What to do with green tomatoes.

Our first frost has now finished off our tomato plants, i was about to dig them up anyway but was hoping to get the last ones ripened off a bit more before i dug them out.

So i had a lot of green tomatoes to do something with, (2 1/2 kilo's)

The obvious thing to do with them is chutney so i did a bit of hunting around and found a nice simple recipe on the net :http://www.blagger.co.uk/recipes/easy-green-tomato-chutney-recipe/

Nice and simple which allows you to add your own twist which is always a good thing, i have tried chutneys before but the recipe's can be very in depth and i like to make my own choices as far as hotness and spices go.

Washed toms.

Roughly chopped.

Next 6 small onions, regrettably shop bought as we did not have the option of growing much this season, the toms where grown in grow bags. 

 next  the sugar white or brown, some sultanas and ground black pepper, you can also add spices along with the vinegar if you like, i used white wine vinegar and added a little chinese 5 spice. Bring this to the boil and then reduce heat and simmer for about 90 mnutes or until

 the tomatoes brake down and reduce, you need to give it a stir ever so often to stop the chuntey catching due to the high sugar content.

I had to use two pans (well a pan and a wok) as i didnt have a pan big enough to fit all the ingredient's in in one. This gave me to option of making two different variations so i left the spice out of the other one only adding extra ground black pepper.

Whilst the chutney cooks down you can wash and sterilize your jars ready for potting up. (if thats the rite word)?.

Nice stuff too, well we are looking forward to our new home and all the extra space and garden we will have and opportunity's that this will offer.

Feel free to ask any questions on this or any other entries and check back to see how we are progressing.

Next task is the packing.

Oh goody!!!

Leigh

caravan repairs.

Now you know when then say  "if it seems too good to be true it usually is"?? well it's true.
I bought a caravan about a month ago it had everything with it, awning, porta potti, etc.

 
Well i also came with the dreaded DAMP!!!! AAAHHHHH!!! no not the damp!!!
Well it was more of a leak really, anyway suffice to say we couldn't use it as it was and i was not about to scrap it.
I decided to take the boards off of the offending area to have a look, the theory being "it's only a bit of damp and i can replace the board when i have sorted the leak.
OH MY GOD! the entire rear of the right hand wall and half of the rear wall was completely shot and i mean fall apart in your hands stuff.
So i decided it all had to come out, over the course of a few evenings and weekends it was all stripped out and the offending puncture wound located and repaired.
Next it was off  to the local DIY store to source some wood and sticky stuff and £70 later i was ready to start the rebuild.
I had marked out the outlines of the original wood so i set about cutting and fitting the replacements.

this is about half way through the frame work, you can see the marks on the tin where the wood still needed to be fitted.

Now its amazing the things you find out when you go headlong into a repair project like this, for instance, how many of you knew that a caravan is built from the inside out?.
Well i didn't until i was stripping this thing down and found that all the screws holding the thing together where put in from the outside,( the tin was fitted last).
So that was a joy trying to remove rusted screws from the wrong end.
anyway i managed to get it done and it was no mean feat i can tell you, i certainly wouldn't want to do another one in a hurry, but i did enjoy it in a "learning new stuff" kind of way. LOL

Just needs some textured paper and some paint and she is good to go.
Well that part is anyway.
I'm sure there is more but thats another entry.
I look forward to your comments.
Leigh

Tiddly-om-pom Poems: This blog has moved

Tiddly-om-pom Poems: This blog has moved

Chickens.

Well we are going to be keeping chickens in the garden, i have now read more books on keeping chickens than i care to remember and i think i am more confused now than i was before hand.
I do know that we wont be getting ex battery hens as our first hens.
This is only because we do not want to get put off as i know ex battery birds can be in an awful state, and not really for the beginner to get involved in.
We have been looking at housing for the birds, we like the look of some of these new recycled plastic ones,they offer great  protection against mites.

Recycled plastic hen house.

 we will have to see how much money its all going to cost though, i will probably end up getting the saw and nails out.
Any body got any plans for a chicken coup? ones like these are commonly available and not too expensive, but they will requires treating annually with non toxic treatment, and repairs periodically.

i know my wife has got ideas of which type of hens she wants and i know her and our daughter are going to be in charge of them, so i guess that means i just got to build the hen house. ha we will see!.
I have read that we will have to keep vermin under control , i think we will be ok there as we have two Jack russell terriers, and i have an air rifle if it comes to it.

Both our jack russels come from working stock however, Flynn (above) is a fat and happy house dog who has not got a clue when it comes to hunting, all mouth no trousers.

This is Woody, now he is a real hunter.

.

He used to catch the mice that the cat had  let go in the kitchen (like they do) so rat / mouse control will be his job, maybe he will teach Flynn?.

I don't agree with poisons unless there is no other way, the method is indiscriminant and just inhumane in my opinion.

Next to look at will be Fencing for our fine feathered friends run, i'm thinking about electric fencing, good for keeping out the fox, the dogs will help with this too and easy to move about.
Haven't had a chance to check prices yet so i will post these later.

Which rotovator.

We have a need for a Rotovator as we have a large area of ground we want to cultivate, i have been looking on good old ebay to find such an item and i dont know what to do, i need a driven one as i dont want to be hanging on for grim death all day.
There are some realy nice old Howard rotovators that would be good but then again for the same price i can buy one of these imported jobs and have it delivered.
Does anyone know what these imported things are like, are they any good or am i better off getting an old Howard?
My Dad has got an old merry tiller but i cant hang on to the dam thing, and with the garden being all grass at the moment the thought of having to churn through all that and hang on does not appeal.