Green Tomato chutney recipe

Thank you to everyone for comments on yesterdays blog, Some I haven't got around to replying to - Sorry!
Welcome to new readers, especially when you say you enjoy reading my ramblings!

A lovely day here again, although the weather men predicted rain for yesterday we only had an early morning shower, so still VERY dry and a strong breeze here today will dry things up even more. No good for plumping up the apples.

I finished making the green tomato chutney this morning. It is an old, simple recipe and makes a type of chutney that is good with cheese or dolloped into a curry.
It comes from a very old cookery book, the sort that actually has more recipes than pages, unlike the glossy celebrity cookbooks nowadays that have a huge photo on every other page. My copy is tatty with splodges and spills on all the pages but as I've had it for nearly 40 years that's not surprising.
By the way you will find I always do recipes in imperial rather than metric. That's how my brain works! I'm English rather than European!! 

Mucky pages - shows it's well used!

Green  Tomato Chutney

5lb Green Tomatoes
1lb onions
2tablespoons salt
1lb sugar
2 pints spiced vinegar
1lb sultanas( or half and half sultanas and raisins)
1lb cooking apples

Slice tomatoes and chop onions and mix in a basin with the salt, cover with a tea towel and leave to stand overnight
Next day tip the tomatoes and onions into a colander and leave to drain, the salt draws out lots of water.
Put the vinegar and sugar into a preserving pan  and heat slowly, stirring to dissolve sugar
When its just boiling add sultanas and apples and simmer for a few minutes.
Add the strained tomatoes and onions and simmer until thick - about 1 hour.
Pot into sterlised jars and seal.

It made plenty to last all year.
In the cupboard from last year I still have 3 jars of Pumpkin and pepper, 5 Marrow and Apple, 3 Gooseberry and Date, 1 Courgette and sultana and 2 Onion"Marmalade" . Then the new jars of Red Hot Relish made the other day and now these 9 jars of Green Tomato. I still want to make Beetroot and Ginger, Sweetcorn Relish and maybe just a few jars of one or two other sorts.
That will give me enough for presents and for us.

We started putting the Damson/Cooking plums out for sale and they fairly flew off the stall and we picked about 4lb of the eating ( Victoria?) plums that seem to be riper than the rest. 3lb were stoned and put into the freezer and the rest will be snacked on - delicious.

This afternoon I carried on pruning the gooseberries. When I say pruning that sounds as if I know what I'm doing. But really I have only  a vague idea that a gooseberry bush should look like a wine glass on a stem. Ours look nothing like that!  So I take out any dead bits, anything very low to the ground, any branches that seem to be going in the wrong direction and I also trim the tips of some of the very long branches and try to make a gap between the bushes.  Him Outside came to help so that we could get the job finished. He said that two people who didn't know what they were doing was probably not as good as one person who did. Although I think they look tidier now and a bit better air flow through the bushes can't do them any harm.
.
I have brought two Conference pears in to see if it's right what someone ( sorry can't remember who without searching back) said that they will ripen well off the tree so should be picked earlier rather than later. They usually get ruined by wasps so if I can save a few for us it will be a good thing.

Strictly starts tonight - Good news indeed.  I love seeing how they progress through the months.

Think that's all for today
Back tomorrow.

What a pong!

Welcome to two new followers - Meg and The Squirrel family.

It's been a smelly day here today as they have been spreading chicken muck on the field all around us. I've mentioned before that we have a big farming company farming all the fields near us after the man who used to farm them retired  last year. They have different ways of doing things and MUCH bigger machinery. I don't remember the other bloke doing muck spreading anywhere. I guess he just relied on chemicals.

I was picking tomatoes ready for putting out for sale this morning when I realised that if I didn't do green tomato chutney soon there wouldn't be any green tomatoes left to use. Green tomato chutney is so much easier than any chutney using red tomatoes as you don't have to remove the skins. So 5lb of green tomatoes have been chopped, along with a pound of onions and both have been put in a big bowl and sprinkled with a couple of tablespoons of salt. The bowl has been covered and then tomorrow I shall get on and finish it.

