The Bridge Cottage Way - The Bridge Cottage

The Great Courgette Glut. Season: July and August

August 15, 2021/0 Comments/in Uncategorized/by Sue Reed

Next year, when I’m sowing courgette seeds, will someone please remind me that eight courgette plants are far too many?

The great courgette glut

Someone over on The Bridge Cottage Way Facebook page suggested this week that courgette seeds be sold strictly in packets of three to avoid overplanting. I think they have a point.

We’ve had a few takers for homegrown courgettes and cucumbers from the table outside Bridge Cottage. We are dripping in them and it’s courgettes with everything at the moment.

August Harvest Minestone

We’re making minestrone and ratatouille for the freezer and adding courgettes to risotto and ragu. This week I make a courgette and chocolate traybake cake, which has gone down a treat. Our youngest son usually shuns courgettes but has gone back to his own house today with a box of courgette and chocolate cake tucked under his arm. Another hit was the courgette and cheddar soda loaf from BBC Good Food.

Courgettes are being added to risottos and curries – I love a prawn and courgette curry, and soups are being made to go in the freezer for the winter months. I’ve just shared a photo of courgette, tomato and basil soup bubbling away in the pan over on Twitter (@suereedwrites) and had a request for the recipe, so here it is:

Courgette, Lentil, Tomato and Basil Soup.

Courgette, Tomato, Lentil & Basil Soup

I onion, finely chopped.

1.5 pints veg stock

100 g red lentils

2 courgettes

400g tin chopped tomatoes

handful fresh basil

Gently fry the chopped onion in a tablespoon of olive oil until soft. Add veg stock, tomatoes and lentils, bring to a boil and cook for ten minutes. Add courgettes and chopped basil and cook for another 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper then blitz to a smooth soup.

Easy peasy! My friend Ann has been making potato, courgette, cheddar and fennel seed soup, so I must give that a whirl! Don’t be afraid to experiment with your soups, and do share your successes on our social media channels. I’ve shared the minestrone recipe in a separate post.

From the goddess of the kitchen, Nigella Lawson’s easy courgette pasta sauce is a family hit, and today I’ve made sweet potato and courgette bhajis for lunch. I thought I’d share the recipe for those with you here. It’s really very simple. I’ve added sweet potato, but you could add grated carrot or any other veg, or keep it simple and just use courgette.

Courgette Bhajis

Courgette Bhajis

serves 4

2 medium courgettes (or 1 courgette and half a sweet potato or small carrot)

1 medium onion

2 tsp each cumin, coriander, turmeric

half tsp chilli powder or half finely chopped chilli (optional)

3 tbsp gram flour

sparkling water to mix

4 tbsp vegetable oil

Courgette Bhajis

Grate the veg and chop the onion. Mix well with the spices and season with salt and pepper. mix in the flour and enough sparkling water to bind it all together – about 4 tbsp.

Heat some vegetable oil in a heavy-based frying pan and fry on each side til golden brown. Drain and serve with seasonal salad.

Harvest Time Minestrone.

August 1, 2021/0 Comments/in Uncategorized/by Sue Reed

August Harvest Minestone

Minestrone making is one of the joys of late summer’s harvest time. A seasonal recipe that freezes well, is a meal in a bowl and brings a welcome reminder of summer in the depths of winter. I first wrote this piece on the first of August and Lammas, the pagan celebration of the harvest. This bountiful collection of vegetables was gathered from the Bridge Cottage garden yesterday.

We’re just back from a trip away and we’ve come home to some courgettes of marrow proportion. Courgettes are still in their ‘glut’ season, and I’ve written a separate post giving some seasonal recipes for courgettes. Here, in minestrone, they can be added in chunks along with seasonal tomatoes. Both of these are covered in separate posts to give more inspiration for seasonal eating.

Our broad beans are past their best now, leathery in texture, so are shelled. It’s a bit of a phaff, but well worth it. Simply blanch for a couple of minutes in boiling water, then plunge into a bowl of cold water with ice. The skins will then be easy to squeeze and the tender insides squashed out.

I also like to skin the tomatoes – it’s up to you if you want to make a passata or keep them in chunks.

Here is our minestrone recipe, though feel free to adapt according to what you have ripe and ready, and vary the amounts if you don’t have as much veg ready and ripe. We like to cook in bulk and freeze, so this will make around ten generous portions:

August Harvest Minestrone

Bridge Cottage Minestrone

(Makes ten portions – enough to keep some in the fridge and freeze the rest for winter)

2 tbsp olive oil

1 large onion

4 cloves garlic

3 red peppers

Handful each of French, Runner, Borlotti beans, chopped.

Broad beans

1 kg ripe tomatoes

4 courgettes

Chopped fresh herbs eg oregano, parsley, basil.

2 litres stock (chicken or vegetable)

100g small pasta – we like little star-shaped Stellete but Orzo works well too.

