Pickled Jalapeño

Quick Pickled Jalapeno Recipe

Winter Onions Planted

So, a little bit later than usual, I finally got round to planting my winter onions on Saturday (November 12th)

I usually try to have them in by the end of October, but didn't get around to it. I think the current mild weather and of the last few weeks will help me out though.

I planted my old reliable RADAR and some ELECTRIC RED.

Additionally, I planted out some of my saved Potato Onion bulbs and some saved Elephant Garlic cloves and rounds. The rounds were from last year's crop that, for some reason, didn't form into cloves.

I also planted some of my saved garlic cloves that have been grown from Garlic Rounds that were harvested in July 2015 and sown again in Oct 2015. The idea is that they become somewhat acclimatised/localised from growing them from rounds and perform better over time..we'll see..

I also planted the veggie bag below with some smaller Radar & Electric Red bulbs. This bag was well fertilised over the last few weeks with rabbit poo.

Chilli Vodka

Chilli Vodka is a very simple thing to make, it seems to have gone out of fashion at the moment. You can us any chillies you fancy, deep red chillies with give the Vodka a nice colour if left long enough.

I was given a couple of bottles of Inferno Vodka 5 years ago, we drank one and save the other, as you can see the colour from the  hydroponically grown 911 chillies has tinted the Vodka.

Let six chillies (maybe Jalapenos) ripen to red, then harvest. Cut off the Peduncle (the stem) and Calyx (the green bit that holds the stem to the flesh), then cut in half length-ways and remove the seeds and Placenta (The white bit between the seeds and the flesh). If they were large peppers cut again into quarters, they need to fit into the bottle.

Now comes the hard part, open a bottle of good quality Vodka and remove a glass full (don’t drink it yet), push the slices of jalapeno into the bottle and then top the bottle backup from the vodka you did not drink earlier, seal up the bottle. Now if there is any leftover you can now drink this.

You will need to keep this for at least 8 weeks for the vodka to take the flavour from the chillies, it is a great drink to make at the end of the chilli season ready for a winter warming.

Alternatively, some people don't de-seed the chillies and just leave them whole but prick them all with a fine pin

Garlic Planted in Bed 3 & Bed 6

BED 3: Sowed 2 beds of Garlic today (Sunday, November 6th)

One bed is 4 rows of Printanor which is a French grown softneck. This is a new one for me to grow  and it is described as "a reasonably new variety with large bulbs filed with plump tasty cloves".

We shall see in Summr 2017!

I also covered the bed over with Enviromesh to keep our cat off it (see above).

To make this easier in futute, I need to add some more support on the top of these beds....

BED 6: On Bed 6 I planted 4 rows of garlic cloves; one each of Solent Wight, EPW, Sprint & Messidrome.

Hardnecks planted so far are: EPW, Sprint

Softnecks planted so far are: Printanor, Solent Wight & Messidrome

I also have some "saved" cloves that have been grown from Garlic round over the last couple of years with the hope that they become "naturalised" to my local environment...

I have not replanted these yet...Pending Job!!

Hardneck Garlic:

Hardnecks will store for three to six months on average so are grown for early winter usage.

There are many different varieties of these; ones I have grown are Early Purple Wight (EPW), Sprint and Vayo.

 Many of these hardnecks have some colouring to them such as streaks of purple, red or brown.

They are valued for their high allicin content and great flavour that holds up in cooking.

Hardnecks can be a little challenging when separating the cloves as they have a fair amount of "parchment" or the papery skins you have to peel away to get at the "meat". They tend to have a inner circle of large cloves with a few smaller cloves on the outside.

Softneck Garlic:

Softneck garlic’s advantage is that they store longer, up to nine months.

They generally have numerous cloves in a head. These are normally white and the garlic you see in the supermarkets is usually a Softneck variety. Flavour is good and can be from mild to very strong.

The necks are more pliable than hardneck varieties so they make good candidates for braiding.
Examples I have grown are Iberian Wight, Solent Wight, Jolimont, Messidrome & Printanor (new for 2016)