A while back I said we had a pointy pepper disaster as what should have been sweet peppers seemed to be really hot - more like giant chillies. Well, I tried the odd one off some of the plants and they were as sweet as they should be, so we were really confused. I didn't dare sell them as sweet red peppers in case they were hot and I couldn't sell them as hot peppers if they weren't. So there they have been sitting getting redder with me wondering what to do. Today I decided I had to sort things out and brought in  one ripe red pepper from each plant - one at a time, cut it, taste a tiny bit and if it was sweet I  would cut it into slices and pop them in a bag and put in the freezer and if they were hot chilli type I would at least be able to know which plants were which. I tried one pepper from the first 7 plants and they are all normal sweet delicious pointy red peppers.So now I have 4 large bags of sliced pepper in the freezer and I'm nearly as confused as I was before. I still have to try one pepper from the last 5 plants - will one of them be really hot or are we going mad? Were they hot early on and have now turned sweet?  Another mystery.

Talking about mysteries. Do you remember The Mystery of The Missing Postbox, the one at the end of our road which " got demolished". Well, according to a bit in the freebie paper I picked up the other day we are not the only ones to lose our postbox. Two more have been stolen from other villages around us. What a weird world we live in! Our MP has been roped in to try to get the one that was nicked in the village of Blaxhall replaced. So I might have to contact her and see what she can do for us.

And finally here it is - this months heap of borrowed books collected from the library van today.

I'm a bit puzzled as I've had some of them before, so not sure why they got themselves re-ordered and have turned up again. The mobile library only stops for 15 minutes in Friston so there is not a lot of time to sort out any problems and it isn't long enough for the driver to get the satellite dish up and running  to check the computer for any queries. So I just brought the whole lot home. Most of these I had pre-ordered via t'internet and a few came from the library van shelves. I also collected a bag full almost as big as this for Him Outside. Good job the wind blew my bike up the hill on the way home!

 After all the discussion about Jamie Olivers' programmes on "cheap" cooking I thought I ought to borrow the book and see what all the fuss is about as I have no intention of watching it.
Very few fiction there to read so I may have to resort to my bookshelves here  which shouldn't be a problem.
What would this lot cost if I had bought them? about £220!! Thank goodness for the library van and the free ordering system we have here in Suffolk. Borrowing books from the library is one of our best ways of being frugal.

The last day of summer?

No holiday for us this year and not many days out so when the weatherman said it would be all change on Friday we decided to make the most of what might be the last hot day and have a few hours on a beach.(Despite living 4 miles from the sea we rarely sit on a beach)

Instead of just popping down the road to the shingle beach at Aldeburgh I decided I wanted to see some sand for a change so suggested a trip out to Felixstowe - a place I spent a lot of time at in my teens, but somewhere we don't go to very often now.This also meant we could come home via Sainsburys in Ipswich and pick up some value bacon bits. So we packed  lunch in the cold box and our chairs ( and my book of course) and off we headed.
Lovely sunshine, a nice little breeze and it was a treat just to sit for a while and listen to the waves swishing.

A good look around Sainsburys resulted in some yellow sticker pork chops and pork slices and several of their value range including pepperoni for pizzas, salmon bits to have in a sauce with pasta and of course the bacon. We may not be at that end of Ipswich again for months so I got 4 packs of bacon which after opening and sorting gave me 7 bags of bacon rashers and bits - 1/2 lb in a bag and 6 bacon chops. Then Him Outside found engine oil with a huge discount of  4L for £4.79.

It was all go when we got home as 1 caravan( pre booked regular visitor) had arrived, another small motorhome turned up without a booking and another motorhome who had been here yesterday had come back for another night. Then there was a message on the phone for another visitor for Saturday.
Washing to get in, eggs to collect and sort, campsite toilets to check and clean, dustbins to empty, and of course the bacon and other stuff  to sort out and put away.