Salt and pepper

Method

Shell the broad beans and remove skins by blanching for two minutes in boiling water, then plunging into a bowl of iced water. Squeeze to remove outer shells.

Prepare the tomatoes: Simply score with a sharp knife then put in a heatproof bowl, and cover with boiling water. Leave for a couple of minutes, then drain. Peel off the skins once cold enough to handle, and whizz them up in a blender to give a beautiful tomato sauce. If you don’t like the pips, then pass through a sieve. Alternately, skin then chop into rough chunks for a chunkier soup.

In a large saucepan, heat the olive oil and gently cook the onion, adding the tomatoes, peppers, beans, chopped herbs and stock. Bring everything to the boil and cook for five minutes before adding the chopped courgettes, crushed garlic and pasta. Cook for a further ten minutes or until the pasta is done. Season with salt and pepper.

Enjoy warm, then cool the rest for the freezer, putting in recycled plastic bags or tubs, and labelling with the date. You’ll be glad you went to the bother in darkest January!

As ever, we’d love you to share your thoughts, either by leaving a comment here or on our social media pages, where this article will be shared.

You can find the Bridge Cottage Way on Facebook Twitter and Instagram.

You might enjoy some of the writing and ideas in other sections of this website, as we look towards leading more sustainable lives by growing our own food and creating dishes in line with seasonal eating, or head to our handy ‘Month by Month’ guides to find out what we have been doing here at Bridge Cottage as the months go by:

Many thanks for reading.

With Facebook and Instagram algorithms being fickle friends at times, be sure to get all new posts from The Bridge Cottage Way by signing up for the mailing list here. This will go our four times a year, with the seasons in Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter. We, of course, will not share your details with third parties, and you have the right to unsubscribe at any time.

Homemade Yoghurt and Soft Cheese

July 15, 2021/0 Comments/in The Bridge Cottage Kitchen/by Sue Reed

Homemade yoghurt

We’ve been making our own yoghurt and soft cheese for years here at Bridge Cottage. The Guardian even got in touch a couple of years ago and interviewed us about switching from commercially bought yoghurt to making our own: Culture shock for ‘big yoghurt’ as foodies switch to DIY

So why bother? for one, we get through about four pints of yoghurt a week so can make it in bulk. We have it for breakfast most days with fruit either fresh from the garden in summer, or from the freezer in winter.

There is the plastic issue – we use the same tub, and so are reducing our plastic consumption by not buying new every time.

It’s delicious, good for us, with live bugs that do our tummies good!

It’s not delivered on lorries and saves us driving to the shops! So that’s reducing our carbon footprint.

It’s also really easy to make. Here’s how:

Homemade yoghurt.

Homemade yoghurt

(makes 2 pints)

Heat 2 pints whole milk in a large pan to 95 degrees. (almost boiling if you don’t have a thermometer)

Whisk in 2 tablespoons dried skimmed milk. (this makes it thick and creamy)

Place saucepan in a sink of cold water and cool to 45 deg (blood temperature)

Whisk in a small pot (2 tbsp) live yoghurt.

Place in a clean container with a lid and put somewhere warm for 4-5 hours. an airing cupboard is ideal.

Save 2 tbsps of the new yoghurt for next time, in a sterilised container in the fridge.

It is important to pour boiling water over all equipment before use, to make sure it is clean.

homemade soft cheese

To make soft cheese, simply place yoghurt in a muslin or cheesecloth, tie and hang over a bowl to drip for about six hours. Keep in fridge.

You might like to add chopped chives, garlic, or other herbs to your soft cheese.

Easy peasy, lemon squeezy!

Do let us know how you get on!

As ever, we’d love you to share your thoughts, either by leaving a comment here or on our social media pages, where this article will be shared.

You can find the Bridge Cottage Way on Facebook Twitter and Instagram.

You might enjoy some of the writing and ideas in other sections of this website, as we look towards leading more sustainable lives by growing our own food and creating dishes in line with seasonal eating, or head to our handy ‘Month by Month’ guides to find out what we have been doing here at Bridge Cottage as the months go by:

Many thanks for reading.

With Facebook and Instagram algorithms being fickle friends at times, be sure to get all new posts from The Bridge Cottage Way by signing up for the mailing list here. This will go our four times a year, with the seasons in Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter. We, of course, will not share your details with third parties, and you have the right to unsubscribe at any time.

Pickled Wild Garlic, Ransom and Chive Buds

April 2, 2021/0 Comments/in Foraging for Free Food, The Bridge Cottage Kitchen/by Sue Reed

Wild Garlic. Foraging & Cooking Food for Free

Have you, like us, been enjoying the tender young leaves of the wild garlic, Allium Ursinum? We shared information on recognising and how to forage responsibly for this pungent plant, plus some of our favourite recipes for using these delicious leaves in a previous post back in March: Wild Garlic, foraging and cooking.

