The clocks have gone back, the evenings are dark, however this is a great time to get composting. If you have a vegetable plot, no doubt the runner beans are looking very tired, the pumpkins and squash have been harvested for Halloween and the weeds are taking over. A quick tidy up now will make your garden look loved and will give you some space for planting some winter crops. Your compost bin will have been very busy over the warm Summer months with all the bugs and bacteria working hard to decompose your waste. As it gets colder, this activity will slow down, but not stop so there should be plenty of space in your bin for this Autumn’s tidy up.
If you have loads of fallen leaves, you might consider making leaf mould. Leaves take a couple of years to fully break down so consider making a separate pile of leaves either in another compost bin, by placing them in black bin bags with holes in or by making a chicken wire bin that will contain the leaves and stop them blowing away. Whichever way you do it you will produce a nutrient rich, crumbly compost that will enrich your soil for the future.
A busy week
We’ve been making chutney and apple and cherry pies with some of the fruit and vegetables we’ve been harvesting over the last couple of months. Our compost caddy in the kitchen has been overflowing with peelings so to maintain the balance, I have been putting a lot more cardboard into my compost bin, rather than out for recycling. This has included my egg boxes, but also cereal boxes and other packaging. I have actually used the cardboard boxes as temporary caddies, filling them up with apple peelings and runner bean strings before throwing the whole lot in the compost bin. It’s certainly made tidying up easier and has ensured that the carbon : nitrogen ratio is accurate.
Julia’s Spicy Green Bean Chutney Recipe
I adapted a Delia Smith recipe to give my chutney a bit more spiciness. The ingredients are as follows:
2 lb (900 gr) runner beans (after trimming and slicing)
1½ lb (700 g) onions, chopped
1½ pints (850 ml) malt vinegar
1½ oz (40 g) cornflour
1 heaped tablespoon mustard powder
1 rounded tablespoon turmeric
1 heaped teaspoon of chilli flakes
8 oz (225 g) soft brown sugar
1 lb (450 g) demerara sugar
salt
Julia Pollard