Just need to finish the book now before the library van tomorrow.
Book Photo tomorrow folks!

When I'm cleaning windows

Anyone over forty-five will remember Windowlene. A thick pink stuff that was rubbed onto windows and then rubbed off again to get them clean. I think it was the only thing available at the time. I hate cleaning windows and I'm sure it was because my Mum, who was extremely houseproud, was often window cleaning and we would be inside the house telling her where the smeary bits were and then she would spend ages going in and out trying to get rid of all the Windowlene marks. So boring!
Cleaning the house windows has always been my job and I would have started out with Windowlene, and  moved onto a spray stuff when that became available. I've tried all sorts of things over the years but now I just use hot water and white vinegar and lots of old rags.
Anyway, I'd put off doing them as long as possible so got on with it after doing other jobs this morning. Him Outside came home after finishing the field rolling job and volunteered to do the insides while I was outside- he can reach across the kitchen worktops easier than I can. As I had help I carried on all around the downstairs outside, so he had to as well! He reckoned it was the hardest physical work he had done since he came home from hospital - poor old thing! As for the upstairs windows, they will have to wait a while longer.

First thing this morning I got on with some more preserving. This time I made 4 jars of Marrow and Ginger jam, and also made 2 loaves of bread. Home made bread and jam what could be better. At lunchtime I had a look at the blogs I read and there was Karen at Chelmarsh Chunterings also making bread and jam yesterday, strange coincidence.

My way of making Marrow and ginger jam differs from any recipe I've seen, putting bits of two recipes together- I do that a lot with jam and chutney making.

Marrow and Ginger Jam
3lb Marrow flesh cubed. ( Chickens will love the middle seedy bit and the skin)
Ginger. - Can be a piece of root ginger grated, 2 tsp ground ginger or some stem ginger preserved in syrup whichever you want.
2lb Gran sugar
Either the juice of a lemon or few tablespoons of bottled lemon juice.
1 sachet of pectin

Cover the marrow cubes with water, bring to boil  and then cook gently until they are starting to go soft and translucent. About 10 - 15 minutes.
Tip into a colander and leave to drain well for several minutes.
Into a preserving pan put 3/4 pint water, lemon juice and the sugar and heat gently until sugar is dissolving.
Add the strained marrow and cook until thickened. Keep stirring frequently as there is not much liquid.
I usually mash the marrow cubes up a bit as I'm cooking it rather than leave cubes.
Add sachet of pectin and boil for 4 more minutes.
Pot into sterilised jars and cover.

There are variations to this. Like using preserving sugar, grated zest of lemon and rest of lemon cooked in a muslin bag in the jam, instead of a sachet of pectin. Also one recipe where you use more water, the cubes are left quite big and then strained out into the jars with a slotted spoon. Then the remaining liquid is boiled hard to reduce and poured over the cubes in the jars.
I've had years when this has gone a bit mouldy.  It needs keeping in the fridge once opened.
Just realised that as this only makes 4 jars there is half a pound of sugar in each jar!

  This afternoon we sat out catching the lovely sunshine for half an hour but I got driven nuts by the noise of a loud whining tractor ploughing over the road. He then went off to pick up chicken feed before going to the first farm sale of the Autumn. It's unusual to have a sale starting at 4.30pm, I don't think there was anything we wanted up for sale but he will look for smallholder stuff going cheap which we can sell on via the Suffolk Smallholders Newsletter.

It's supposed to be very hot tomorrow and we've just heard that there might be muck spreading on the field all around us. That should be nice and smelly- we may have to go out!

 

Odds and ends on Tuesday

Had lots of phone calls yesterday for bookings for the campsite, so from having an almost empty diary a few days ago it is now looking much better. Good news indeed.

Him Outside went to move the irrigator for our farmer friend W this morning so he is really back into the swing of things, then he went back to rolling fields. His work manager ( at his old job where he does 3 or 4 days a month) thought that he would be entitled to some sick pay if he got a doctors sick note. We were very dubious about this and we were right, he isn't going to get any money from the council after all! He might be entitled to some statutory sick pay, we will find out. I didn't think self employed people got given anything. Anyway he is earning a bit of money again so we are not too bothered about it. He will need another couple of weeks rest after the next visit to Papworth (only two weeks away now) so will be able to start odd jobbing again in October.