Now April is upon us, and the wild garlic is sending up its buds, soon to burst into beautiful white flowers. There is a window in early Spring when the buds can be harvested to make a deliciously simple pickle. I noticed too that the chives that are growing in a bucket in the greenhouse are also showing signs of buds. Both ransoms, aka wild garlic, and chive buds are delicious pickled. You might also like to try other buds, such as sage? Pep up your salads and add them to sauces for an extra layer of flavour. It’s only a ten-minute job, so why not give it a go?

Pickled Wild Garlic Buds

Ingredients:

Handful wild garlic or chive buds

50g cider vinegar

50g sugar

50g water

Pinch pink peppercorns

Pinch salt

Method:

Begin by making the pickling liquid.

Put vinegar, sugar and water in a pan and heat until sugar is dissolved. Leave to cool.

Once cooled, place wild garlic or chive buds in a sterilised jar and pour over pickling liquid. Place in fridge & leave to pickle for three days before using.

Lasts for up to six months in the fridge.

Chive Blossom Vinegar

See also the post on making floral vinegars for when the flowers burst open!

We do hope you enjoy foraging for or picking wild garlic, but please remember to forage responsibly, leaving plenty for others and for wildlife.

If you have a shady spot in your garden, you might like to consider growing your own wild garlic. We have! A quick google and I see it can be bought in the green or by seed. Here’s one such site, from garden supply direct.

Anyone close to us, do pop over and I’ll give you a clump of ours!

Wild Garlic. Foraging & Cooking Food for Free

As ever, we’d love you to share your thoughts, either by leaving a comment here or on our social media pages, where this article will be shared.

You can find the Bridge Cottage Way on Facebook Twitter and Instagram.

You might enjoy some of the writing and ideas in other sections of this website, as we look towards leading more sustainable lives by growing our own food and creating dishes in line with seasonal eating, or head to our handy ‘Month by Month’ guides to find out what we have been doing here at Bridge Cottage as the months go by:

Many thanks for reading.

With Facebook and Instagram algorithms being fickle friends at times, be sure to get all new posts from The Bridge Cottage Way by signing up for the mailing list here. This will go our four times a year, with the seasons in Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter. We, of course, will not share your details with third parties, and you have the right to unsubscribe at any time.

Tim & Sue in the Bridge Cottage Way garden

Cooking with Wild Garlic. Recipes and Tips

March 7, 2021/0 Comments/in The Bridge Cottage Kitchen/by Sue Reed

Wild Garlic. Foraging & Cooking Food for Free

The smell of wild garlic takes me back to the day we moved to Bridge Cottage. As we drove along with a car full of boxes, marvelling at the beauty of the Northumberland countryside, a pungent pong wafted through the car window. Wild garlic. It was growing in abundance along the roadside. Imagine our delight when we discovered it growing along the banks of the burn that runs through the garden. Food for free, and delicious at that.

Here in Northumberland, it is the beginning of March when the wild garlic is poking up, ready to pick. It may well be February if you are in warmer climes. The fresh young leaves can be picked and added to a salad. We planted some salad leaves in the greenhouse in the autumn, and are reaping the benefits now.

Not only is it tasty, but wild garlic is also good for you, proven to reduce blood pressure. Wild garlic has all manner of health benefits too.

Why wild garlic is good for you

I need to check the freezer. We made lots of wild garlic pesto last year. There may well be some packs lurking in the back. I’ll pop some recipes below, and add them to the Bridge Cottage Kitchen page.

wild garlic and nettles

By far the favourite recipe of last year was for wild garlic and blue cheese scones – delicious with a bowl of soup. – you can also add nettles to many of these recipes, but be careful to pick with gloves and take note that nettles will still sting until wilted or cooked. Don’t do what a friend of mine did, and use nettles in pesto without wilting first. She, unfortunately, tasted a spoon of nettle pesto and stung her mouth and throat. It could have been a lot nastier than it was. I’ll write more about nettles in a month or so, when they’re properly up.

Blue Cheese & Wild Garlic Scones

Blue cheese and wild garlic scones

Ingredients

225g plain or spelt flour

3 tsp baking powder

Pinch salt, half tsp English mustard powder

50g cold butter

125g blue cheese (or any strong cheese)

2 tbsp washed & chopped wild garlic (nettle tops and chives work well too)

60ml cold milk

1 beaten egg

Method

Scones are best handled as little as possible. I use a food processor, but mixing by hand is fine

Sift flour, baking powder, salt & mustard. Grate in the butter, cheese, & mix with wild garlic and nettles. Mix in egg & milk with a clawed hand, adjusting the amount of liquid to give a soft, slightly sticky dough. (Scones are better on the wet side rather than dry).

Tip onto a floured worktop and handling as little as possible, knead gently then press down into a flat shape about 3cm thick. Cut into shapes, top with a little cheese or egg & milk from the jug you used.

