Oh crabs!

When life gives you crab apples, make crab apple jelly.


So my mystery tree turned out to be a crab apple as suspected. It's beautiful deep pink blossom was much admired back in the spring, but since I discovered it was a crab several people have wondered why it was planted on an allotment?

The answer, I think, is that it was intended to fertilize an eating apple tree that used to be on the plot.

I've been in two minds whether to keep it or not. It's an attractive little tree and the local wildlife enjoy it, but I can't eat the fruit.

Before I condemned the tree I decided to have a go at making apple jelly. Lots of cooks think it's best made with crabs and they do contain lots of natural pectin, the stuff that makes jelly or jam set.

The fruits, like the blossom, are deep pink, both inside and out. I picked all those that looked sound, which was about 3.5kg (6lb) of fruit.

To make the jelly I first washed and halved the fruit, cutting away only the bruised or damaged parts. The whole fruit gets used, cores, seeds and all.

It's then put in a large pan (I did it in two batches) with 300ml (1 pint) of water for each 450g (1lb) of fruit and brought to a gentle simmer. The fruit needs to cook for 20-30 minutes and is squashed with a wooden spoon or potato masher to release the juice.

The pulp is then put into a jelly bag strainer and left to drip for several hours (I left mine overnight).

Apples can have a second cooking to release more juice, adding half as much water 150ml (1/2 pint) per 450g (1lb). The pulp is strained again and the juice added to the first batch. I got about 3 l (5 pints) of juice.

To make the jelly you need 450g (1lb) of sugar for every 300ml (1 pint) of juice. First put the juice in a pan (not more than half full) over a gentle heat. When the juice is quite hot add the sugar and stir until it's all dissolved. Then turn up the heat and boil rapidly (called a rolling boil).

To test when the jelly reached setting point I used 2 methods. Firstly by temperature, using a sugar thermometer. It reaches setting point at 104-5 °C. I also used the saucer test. A blob of jelly is placed on a cold saucer from the fridge. Once the jelly has cooled the surface should wrinkle when pushed with a finger.

The hot jelly is then poured into sterilized jars and topped with wax paper discs and lids.

I ended up with 10 jars of beautiful pink jelly, and it tastes delicious. I like it spread on toast and have also used some in a sauce for pork chops.

Sunshine on a rainy day

So much for spending more time at the allotment over the "summer".

I'm not having to water I suppose, but a bit more sun would be good. At least the flowering plants on the plot are making the effort to bring me a little sunshine.

My son's sunflowers have started to open and I'm pleased to report that the tallest one (seen below at the back) has put on another 30cm (12") growth and is now 284cm (9' 4").

The self seeded marigolds along my path are also very cheering.



My courgettes are continuing to crop well and are flowering their socks off.

This example is on the ball shaped courgette plant which has so far been the most prolific of all. I must get around to trying some deep fried courgette flowers, I've been cooking courgettes in every other way. Tonight I made a yellow courgette sweet pie.

The pumpkins are also thriving on the rain water and from being under the protection of their resident frog, who eats any slugs that dare to trespass.

Despite the limitations of the weather the plot isn't looking too bad.

Unidentified Frying Objects

No, the Martian's are not invading. These beauties are my Patty Pan summer squash which are just coming into production.

The big one is a bit too big to eat. It was the first one and I left it too long. That's what happens if you don't make it to the allotment for a few days. I also had some very large courgettes to deal with and some chunky french beans.

I was interested in growing the Patty Pan but once they were ready my first thought was how do I cook them? They are more like courgettes than squashes but have a firmer flesh. I sliced some into my allotment stir fry tonight (with baby carrots, baby corn, spring onions and french beans) and they were delicious. They keep their bite better than courgettes do.

I'm also thinking of frying some in my homemade garlic and herb butter, made with my own parsley and garlic.

I've been looking on the net for suggestions and a lot of North American recipes suggest you stuff them. I've been picking mine at about 4-5cm size and I think they are too fiddly to stuff. But I might try letting some get a bit bigger and have a go, tho' not as big as my monster one which has quite a tough skin.



As mentioned above I am also now harvesting baby sweetcorn. Until I started buying veg seed I didn't even know these could be grown in the UK but they are doing very nicely. Those available in supermarkets always come from abroad. Now it's a case of food metres to my kitchen not miles. They are another thing my son likes to eat as well, so definitely worth growing.







They are harvested when the silks (fine tassels that form the female flower) first show. Unwrapping the cobs feels like playing pass the parcel because they are cocooned in layers of leaves. When the cob is revealed the silks are easily pulled away leaving the tender baby corn. Each plant should produce up to 6 cobs so long as you keep picking them.







Another new crop that I didn't expect to see is my outdoor cucumber. I don't think these were fully hardened off when I had to plant them out prior to my trip to Canada. For about 2 months they didn't grow any bigger and then suddenly 3 weeks ago they woke up and began trailing and producing masses of flowers. Today I harvested this handsome fellow.


He was about 18cm (7'') long. Once mature the spines brush away easily (my son did it) and the skin is edible although it's a little thicker than regular cucumbers. It tasted good, which is just as well since there are lots more coming.

And finally my regular pumpkin and sunflower update....

The pumpkins are continuing to swell. The two largest are over a metre in diameter and the third is catching up. A couple of baby ones have rotted but that might be due to the wet weather.

The sunflowers are still growing and the tallest is now 254cm (8'4'') and so has put on another 31cm (1 foot). Apparently the tallest ever on the site was around 430cm (14') so my son's keeping his fingers crossed.