Popped down to Leiston this morning and amazingly I found some yellow sticker sausages (Locally produced too) in the Coop Solar. £1.30 for 1lb, stocked up on three packs. Didn't bother with their reduced price lamb chops, £1.90 for two of the teeniest chops you did ever see. When we kept sheep and bred our own lamb we ate lots, but I can't remember when we last had some.
 They also had lots of yellow sticker bread rolls so I got a couple of packs of wholemeal to pop in the freezer just in case ( 40p). Although I make bread every week  it's handy to keep something in the freezer too.

I've discovered some comments on old blogs that I didn't know were there, so apologies to various people for not replying or even acknowledging them.( dreamer and Stacey plus Karen for comments on Sunday and Monday) Also welcome to Kev as a follower and there are new followers by Bloglovin too that I keep forgetting to look at - welcome one and all! Apparently I get emails via the blog somewhere too but don't know where they are!, so it's no point anyone emailing me!
 Judith has left a comment now and again and I thought her blog was called Terriersintiaras which is her user name, and was all about dogs!!. But I was being totally thick and her blog is Lemon Drops which I have added to my sidebar. I've deleted The Other Stuff from the list as Scarlet  is not posting anymore which is a shame. I must add Staceys blog to my list too. It's all going on on that sidebar! Kev said he liked the picture at the top of the blog and I know lots have people have been encouraged to  read or reread some of the books from the pile.
Talking of reading, did anyone see on the National News today the pictures of the HUGE new library opening in Birmingham. I wasn't overly impressed by the design of the outside - weird. But inside looks incredible. The thing people are worried about is that the huge expense of this new library will force some of the smaller branches in the city to close. My friend S in Hagley is planning to take a look at the new library when all of the fuss has died down. The news pictures today showed it absolutely packed out.
Having spent my ( only 10) working years in various types of libraries and an awful lot of time in them ever since, I'm always interested to hear about them in various parts of the country. I actually cried when Norwich (Norfolk) City library burnt down about 18 years ago ( maybe more years - time flies) losing all those wonderful books, libraries and people all over the world donated books for the new library.

Spotted these  ready today- figs number 4, 5, 6 and 7 more than we've had for ages. Lovely.

Nothing else of interest to report
Back tomorrow.

Red Hot Relish Recipe + Him Outside playing on a tractor

Yesterday morning was several degrees cooler, we didn't bother to go to a car boot sale so I decided to get started on this years chutney making.

First on the list was a recipe I do most years, which I concocted from two similar recipes.

Red Hot and Sweet Relish
4lb Plum tomatoes, skinned and rough chopped. ( I used the giant Andine tomatoes, only needed about 10!)
2 Very  Large red peppers, finely chopped
1lb Red onions chopped small
1 - 5 red chillies (depending how hot you want it. I use 2.) de-seeded and finely chopped ( Wear rubber gloves!)
2lb Gran sugar
1 tsp each salt,ground ginger, allspice.
1 pint white vinegar.
( For the best colour this really does need the red onions and white vinegar, and it doesn't work very well with normal tomatoes which have too many seeds and are more watery)


Put everything except the vinegar into a pan.
Stir over low heat until sugar is dissolved

 Bring to boil and cook gently for approx 1 hour until thick

I forgot to take a picture of it thickened- this is just after vinegar is added

 Add the vinegar and cook for 30- 50 minutes until thick again.

This picture doesn't show the lovely dark red colour very well

 Put into hot sterilised jars, cover, seal and label

There are 2 problems with this chutney or relish. ( I've never really understood the difference between a chutney and a relish) Firstly it doesn't make very many jars for all the work, although everything except the vinegar,sugar and spices are home grown so doesn't cost too much to make.
Secondly whenever the two oldest children come to stay they ask to take a jar home with them which leaves even less for us!