Bake at 220 deg (200 deg fan) Gas 7 for 12 minutes.

Serve with butter. Delicious with some wild garlic and nettle soup.

Pesto

Add a couple of good handfuls of wild garlic to about 200ml of olive oil, a handful of nuts (eg walnuts, cashew or pine nuts), 50g grated parmesan cheese, 1/2 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp sugar, and blitz in a food processor.

Add your pesto to pasta for a simple but tasty lunch or rub onto chicken. Wild garlic and chicken go very well together.

I like to make several batches and freeze them in small bags. There is nothing better in the depths of winter than to go foraging in the freezer and finding little bags of spring wild garlic pesto to use for lunches.

Salads

Wild garlic leaves can be added whole to salads or chopped according to taste. Use instead of spring onions for a mild, oniony taste, but with the added zing of garlic. They make an interesting addition to a cheese sandwich married with a touch of mayonnaise.

Salad dressing can also be made more interesting with finely chopped wild garlic leaves or add to mayonnaise or butter.

Tomatoes

In his iconic foraging guide, Food for Free, written many moons ago, Richard Mabey tells us that wild garlic goes handsomely with tomatoes

Richard tells us to take advantage of their size and lay them criss-cross over sliced beefsteak tomatoes’. I like to chop them finely and add to chopped tinned tomatoes for a quick and tasty tomato sauce that can go with pasta, or as an accompaniment to fish cakes.

Alternatively, make simple tomato salsa, by chopping fresh tomatoes with finely chopped wild garlic, and fresh deseeded chilli, and a squeeze of lemon or lime juice.

wild garlic and nettle soup

Wild garlic can be used with young nettle tops for a healthy, delicious soup, or for the meat-eaters amongst us, simply add to chicken stock and blitz for a delicious wild garlic soup.

I’m off to pick some wild garlic to use tonight with simple mayonnaise to have with our chips.

Happy foraging, but remember to forage responsibly – leave plenty for others and for wildlife.

Wild Garlic. Foraging & Cooking Food for Free

As ever, we’d love you to share your thoughts, either by leaving a comment here or on our social media pages, where this article will be shared.

You can find the Bridge Cottage Way on Facebook Twitter and Instagram.

You might enjoy some of the writing and ideas in other sections of this website, as we look towards leading more sustainable lives by growing our own food and creating dishes in line with seasonal eating, or head to our handy ‘Month by Month’ guides to find out what we have been doing here at Bridge Cottage as the months go by:

Many thanks for reading.

With Facebook and Instagram algorithms being fickle friends at times, be sure to get all new posts from The Bridge Cottage Way by signing up for the mailing list here. This will go our four times a year, with the seasons in Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter. We, of course, will not share your details with third parties, and you have the right to unsubscribe at any time.

Wild Garlic. Foraging & Cooking Food for Free

March 7, 2021/0 Comments/in Foraging for Free Food/by Sue Reed

Wild Garlic. Foraging & Cooking Food for Free

Wild Garlic, Allium ursinum, also known as: ramsons, buckrams, broad-leaved garlic, wood garlic, bear leek or bear’s garlic, is a bulbous perennial flowering plant in the amaryllis family Amaryllidaceae. It is native to Europe and Asia, where it grows in moist woodland. It can be grown in your garden, or foraged for, for free!

The smell of wild garlic takes me back to the day we moved to Bridge Cottage. As we drove along with a car full of boxes, marvelling at the beauty of the Northumberland countryside, a pungent pong wafted through the car window. Wild garlic. It was growing in abundance along the roadside. Imagine our delight when we discovered it growing along the banks of the burn that runs through the garden. Food for free, and delicious at that.

Here in Northumberland, it is the beginning of March when the wild garlic is poking up, ready to pick. It may well be February if you are in warmer climes. The fresh young leaves can be picked and added to a salad. We planted some salad leaves in the greenhouse in the autumn, and are reaping the benefits now.

Not only is it tasty, but wild garlic is also good for you, proven to reduce blood pressure. Wild garlic has all manner of health benefits too.

Why wild garlic is good for you

I need to check the freezer. We made lots of wild garlic pesto last year. There may well be some packs lurking in the back. I’ll pop some recipes below, and add them to the Bridge Cottage Kitchen page.

wild garlic and nettles

By far the favourite recipe of last year was for wild garlic and blue cheese scones – delicious with a bowl of soup. – you can also add nettles to many of these recipes, but be careful to pick with gloves and take note that nettles will still sting until wilted or cooked. Don’t do what a friend of mine did, and use nettles in pesto without wilting first. She, unfortunately, tasted a spoon of nettle pesto and stung her mouth and throat. It could have been a lot nastier than it was. I’ll write more about nettles in a month or so, when they’re properly up.

