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Hot oil + Black cardamom seeds and fenugreek seeds

Add onions and fry to near golden then push to one side in the pan and add more oil plus shit loads off garam masala and some turmeric. Fry the spices into a paste, adding vinegar to stop it sticking.

Stir up and add garlic and chopped chillies.

Add vinegar until you've got a decent liquid base. Sieve in gram flour to thicken (can use any flour).

Add chopped beans and sugar and give it a good 5-10 min blast.

Decant into jars.
Forgot to mention salt! Definitely needs salt!
 
Grass [the lawn type !] is growing very quickly, but getting it cut today was a race against time - it was wet here yesterday, and tomorrow is forecast for more wet. So the longer bits were still soggy at lunchtime, however I did get it done. Used up a few molehills as top-dressing / levelling up on the front "lawn" - also weeded out some perennial tap-rooted stuff and yet more sprawling buttercups.

Also picked some "summer fruits" and about half a bucket of early drop cooking apples - too small for anything, except / perhaps, making cider but I don't have kit ready yet, so they've gone to feed the wildlife in the wildwood.

Some more pruning / weeding and generally tidying up also done.
 
It has not been a good veg year for me so far. I've only got 4 squash plants that have got going and a fucking fox has started digging in my garden. It totally dug up two recycling boxes full of veg plants.

Lots of things bolting.

Finally getting some runner beans. Bought some little chard plants to put in gaps. Need to sow something in the grow table. Maybe carrots.
 
It’s a great time of year. Moaning that I don’t have enough jars and lids.
I heard a good tip from someone the other day - jar lids mostly come in a few standard sizes, so they buy a box of new lids (loads cheaper than buying them with jars, and second-hand lids are often minging) and then write TEST on a few and give them out. Anyone who brings them a dozen clean, empty jars that fit that lid gets a filled jar back in exchange.

Should probably start doing this myself, I walked into a charity shop today and the woman on the till went "you're the marmalade man!" :oops: One of the places in town has probably a couple thousand of the little one serving pots you get in hotels etc though and I'm really tempted to get a load...
 
I heard a good tip from someone the other day - jar lids mostly come in a few standard sizes, so they buy a box of new lids (loads cheaper than buying them with jars, and second-hand lids are often minging) and then write TEST on a few and give them out. Anyone who brings them a dozen clean, empty jars that fit that lid gets a filled jar back in exchange.

Should probably start doing this myself, I walked into a charity shop today and the woman on the till went "you're the marmalade man!" :oops: One of the places in town has probably a couple thousand of the little one serving pots you get in hotels etc though and I'm really tempted to get a load...
I've reduced my jars down to just Hellmans vegan mayo ones. I don't think I really eat that much of it, but apparently enough that I've usually got enough for a batch of something, with no scrabbling around for the right lid.
 
I've reduced my jars down to just Hellmans vegan mayo ones. I don't think I really eat that much of it, but apparently enough that I've usually got enough for a batch of something, with no scrabbling around for the right lid.
The labels on the non-vegan Hellmans jars I've been given were an absolute cunt to peel off compared to most others!
 
The labels on the non-vegan Hellmans jars I've been given were an absolute cunt to peel off compared to most others!
They are all like that IME. The days of water-soluble glue seem to be over. You can get them off with a paste of bicarb and vegetable oil but I tend to just ignore it now.
 
Although those tiny jars a real pain to fill, I use quite a lot as "testers" or for the overspill when I don't have enough jam / jelly to half-fill the last "proper" size jars from the batch in progress.

e2a - quite good for taking with you for an overnight stay in a cheap hotel ...
 
I've done all right in a gardening year when the first thing I did was move plants to the back garden and replace them with bricks and bags of rubble. I never want to be without nasturtiums and the "marvel of Peru" (Belle-de-nuit, mirabilis jalapa) have come back with a vengeance and are about to start fragrancing the night air
🙂


invasive2.jpg
 
Anyone here grown brugmansia?

I'm excited about my plant I bought a couple of months ago. I didn't have a clue what I was buying, I only bought it to support the person selling them.

Just looked this morning and it looks like I'm about to see my first flower?

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It took almost 3 weeks for the flower to pop open but it just has, overnight. It looks a bit freaky to me, like nothing I've ever seen in an English garden. The pod and flower must be around 20 inches long.
 

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Because we're buying a home that will be entirely ours, not previously part of the family history, I've signed up for a garden design and planning course.

There's a lot we want to do and have decided it would be a good idea to learn more a out gardening. We want fruit trees, a greenhouse or orangery, a veg garden but we might be a bit over ambitious.
 
How exciting dessiato!
My top tip for garden design would be to spend plenty of time sitting in it and working out e.g. where it gets the morning sun, evening sun etc., and then planning seating areas around that. IME this is best done on a sunny evening with a drink in hand.
It’s a south facing garden, so we are hoping it’ll be quite a sun trap. We are thinking that this might work well for our fig, banana, and avocado plants. We will do it over the next year or two. What you don’t see in the pictures is there’s a drive along the side of it which leads to the garage. This is obscured by a hedge and fence. We will probably remove these as it will give us about a metre and a half extra width for raised planters.
 
My blackberries are starting to ripen, at last.
Looking at the jar supply, going to need a decent supply of sugar.

Been too dull for most stuff this year, although the trees have done well - especially the Bramleys, there'll be another glut of windfalls - and I'll be pruning again this winter.
 
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