Meanwhile Him Outside went out to play on a Big(ish) Modern Tractor.
Our farmer friend W. ( he is the one who had to stop farming his land and go to work for someone else because his brother and sister wanted to retire and wanted their share of the farm) asked if HO could do some rolling of fields for the big company that farm everything around us as everyone else was tied up with the harvest and cultivating. He didn't need asking twice!

He is out driving up and down again today.

My long long blog about budgeting resulted in 1 comment! Well that was nearly a waste of time then!
Thanks Pam( and to S for emailing) But I shall not be like poor Scarlet ( The Other Stuff) who has given up blogging, ( I'm sad and will miss reading her blog) I shall carry on regardless!
Back tomorrow
PS Still lovely weather here- look at that blue sky on the tractor pic- beautiful.

 

How we budget on the Simple Suffolk Smallholding.

This is the post that escaped onto the blog before it was finished. Apologies to anyone who read it, commented and then found it gone. Now it is finally finished and allowed out!

This is NOT a HOW TO DO IT budget, it is how WE budget.

 It is the way we do things now that we are both self employed, have paid off the mortgage, have no debts and only ourselves to worry about.
When Him Outside had a salary and when we had a mortgage and  3 children at home we did things differently.
Everybody is different! 

Budgeting is easy. All you have to do is spend less than you earn!

 Some people do, perhaps in the minority nowadays. The others end up juggling credit cards or living with  debt.

But what about when you can't be sure what you will earn each month . It means you have to be even more canny with your money when you have a good month.
Our theory is that each month we have to earn enough to cover the next months expenditure. In a good month( usually in summer) money can be saved to use in the bad months of winter.

Everything  is divided by 12 to work out how much we need each month, some are set up as monthly direct debits.

The items marked * are the things that can be reduced, checked, altered so that we don't have to go without all the things in the last list.

The first part of the  budget is to have enough for the things that are most important, things that involve bailiffs or fines or being cut off if you don't pay them.
These are

• Council Tax 
• Water Bill
• Electricity Bill*
• TV License

( Until we paid off the mortgage it would have been top of this list)

Then there are things that we are required to have to be able to do things legally

• Public Liability and Business Insurance for campsite and smallholding
• Jeep Insurance*
• Jeep MOT 
• Jeep Tax
• Campsite  electric test and inspection

The things we need to pay for to be able to earn an income

• Chicken Feed
• Buying new Point of lay hens
• Buying egg boxes
• Phone and computer*
• Diesel for the jeep*
• Diesel for the tractor
• Petrol for the mower and chainsaw
• Campsite requisites*
• Seeds for growing vegetables*
• Replacing smallholding equipment *
• Rent for the hay fields

Things we need for a normal everyday life

• Food and drink*
• Clothes and shoes*
• Personal Hygiene etc *
• Cleaning and Laundry *
• Pre-payment prescription cards 
• Saving for dentist and opticians

• Bottled gas for the hob* 
• Coal to keep the Rayburn in overnight*
• Birthday and Christmas gifts for family*

 Things that could be gone without but we choose not to

• House and contents insurance

If there is enough for all the above then we put into savings

• Money for the winter months
• Money for occasional expenses like septic tank pump out.
• Money to cover replacement household appliances etc
• Savings for the unexpected

And finally the  things that make life enjoyable but which could be managed without  if things get tough. This last list is, in a way, the most important. Because we want to be able to do these things, we look for ways to keep all the other amounts that need spending down to a minimum

• Things for the garden but not for growing food
• Bird feeding
• Craft materials and hobbies
• Days out and holidays and Christmas treats
• Books 
• Charity donations

This is what we save on to afford that last list

Council Tax is fixed and paid by direct debit.