Blue Cheese & Wild Garlic Scones

Blue cheese and wild garlic scones

Ingredients

225g plain or spelt flour

3 tsp baking powder

Pinch salt, half tsp English mustard powder

50g cold butter

125g blue cheese (or any strong cheese)

2 tbsp washed & chopped wild garlic (nettle tops and chives work well too)

60ml cold milk

1 beaten egg

Method

Scones are best handled as little as possible. I use a food processor, but mixing by hand is fine

Sift flour, baking powder, salt & mustard. Grate in the butter, cheese, & mix with wild garlic and nettles. Mix in egg & milk with a clawed hand, adjusting the amount of liquid to give a soft, slightly sticky dough. (Scones are better on the wet side rather than dry).

Tip onto a floured worktop and handling as little as possible, knead gently then press down into a flat shape about 3cm thick. Cut into shapes, top with a little cheese or egg & milk from the jug you used.

Bake at 220 deg (200 deg fan) Gas 7 for 12 minutes.

Serve with butter. Delicious with some wild garlic and nettle soup.

Pesto

Add a couple of good handfuls of wild garlic to about 200ml of olive oil, a handful of nuts (eg walnuts, cashew or pine nuts), 50g grated parmesan cheese, 1/2 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp sugar, and blitz in a food processor.

Add your pesto to pasta for a simple but tasty lunch or rub onto chicken. Wild garlic and chicken go very well together.

I like to make several batches and freeze them in small bags. There is nothing better in the depths of winter than to go foraging in the freezer and finding little bags of spring wild garlic pesto to use for lunches.

Salads

Wild garlic leaves can be added whole to salads or chopped according to taste. Use instead of spring onions for a mild, oniony taste, but with the added zing of garlic. They make an interesting addition to a cheese sandwich married with a touch of mayonnaise.

Salad dressing can also be made more interesting with finely chopped wild garlic leaves or add to mayonnaise or butter.

Tomatoes

In his iconic foraging guide, Food for Free, written many moons ago, Richard Mabey tells us that wild garlic goes handsomely with tomatoes

Richard tells us to take advantage of their size and lay them criss-cross over sliced beefsteak tomatoes’. I like to chop them finely and add to chopped tinned tomatoes for a quick and tasty tomato sauce that can go with pasta, or as an accompaniment to fish cakes.

Alternatively, make simple tomato salsa, by chopping fresh tomatoes with finely chopped wild garlic, and fresh deseeded chilli, and a squeeze of lemon or lime juice.

wild garlic and nettle soup

Wild garlic can be used with young nettle tops for a healthy, delicious soup, or for the meat-eaters amongst us, simply add to chicken stock and blitz for a delicious wild garlic soup.

I’m off to pick some wild garlic to use tonight with simple mayonnaise to have with our chips.

Happy foraging, but remember to forage responsibly – leave plenty for others and for wildlife.

Wild Garlic. Foraging & Cooking Food for Free

As ever, we’d love you to share your thoughts, either by leaving a comment here or on our social media pages, where this article will be shared.

You can find the Bridge Cottage Way on Facebook Twitter and Instagram.

You might enjoy some of the writing and ideas in other sections of this website, as we look towards leading more sustainable lives by growing our own food and creating dishes in line with seasonal eating, or head to our handy ‘Month by Month’ guides to find out what we have been doing here at Bridge Cottage as the months go by:

Many thanks for reading.

With Facebook and Instagram algorithms being fickle friends at times, be sure to get all new posts from The Bridge Cottage Way by signing up for the mailing list here. This will go our four times a year, with the seasons in Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter. We, of course, will not share your details with third parties, and you have the right to unsubscribe at any time.

How to build a hotbox for propagation, early seed sowing and growing

February 27, 2021/0 Comments/in Outdoors, Sustainable Living, The Bridge Cottage Garden, Uncategorized/by Sue Reed

Hotbox propagation

Making a hotbox may well be the answer if are you chomping at the bit to get the growing season started, It’s still February and last week we had snow. However, the sun started shining this week after a long Winter. We are still in Lockdown due to the pandemic and goodness knows we are longing to get growing again. Last year’s lockdown seemed so much easier to bear, with veggies to grow and gardens to tend, but we must remember it is still Winter!

Hotbox propagation. for early seed sowing and growing

Last year Tim built a hot box for the greenhouse, and it’s brilliant! We can set seeds away and grow then on without fear of the frost getting to them. I know some of you who have seen pictures of this on the Bridge Cottage Way Facebook page have asked how he made it, so here you go.

It’s quite simple. We got the idea and all the help we needed from Jungle Seeds.

You will need a greenhouse or cold frame and a source of electricity. We have run an outdoor extension lead from the garage into the greenhouse. We have taken care to cover any electrical parts with a bucket so avoid accidents when watering!

The heat comes from Bio Green Soil Warming cables. available from Jungle Seeds.

