No sloe

Today I went for a long walk around Miskin. This time last year I picked loads of sloes and made fabulous sloe gin with them, there were so many to be picked. This year there are none. The only one I found was all dried up and fell off the hawthorn bush as I approached to take this photo.

Where have all the sloes gone? 

Nigel Slater's green tomato chutney

Continuing the green tomato recipe theme...this morning I made Nigel Slater's tomato chutney. 

It smells lovely, and made nine little jars of chutney. It was very easy, and quick to make, not too many ingredients. Just going to leave it now for at least a month before it's ready. 

some of the many green tomatoes left in the greenhouse

the red tomatoes from the garden!

cooking away

a perfect pair

A katy apple from Dad's garden, and a tiny gardener's delight tomato from Grainy's garden. 

Lush - green tomato soup

Just made this Green Tomato soup from a recipe I found here, and boy, it was good! I really recommend it. 

I added some purple sage from the garden: 

And used gungo peas (the sort used in Jamaican rice and peas). I also added brown rice, and some cayenne pepper from the garden. 

Very very tasty, one of the best soups I've made!

Lots of other green tomato recipes to try here. 

Good tomato, bad tomato

Good tomato:

Still getting red tomatoes, about 4 a day, but only the smaller ones (cherry and gardener's delight)

Bad tomato:

Not had a single san marzano go red, some haven't grown properly - I think because of underwatering this one in particular:

Here's a moneymaker, and below a cherry tomato going brown on the vine, I think because the temperature's dropping and the stems are going brown before the tomatoes get chance to ripen. 

So the hunt is on for green tomato recipes! Like the Nigel Slater chicken recipe I tried last week.

Nigel Slater's Baked chicken with tomatoes and olives

This recipe from Nigel Slater's new Kitchen Diaries book uses green tomatoes. Good news, I've got plenty of them in the garden! The recipe's here if you'd like to try it too. It made enough for 4 people, so  Steve & I ate it two nights in a row, it was even better the next day as the sauce went lovely and thick. 

green Moneymaker toms

Grainy's garden garlic

Drying lavender

On the weekend we had a lovely sunny afternoon, and I decided to dead head and trim back my lavender plants. I picked off the dried heads and separated them from their stems. 

I plan to make some little lavender pillows with them for Christmas. In the meantime I've put the pot of lavender flowers in my bedroom, such a beautiful smell that helps me to relax and sleep well. 

Here's a little tutorial on how to make lavender pillows from pretty fabrics.