Autumn Bits and Bobs

A place to chat about anything you like, including non-gardening related subjects. Just keep it clean, please!

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Shallot Man
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Still have roses coming into bloom.
Stravaig
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Me too! (Oops, has that phrase been banned from its normal usage?) What I meant was that I also have a couple of rose buds on my windowsill rose bush. Mind you, with the hydroponic lights on there, the plants don't know what season it is.

And - yippee!!! - there are five green beans which are almost ready for harvesting too. My first ever home-grown beans.

You can buy loads of lovely food here in the warmer months. Not so much in the winter so I'm keen to DIY (or GIY in this case). I know that seasonal cooking is very much admired these days but my little indoor garden doesn't pay heed to the seasons. And it really is amazing how much you can grow in a very small space.

I grow more here inside the flat than I did in our garden in Kent. There was no need to grow much there because the supermarket was five minutes away and had everything all year round. That said, I did have a good herb garden in containers on the patio.
Monika
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Stravaig, presumably your winter are very cold and your summers very hot? That must make gardening rather challenging, even inside ....
Stravaig
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In theory, yes, Monika. Cold winters and hot summers. But last year we barely had a winter at all. Normally we'd expect constant snow from mid-November to early March but it only snowed a few times and didn't lie on the ground. Even in winter, it's quite sunny when it's not snowing.

Anyway, our flat has central heating and air conditioning so the temperature doesn't change much from season to season. Plus I can grow what I want when I want to with my little hydroponic systems. I'm making a much better job of my indoor garden than I ever did outside. :D
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oldherbaceous
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Really pleased with the late runner beans...picked a carrier bag full Friday and just picked another one just now...if the frosts hold off, there will be a lot more too.
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Primrose
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My beans long finished sadly but just picked some more really nice firm solid leeks for leek, potato and pancetta soup. Hate the loss of the warmer weather but chillier times do give us the chance to eat more seasonally and a big pan from simmering soup from home grown vegetables is one of the joys of autumn and winter,

Somehow opening a can of commercial soup just doesn't tick the same satisfaction box!

Looks like OH's harem will be finding gifts on their doorsteps!
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oldherbaceous
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I made a veg box up as a Birthday gift, for a Lady that has everything, she was over the moon with it....well she said she was... :)
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Monika
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As every Sunday, I cooked a large pot of soup this morning, enough to last for one meal each day for a week, but today it was not just vegetables, I included small piece of gammon! So we will live extravagantly this week, actually my OH does not like the veg soups I make (too bland for him, I think), so the gammon taste might tempt him ....
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Primrose
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Agree Monika, Gammon is such a nice addition for soups and it makes lovely stock. I find the onky problem is Yiu never quite know how salty it,s going to be so ai generally soak it I. Cold water overnight first before cooking. And with a good supply of split yellow peas and lentils in the cupboard one need never go hungry

Lentil soup was one of my Mum's standbys when I was a kid in the post war austerity years although there wasn,t much gammon in it In those days! For many years ages ago , the manager of our staff canteenAt work used to save me his gammon joint bones for stock making Whenever it was on the menu , and they usually had a lot of meat still left on them so they provided many free meals. The irony of it was when soup was on the staff menu, it was made from dried mixes from those big catering size tins!

We sometimes buy packs of tiny pieces of chopped pancetta from Waitrose and keep a couple in the freezer. Always useful for throwing a handful into a soup mixture if flavour needs needs boosting up a bit. We put some into our leek & potato soup today! Chopped smoked frankfurters are also good flavour boosters. We wrap them individually, store in freezer and just grab as needed.
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peter
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Our Sainsbury's x 2 and Tesco both do what they call "cooking bacon", it's the bits that mucked up in the slicer and if you rummage through the packs, the bits that couldn't go through the slicer cos the spikes holding it in were stuck in the last half inch. They turn up smoked or not by pack.
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Primrose
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I,m wondering if a big pan of home made soup is now a generational thing. The few younger people I know Cup of soup p let into a beaker and pour boiling water on it! Know it s quick and easy (and we do keep a couple of packets in our emergency store cupboard but it,w hardly feels like a sustaining meal does it?

And talking of soup, we often accumulate all our home made bread crusts, chop into small cubes and turn into garlic croutons, which are lovely with soup. (If you like garlic of course !)
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I think it’s time to get the big pan out of cold storage , lentil soup with a couple of ham shanks will go down a treat as the weather gets colder
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Geoff
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Our Sainsbury's x 2 and Tesco both do what they call "cooking bacon"


and Lidl £1.45 a pack but I can't remember the weight and we are out of stock. Goes in soups and other things including BLTs. Great value.

Really pleased with the late runner beans


I wish, got really healthy plants with lots of good foliage but no beans, all the flowers blew off.
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Primrose
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Good old British common sense and stoicism Robo. Hope it,s now healing, but please don't try that one again in a hurry !
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oldherbaceous wrote:I made a veg box up as a Birthday gift, for a Lady that has everything, she was over the moon with it....well she said she was... :)

Yes, extraordinarily we are still picking runner beans at the charity garden.
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