Building a hotbox for early seed sowing a propagation

We started by building a wooden box. The bottom was taken from an old dining room table, and the sides, off-cuts of plywood. You may want to build something smaller, a tray for example. In this first picture, you can see it has been covered on the outside by insulation. We used this insulation as we had it hanging around after building the sauna. You might want to use polystyrene, or Kingspan. Use what you have!

Building a hotbox for early seed sowing and propagation

Next, add a layer of sand, and then lay the cables on top of that. We got the Bio Green Warming Cables from Jungle Seeds, and you’ll see that they give basic instructions too for building a hotbox.

The cable is normally laid in runs 3″ to 4″ apart. This layout will allow you to raise the soil temperature by 11-13 C, above the greenhouse ambient. Higher temperatures can be achieved by laying the cable runs as close together as 5cm. In this case, a thermostat should be used to precisely control the soil temperature to avoid overheating.

After laying the cables, cover again with another layer of sand. Water all this well. It needs to be kept moist to give good heat transference.

building hot box propagation, early seed sowing and growing

building a hot box for propagation, early seed sowing and growing

A top tip is to cover the plug socket and thermostat with an upturned bucket. This prevents any water from getting in the electrics when watering the greenhouse!

At night, a layer of bubble wrap can go over the top to tuck your baby plants in.

building a hot box for propagation, early seed sowing and growing

That’s all there is to it! We’ve set leeks, board beans, chillies, lettuce and tomatoes away already and they are growing well in the hot box. You can see I’ve used sawn-off juice bottles as seed pots – waste not, want not!

Do get in touch if you have any questions!

Wishing you a very happy growing season.

As ever, we’d love you to share your thoughts, either by leaving a comment here or on our social media pages, where this article will be shared.

You can find the Bridge Cottage Way on Facebook Twitter and Instagram.

You might enjoy some of the writing and ideas in other sections of this website, as we look towards leading more sustainable lives by growing our own food and creating dishes in line with seasonal eating, or head to our handy ‘Month by Month’ guides to find out what we have been doing here at Bridge Cottage as the months go by:

Many thanks for reading.

With Facebook and Instagram algorithms being fickle friends at times, be sure to get all new posts from The Bridge Cottage Way by signing up for the mailing list here. This will go our four times a year, with the seasons in Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter. We, of course, will not share your details with third parties, and you have the right to unsubscribe at any time.

Make Your Own Apple and Fennel Chutney & Fennel Tea

October 12, 2020/0 Comments/in The Bridge Cottage Kitchen/by Sue Reed

Fennel seeds

The stems from the fennel are reaching for the sky, each upturned umbrella laden with seeds. It’s October and the fennel seeds are ready to be harvested, and although these can be left on the plant to dry, I do like to gather them before the birds strip them clean. I reckon there are enough for us to all share!

We’ve just opened the last jar of the apple and fennel chutney, made last year, so time to make some more, especially as we’re knee-deep in apples. What a bumper year it’s been for those!

This is top of the list of favourite chutneys here at Bridge Cottage, and when the ‘kids’ come home and raid the larder, this is one they all plump for, but one I try and hide and the back! It goes especially well with a strong cheddar and makes a great lunch with cheese on toast.

Here’s the recipe:

Apple and Fennel Chutney

Ingredients for apple and fennel chutney

Ingredients:

500g fennel bulbs

500g onions

1 kg cooking apples

2 tbsp fresh fennel seeds or 1 tbsp dried.

500ml apple cider vinegar

600g granulated or light soft brown sugar.

Method:

Finely chop the fennel bulbs and onion, or blitz in a food processor. Add to a deep preserving pan. Peel, core and chop the cooking apples into small chunks. Add fennel seeds, apple cider vinegar and sugar and bring to the boil.

Boil fairly rapidly, stirring often and reducing the temperature to a simmer at the end, to prevent sticking.

The chutney is cooked when it has darkened slightly and is thick and sticky, and a wooden spoon leaves the bottom of the pan momentarily clean when stirred across.

Apple and Fennel Chutney

Place into clean, warmed jars and cover.

Label and store.

Apple and Fennel Chutney

Best left a month before eating if you can bear it!

Fennel Tea

Fennel seeds also make a delicious tea, rich in vitamin A, great for the digestion and to reduce water retention.

Simply crush a teaspoon of dried fennel seeds lightly in a pestle and mortar, and then pour on boiling water in a small teapot. Leave to steep for five minutes before straining and drinking.

For more information about making your own herbal teas follow this link:

Fennel Seeds

Make Your Own Herbal Tea

As ever, we’d love you to share your thoughts, either by leaving a comment here or on our social media pages, where this article will be shared.

You can find the Bridge Cottage Way on Facebook Twitter and Instagram.

