it a go. Here they are, the largest is about ten inches in length and they are rated at about 1,000 Scoville units so not particularly hot. Most recipes call for them to be cooked over a flame first to remove the skins and then remove the seeds, but I'm going to leave the seeds in.   So first job is to knock up some batter, I got the recipe from the internet and the reviews said is was a bit thin. I didn't find this at all and it covered the chilli and stuck to it quite well, so It's a recipe I'd recommend. Your going to need.....    1/2 cup all purpose flour                                         1/4 cup cornstarch/corn flour                                         1 teaspoon baking powder                                         1/4 teaspoon salt                    

The nights are drawing in bit by bit and the evenings are feeling slightly cooler too. But we mustn't complain, because so far in our first year of growing we have had quite a good harvest. Just now Tina has picked about four bowls of Tomatoes, earlier I picked a bowl of Peppers and half a bowl of Chillis. So now what do we do with them? I can only eat so many cheese and tomato sandwiches. A couple of years back I bought Tina a dehydrator and it has been used for quite a few things, but now its earning its keep drying out some of the Tomatoes. Some have been made into sun-dried tomatoes while others have been dried, vacuum sealed and put in the freezer for later use. Tina has also turned some into a base for sauces which we have been trying out recently.  Check out my Youtube channel for videos on that. https://www.youtube.com/user/rrben1?feature=mhee And there shows no sign of the tomato harvest letting up, there seem to be hundreds on the plants and new flow