Water for the house is fixed based on old rates so not too expensive and paid by direct debit.. We have no sewer charges. ( septic tank drainage)
Water for smallholding and campsite are metered and we get 2 bills a year. We catch as much rainwater as we can for garden but we can't restrict what the campers use. So part of the campsite pitch fees must cover water.
Electric. With the Hook-ups and shower on the campsite plus normal household electric, this is a big bill twice a year but we can keep it lower when the campsite is closed by doing all the usual stuff like turning things off  etc. So a smaller bill in the other 2 quarters. We also installed solar thermal for heating water to stop us needing the immersion in summer when the Rayburn is not lit. Part of the campsite pitch fees must cover electric.
TV licence is fixed so needs saving for each month.


Public Liability and Business Insurance We have to have this for the campsite and smallholding. Not many companies do it for our small scale so we use the NFU. We do this by monthly Direct Debit.
Jeep. I've mentioned before about this blinkin' expensive annoying thing. At the moment we are stuck with it so it has to be budgeted for. We shop around for insurance, it's cheap now we are old!
Campsite Electrical Test and Inspection. This is a once a year check and we can't run the campsite without the certificate.

Chicken feed, buying new Point of lay hens and egg boxes. Egg sales are one of our best sources of income so the price that we sell eggs for has to cover all these things and make a profit. We do get some egg boxes returned but some are too yucky to use again. so we bulk buy egg boxes.
Phone and Computer Some campsite bookings come via email and many bargains found on internet. We try to keep phone costs down by using email. We just have cheap pay as you go mobiles.
Diesel and Petrol. Money needs saving for fuel for jeep, ( we try to do several errands at the same time when we are out, to save diesel) for the mower to keep campsite cut and for the  chainsaw that provides our winter fuel.
Campsite requisites are things like toilet roll, paper towels, cleaning stuff. I bulk buy paper towels from Viking when they are on offer.
Seeds and plants for vegetables I save money on seeds by checking prices and number  of seeds  in packets from catalogues and searching out any special offers. We grow things we like and things that sell easily.
Replacing smallholding equipment Him Outside goes to farm sales and looks on ebay for things we need for the smallholding, he repairs and rebuilds whenever he can.
Rent for the hayfields doesn't have to be paid until after we have sold some hay.


Food and Drink We hardly ever eat out and only have an occasional take-away. I bake and make from scratch most of the time, but we don't go without things we like.
Clothes and shoes I avoid going anywhere that requires good clothes! Lots of things come from charity shops. Shoe spending is high for me because of foot problems.
Personal Stuff. We cut each others hair, use cheap soap etc. I don't bother with makeup.
Cleaning and Laundry I use Ecover liquids in very small amounts for washing machine ( with soda crystals added) and washing up. Vinegar, washing up liquid and bicarb  for most cleaning. Old tea towels  etc for cleaning cloths and dusters. Open windows for fresh air, line dry washing or over the Rayburn. Our VERY hard water here means that some cleaning needs something stronger like Harpic for the loo.
Health we use a prepayment prescription card to save money and save up for dentist and optician visits.
Bottled gas for the hob and coal We found a cheaper place to get the gas and only use coal when the weather is very cold to keep the Rayburn in overnight. Other heating is by wood, almost always free.
Christmas and birthday gifts. I save all year for birthday and Christmas presents for our children and their partners. We've stopped doing birthday gifts for other family members. Christmas presents for extended family are bought all year around when I see things that might be good. I try really hard to think of things people will find useful, I hate to waste money on useless stuff. I make chutneys to give as gifts.
House Insurance . I wouldn't want to be without this.

Savings. Life is much easier with some money saved. Savings earn interest which is even better.
As we never know what will happen next month, let alone next year we rely on these savings for the
expected bills and the unexpected.

By being frugal on some things we can afford to feed the birds, buy an occasional magazine or a cheap book from  Amazon, have some special food at Christmas, buy some craft things for card making, buy a shrub or tree for the garden, have a holiday every other year, have afternoons doing nothing in the summer, have trips out to visit car boot sales, do a tour of charity shops in a different town or to visit charity book sales. And to make a couple of small regular charity donations.

Our way of life would be much too boring for many people but it suits us.