You might enjoy some of the writing and ideas in other sections of this website, as we look towards leading more sustainable lives by growing our own food and creating dishes in line with seasonal eating, or head to our handy ‘Month by Month’ guides to find out what we have been doing here at Bridge Cottage as the months go by:

Many thanks for reading.

With Facebook and Instagram algorithms being fickle friends at times, be sure to get all new posts from The Bridge Cottage Way by signing up for the mailing list here. This will go out four times a year, with the seasons in Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter. We, of course, will not share your details with third parties, and you have the right to unsubscribe at any time.

Elderberry Tonic – Autumn Foraging

September 22, 2020/0 Comments/in Foraging for Free Food, The Bridge Cottage Kitchen/by Sue Reed

Elderberry Tonic

The autumn equinox is a time for gathering and preparing for the winter, and what better way is there than making some super healthy elderberry tonic to ward off winter colds and flu?

It’s easy to make and tastes delicious. Drink it neat in shot glasses, or hot with warm water added or cold in fizzy water.

Elderberries are high in vitamin C, and elderberry tonic is a staple in our house.

More info about the health benefits can be found here, – Health benefits of elderberries – but rather than buy commercial elderberry tonic, why not make your own with our simple recipe?

Elderberries

Elderberry Tonic Recipe:

Collect a bag of ripe elderberries, and then once home, wash and pop off the stalks with a fork, into a saucepan.

Add water until just covered.

Add a cinnamon stick, good chunk root ginger, chopped, and some cloves & star anise.

Bring to the boil & simmer for 20 mins.

Strain through muslin, or a clean tea towel inside a colander. Squeeze all the juice out.

Add a good dollop of honey to taste and bottle into clean containers.

I freeze some in plastic bottles for the depths of winter and keep a bottle in the fridge door for daily slurps.

Cheers! Keep Healthy and Stay Safe 🙂

As ever, we’d love you to share your thoughts, either by leaving a comment here or on our social media pages, where this article will be shared.

You can subscribe to the Bridge Cottage Way on Substack to receive regular newsletters straight to your inbox.

You might enjoy some of the writing and ideas in other sections of this website, as we look towards leading more sustainable lives by growing our own food and creating dishes in line with seasonal eating, or head to our handy ‘Month by Month’ guides to find out what we have been doing here at Bridge Cottage as the months go by:

Many thanks for reading.

With Facebook and Instagram algorithms being fickle friends at times, be sure to get all new posts from The Bridge Cottage Way by signing up for the mailing list here. This will go our four times a year, with the seasons in Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter. We, of course, will not share your details with third parties, and you have the right to unsubscribe at any time.

Tim & Sue in the Bridge Cottage Way garden

Tomatoes – Late Summer Seasonal Eating

September 8, 2020/0 Comments/in The Bridge Cottage Kitchen/by Sue Reed

Tomatoes – late summer seasonal eating

It is September as I write, and the tomatoes will soon be gone for another year. Seasonal eating means that we embrace vegetables when the time comes, but then don’t eat them until the next season comes around. I wouldn’t thank you for a plastic tray of tomatoes, bought from a supermarket that has been grown in a plastic tent in miles from here. Once they’ve gone, we will wait until tomato season comes again for fresh tomatoes. We do, however, preserve our tomatoes in various ways, freezing passata, drying and pickling. I thought I’d share a few of our favourite recipes with you here. Feel free to add any more suggestions in the comments below.

homemade pizza

It has been a good year, with plenty of tomatoes in the greenhouse and growing outside along the south-facing wall of our conservatory. We grow a variety of tomatoes, some suited to specific purposes, like the San Marzano, which makes the best pizza sauce. If you’ve been following on social media, you’ll have heard about Tim’s fabulous pizza oven build, which was his lockdown project.

Portuguese tomatoes

These big plump tomatoes came from Portugal, where we were on holiday a couple of years ago. We’d stayed in an Air BnB in a village a few miles inland from the coast of the Algarve, and bought our veg from a lady in the local market. Her tomatoes were delicious. She told us she sold them, and her husband grew them on their smallholding. We spread some of the tomato seeds on a piece of kitchen roll and brought them home, dried. We may have been breaking import laws, I have no idea.

They’ve grown amazingly well up here in Northumberland, and have been great for making stuffed tomato recipes, of which I’ll now give you two: Evoke holiday memories of a Greek taverna with Greek Stuffed tomatoes and Lentil & Chorizo Stuffed Tomatoes.

Greek Rice-Stuffed Tomatoes (serves two as a main dish, or 4 as a starter)

Taken from Sainsbury’s Magazine

Greek Rice-Stuffed Tomatoes

Ingredients

4 Beef Tomatoes

3 tbsp olive oil

1 small onion, finely chopped,

150g long grain rice

1 tsp tomato pureé

2 tbsp chopped flat-leaf parsley

2 tbsp chopped dill

2 tbsp chopped mint leaves

Finely grated zest 1 lemon.

