First taste of home-grown sweetcorn!

I decided to take the plunge and pick a cob today. This is the one I checked for ripeness the other day and you can now see how much the top of the cob is undeveloped. After I'd fully opened it up and squeezed one of the kernels closer to the base of the cob and the liquid that emerged was milky.

I boiled it for 3 minutes and it was lovely and sweet. However the kernels were quite small. They look quite plump but they are actually quite shallow so when you bite into it you don't get a satisfying amount of corn to munch on. But I'm still really pleased that I've managed to grow a new vegetable and it was edible! Most of my corn plants have double cobs, so we've still got a few more to enjoy!

you can read more about growing sweetcorn here

Blackberry & Apple Loaf

MUNCH RATING: 5/5

I've made this cake before but I didn't write a post, however it turned out so well again this time that I thought it deserved a mention. I really like this cake because it's so easy to make - you don't need to cream the butter and sugar together, just rub them together with the flour like when making a crumble. It's also lovely and moist but it has a crunchy topping for a great texture contrast.

Also this time I used blackberries that Steve and I picked from our local hedgerows, so that made it a bit more special. I'd frozen the berries and it worked just as well as the first time I'd made the cake. To freeze berries is incredibly easy - just wash the fruit and drain really well. Then I cover large baking trays with cling film to stop the berries from sticking to the trays and then just pop them in the freezer for about an hour or until they're hard and then pop them into freezer bags. The berries can be used straight from the freezer in this cake.

CHANGES TO THE RECIPE:
The recipe is from BBC Good Food, but I tweaked it slightly by using soft brown sugar instead of muscovado and using 75g less sugar as I always reduce sugar in cake recipes. The apple gives it enough sweetness and makes the cake lovely and moist.

I also used a silicone loaf pan which is slightly wider so my cake wasn't as deep, so it cooked more quickly.

you can find the original recipe here

• Oven temperature: Gas mark 4/350°F/180°C
• Oven shelf: middle
• You will need: a 1.7 litre loaf tin 

• 250g self-raising flour
• 175g butter (I used Stork, at room temperature)
• 100g soft brown sugar
• ½ tsp cinnamon
• 2 rounded tbsp demerara sugar
• 1 small Gala apple, (not cored or peeled)
• 2 large eggs, beaten
• 1 orange, finely grated zest
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 225g blackberries (fresh or frozen)

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to Gas mark 4/350°F/180°C. Butter and line the bottom of a 1.7 litre loaf tin (no need to do this if using silicone). In a large bowl, rub the flour, butter and brown sugar together with your fingers to make fine crumbs. Measure out 5 level tbsp of this mixture into a small bowl for the topping, and mix into it the cinnamon and demerara sugar. Set aside.
2. Coarsely grate the apple down to the core and mix in with the eggs and the zest. Stir the baking powder into the rubbed-in mixture in the large bowl, then quickly and lightly stir in the egg mixture until it drops lightly from the spoon. Don't overmix.
3. Gently fold in three quarters of the berries with a metal spoon, trying not to break them up. Spoon into the tin and level. Scatter the rest of the berries on top. Sprinkle over the topping and bake for 50 minutes and then cover loosely with foil and bake for a further 30 minutes. When done the cake will feel firm, but test with a skewer.
4. Leave in the tin for 30 minutes before turning out, then cool on a wire rack. Peel off the paper before cutting. Will keep wrapped in foil or in a tin for up to 2 days.

Growing chillies, tomatoes and peppers

My chillies have actually done quite well this year and I've had a few that have turned red despite the poor summer. The secret of my success? It's because these plants were grown last year and I overwintered them. Before I read about overwintering I had always assumed chilli plants had to be thrown away after the fruits were harvested. But following the advice on the Chilli King website shows that the plants can produce again after a sleep through the winter. I admit that I cut a few corners with my overwintering process, in that I didn't put the plants in new compost. I simply pruned the plant to 10-15cm of the main stem.

I will try overwintering these plants again this year, however I think I will give them some fresh compost as I think they need a boost of nutrients. The stems are starting to look quite woody and I'm not sure if this is a good thing or not. I'm looking at it as a positive sign that the plant is just becoming more mature and since there appears to be new growth I'm not going to worry too much.

you can read about my chilli growing from last year here

Now onto peppers. These are called Sweet Mohawk Peppers and they're supposed to be small and bright orange. I bought this as a small plant from the garden centre so I expected them to have enough time to grow and ripen, but there is absolutely no sign of even a slight orange tinge to them yet! I find it strange because these peppers have been in the same mini greenhouse (the plastic type) as my chillies and they have already started to turn colour. I'm really not that keen on green peppers, so I'm really hoping these will turn orange! I don't think I'll bother trying to grow peppers in the future as we just don't have enough sun in the UK!

Finally these are my tomatoes. This is the first time I've tried a bush variety - these are Tumbling Toms. I love that the bush variety needs very little attention in that you don't need to pinch out the sideshoots like you do with the cordon variety. My tomatoes in the past have grown out of control because I haven't been prudent enough in my pruning and they have needed lots of support with canes. This bush variety has grown quite happily in a large pot, but unfortunately a lot of the fruits have turned red before they have grown to a decent size. They are still rather tasty and I will definitely grow these again next year.