vital functions

[kaberett]

Reading. Nona the Ninth, Tamsyn Muir, second read-through. I took notes! I am still working on convincing myself about what the skulls are indicating! I enjoyed myself a lot and shrieked at several bits I did not notice on the first go-round.

No One Is Talking About This, Patricia Lockwood, recommended by a friend who Didn't like Sally Rooney as "the definitive Internet neuroticism novel", which, good grief. I think perhaps I am Insufficiently On Twitter/Instagram to properly appreciate this, though I did brighten up briefly at the reference to Spiders Georg. vass subsequently pointed out to me that this is Miette's human; despite being ... about it, I have also gone and got her memoir out of the library, because I expect it to be similarly easy-to-read prose and might answer some of my ... questions ... about the context she was bringing to the novel. (I winced a bit when she mentioned autism and disability, put it that way.)

Playing. We are now on go-round #3 of Heaven's Vault, after cutting loop #2 fairly short (by dint of skipping a bunch of bits, which we possibly regret). I am definitely getting £7.99 worth of play out of this game.

Cooking. smitten kitchen's apple dumplings, because I have a million apples and also made a big batch of pastry for the butternut squash tart last week. We did not bother with the sauce, and I used plain shortcrust instead of the sweeter & fattier pastry recipe Deb provides there, but they were Very Tasty and we will probably be doing them again. For not wholly unrelated reasons, we also did an apple, almond and pecan traybake courtesy of Waitrose food magazine; my hand slipped when I was adding the bitter almond essence so we're going to have to (oh no) try again but with slightly less cyanide. (So many apples.)

And! Confit tandoori chickpeas! This time with ~750g of beefsteak tomato, cubed, in place of all of the other tomato; that plus taking the lid off after half an hour got a thing that was actually the correct texture instead of having lots of spare oil sloshing around, to which I say HURRAH. (Also feat. home-grown chilli, but alas not home-grown garlic because I didn't realise until too late that it would be Pleasing to do so.)

Growing. The tomatoes, alas, have late blight, so I am partway through Cutting Them Back and have brought home somewhere over 5kg of tomato that require some combination of eating immediately, ripening up with a banana, and Oh No It's Properly Green What Am I Going To Do With It (Freecycle???).

I have also sorted out the horrible death-trap bucket-pond that was lurking by my artichokes. This involved a ridiculous quantity of broken earthenware and an unpleasant amount of stagnant water and breaking the handle of my (freecycled) spade, but it is OUT and I have the Chaenomeles japonica at the site to put into the vacated Hole once I have sorted myself out with something to fill up the extra... space... it turns out... to contain... (I had not realised it was that big a watertight container that had been sunk there.)

Also more cardboard on paths; also the volunteer peas have found the sticks I put out for them; also the oca continue, as do the yacón. (Apparently the key with planting the yacón out is indeed to put crushed eggshell all around the base -- the first one I planted got promptly Eaten, but the other two -- done subsequently -- are Doing Well. Ish. They're only up to about knee-height, not the chest-height that the Real Seeds photos suggest they should get up to, but they are growing and making leaves happen etc etc etc.)

I have also actually Talked To The Site Rep and they are going to be Advocating For Me to the council inspector when they come around this week to check who needs kicking out, but hopefully the amount of progress I have made on getting things weeded is sufficient that it won't be necessary...

Comments

[sporky_rat]

Oh No It's Properly Green What Am I Going To Do With It (Freecycle???

Fry it. Make a relish with the tomatoes, eat it.

Delicious.

[kaberett]

I am Aware of the Principles of Green Tomato Chutney but the problem is my mother gave me some last year and I have not yet even cracked it!

Hmm re fried green tomatoes, which I was aware of as a film (?) but had not somehow leapt to contemplating as an actual foodstuff...

[rugessnome]

I tend to prefer them a little riper than totally green but all we do is slice, coat in cornmeal (you could add salt and pepper to it I suppose), and saute, often in butter. (I think I've heard of flour or crackers as a coating if cornmeal is... hard to find)

I've heard of green tomato mincemeat, and in September I made mixed mustard pickles (also with cucumbers, pearl onions, bell peppers and cauliflower) including green tomatoes—aside from relish/chutney you could pickle them otherwise.

heck, if you have the space, I think I've heard you could try leaving them to ripen. They won't compare to vine ripe, but I think we used one of the ones I had overbought for the mustard pickles, which had hung around and turned red, last night, and I'm certain it was better than the insipid not quite all red tomato obtained for the dish.

[hashiveinu]

Almond extract has cyanide in it??

[kaberett]

Not really but sort of!

But the extract includes no cyanide, only a byproduct of the enzymatic reaction that produces cyanide when the almonds are crushed.

(I'm using specifically bitter almond extract because I have it for making amaretti, As One Does...)

[aldabra]

Yacon: the first year I did this it got to chest height, but the subsequent twice it has stayed small (both in the same place and elsewhere on the plot). Current theories are either opaque weather dependence or great hunger for manure; I think Willie manured the plot when he rotavated it, but I am economising on both effort and outgoings and haven't since.

[kaberett]

Good to know! Thank you for calibration. I am looking forward to seeding what the roots do...

[lunabee34]

That all sounds very yummy.

[kaberett]

It WAS, thank you.

I think a second batch of the traybake is going to happen tonight when the oven is on.

[vass]

Congrats on getting the texture you wanted on the confit tandoori chickpeas! And on the weeding progress. I hope the council inspector is suitably impressed and understanding.

I am impressed and amazed by your tomato surplus.

[kaberett]

The site rep is suitably impressed and understanding, so fingers crossed. <3

HOW MANY OF THEM I WILL MANAGE TO EAT is an open question but hey I'll be having some of them for dinner today... the ripening ones are all now piled up in a bowl with bananas. Fingers crossed they ripen faster than they sog.

[shanaqui]

Fingers crossed re: the council inspector!

[kaberett]

Thank you!