Method

Preheat the oven to 200°C, fan 180°C, gas 6. Cut the tops off the tomatoes and, using a teaspoon, carefully scoop out the soft pulp and seeds and transfer to a bowl. Put the tomato shells into a baking dish. Set aside the tops until ready to bake.
Heat 2 tbsps of the olive oil in a frying pan set over a low heat. Add the onion and fry for 10 minutes until softened, without allowing it to brown. Roughly chop any large pieces of tomato then add to the pan with the rice, tomato pureé and 100ml just-boiled water. Season with salt and pepper
Bring the mixture to the boil and continue to cook for 12 minutes, stirring often, until the rice is cooked, but still al dente. Remove from the heat and stir in the chopped flat-leaf parsley, dill, mint and grated lemon zest.
Fill the prepared tomato shells with the rice mixture and return the tops.
Drizzle with the remaining oil, cover with foil and bake in the preheated oven for 1 hour, until the rice is tender. Serve warm from the oven.

Chorizo and Lentil Stuffed Tomatoes (serves two as a main dish, or 4 as a starter)

Vegans leave off the mozzarella at the end, and omit the chorizo

Lentil and Chorizo Stuffed Tomatoes

Ingredients

4 Beef Tomatoes

3 tbsp olive oil

1 small onion, finely chopped,

75g chorizo, finely chopped,

125g puy, brown or green lentils, cooked and drained.

2tbsp flat-leaf parsley, chopped,

2 tbsp oregano, chopped

Method

Preheat the oven to 200°C, fan 180°C, gas 6. Cut the tops off the tomatoes and, using a teaspoon, carefully scoop out the soft pulp and seeds and transfer to a bowl. Put the tomato shells into a baking dish.
Heat 2 tbsps of the olive oil in a frying pan set over low heat. Add the onion and fry for 5 minutes then add the chorizo and fry for another 5 minutes.
Add the tomatoes, chopping any large lumps, lentils and herbs. Season with salt and pepper and cook for another 3-4 minutes.
Place tomato shells in an ovenproof dish and load the shells with the lentil stuffing.
Bake for 20 minutes or until the shells are soft with optional mozzarella on the top. If not using mozzarella, place the tops of the tomatoes cutaway in stage 1 to keep the moisture in.
Serve warm from the oven.

Homemade Passata

Chopped tomatoes, garlic, olive oil and oregano

A simple way of making bags of tomato sauce to freeze and use for pasta sauces, pizzas, or soups.

Simply cut tomatoes in half and place in a baking tray with cloves of garlic, seasonal herbs such as basil or oregano and give a good slug of olive oil . Mix everything with your hands, then bake in a moderate oven, around 180°C 350°F, gas mark 4 for around 20 mins, or until the edges of the skins are turning brown.

Cooked Tomatoes for Passata

Cool slightly then tip in a large jug or heatproof bowl and blend using a hand blender, taking care not to burn yourself.

If you want a totally smooth passata, without pips, then pass through a sieve, but we just blend everything to a fine pulp.

Once totally cool, bag up, and freeze. I find 4 ladlefuls is about the right amount in each bag. You’ll be so glad you went to the effort when winter comes, and it’s another thing less to have to buy from the supermarkets.

Oven-Dried Tomatoes

We’ve also attempted to make our own version of Sundried Tomatoes, and very delicious they are too! We simply laid halved cherry tomatoes on a wire rack and let them dry out slowly in a very cool oven overnight. Ours was the outdoor pizza oven after it had cooled right down. I guess if you were using a conventional oven, then you’d turn it on, heat it and then turn it off with the tomatoes still in – you’ll have to experiment!

Daisy helps Grandad make Cherry Tomato Bombs

Daisy has been helping Grandad to make ‘cherry tomato bombs’ (Rachel deThamples title, not mine – I’m a pacifist!!) – we got the book ‘Fermentation’ in the wonderful River Cottage series (you’ll hear me wax lyrical about this series on lots of occasions) and Tim has gone into overdrive on the fermentation front…..but I guess that’s a post for another time.

Saved tomato seed

Don’t forget to save your tomato seed for next year!

As ever, we’d love you to share your thoughts, either by leaving a comment here or on our social media pages, where this article will be shared.

You can find the Bridge Cottage Way on Facebook Twitter and Instagram.

You might enjoy some of the writing and ideas in other sections of this website, as we look towards leading more sustainable lives by growing our own food and creating dishes in line with seasonal eating, or head to our handy ‘Month by Month’ guides to find out what we have been doing here at Bridge Cottage as the months go by:

Many thanks for reading.

With Facebook and Instagram algorithms being fickle friends at times, be sure to get all new posts from The Bridge Cottage Way by signing up for the mailing list here. This will go our four times a year, with the seasons in Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter. We, of course, will not share your details with third parties, and you have the right to unsubscribe at any time.

Tag Archive for: The Bridge Cottage Way