North by North

For several months our one and only remaining Musquee de Provence has received admiring comments from all visitors. Today we decided to use it while it still is admirable – the other possibility would have been to sell it but actually we have been curious as we have never tasted Musquee de Provence. Well, now we have – and it was well worth the while! The texture is slightly rougher than, say, Crown Prince,  the taste sweet and fruity.

As the squah is 10+ kg we didn’t use it all but  took a good-sized wedge, peeled and cubed it, seasoned with shallots, garlic, marjoram, chilli and lemon, topped it with parmesan and put it into oven. It took about an hour in 200C.

After dinner we steamed half of the fruit in cubes that we froze. The other half will be done tomorrow.

Once again I have read the blogs with envy – no hope for any sowing here till mid-March (and even then of course in the house). But I have been planning… Chillies now – a few years ago I thought a chilli is a chilli (more or less cayenne pepper) and that’s that. Now we know better and plan accordingly. Hungarian Black to be used fresh; Hungarian Hot Wax and Inferno for chilli sauce and Devil’s Jam; Jamaican Bell to stuff with cheese and smoked reindeer; Fish Pepper and either Bulgarian Carrot or Numex Big Jim for drying

Last season the dried ones were a medley – anything that upon nibbling proved very hot (Hungarian Hot Wax and Inferno can be very deceptive) went into the dryer and from there to the grinder; we use quite a lot of them.

Once again we and the dogs have survived the Russian season; for the first half of it the weather was miserable and there was practically no snow and on lakes no ice – but as there was a general clamour for dog sleigh riding we tried to drive more or less on (poorly) frozen morning dew. Vipsa’s expression tells it all, “AM I really supposed to run THERE?”

Once again the shops have closed at noon, the  Christmas  Peace has been declared for the whole country and we all are preparing for the evening festivities . It seems that this year Father Christmas has to hire a car (or a boat) to reach Southern Finland – here we do have snow, more or less (rather less). But snow or not – we wish you all a wonderful holiday season!

An old Finnish saying – and like most sayings, not quite accurate. Having grown up between two brothers (at times literally) I can assure you that the years are exactly like brothers – clashing every so often. – At this time last year we had -20C, blue skies and fairly deep snow – now we have -0.3C, miserably dark and a layer of wet slush. A thin layer, yes, but enough to show that our lynx is around again – these tracks are some 100 m from the house

You might see from the peaceful pacing that the blue mountain hare and the lynx have not been at the same time on the spot.

To forget the weather I have carried on buying seeds. Christmas does interfere with this activity – what with all Christmas cards, toy catalogues (rather toy encyclopedias) and announcements of various vaguely Christmas-related festivities the postman seems to have mislaid the latest VegSeeds parcel – I’m waiting impatiently for my new calabrese, lettuces, sweet marjoram, beans and other goodies…

Like everybody, we are preparing for Christmas. We still have a fair amount of squashes (though the gourmet restaurant feeds its customers on our squashes) and thus we can make oven-baked squash pudding. The recipe (an encore from last year) follows:

Steamed cubes of squash, grated lemon rind, parmesan and fresh ginger, chilli-salt mixture (also grated), onion, garlic, nutmeg, cloves, thyme, some additional salt, breadcrumbs soaked in cream

Blend everything into a smooth purée, fill the containers, sieve on them some breadcrumbs and dot with butter, bake in +175-200 oven for 1 – 1.5 hours.

Take out and enjoy. The three forms on the right side are gluten-free, for a friend with Celiac disease. – The Jerusalem artichoke pudding is prepared basically the same way but with different spices.

Every dinner has some elements of our harvest – here is a stew of Jerusalem artichokes, onion and parmesan (and a few frankfurters), with a side dish of mushroom salad (fen chantarelles, red onion, garlic, etc).

The snow seems to have an identity crisis this year: here yesterday

and gone today – and definitely gone with the wind!

The greenhouse used to be (yesterday) quite nicely and carefully covered… The days are so dark and miserable that it has been necessary to buy a lot of seeds to be able to dream about next season. With all mouth-watering varieties of aubergines, chillies, sweet peppers, etc. a second greenhouse would really be needed!

The beds in the first photo are those of garlic and Jerusalem artichoke, all ready for next season.  A bit more artichoke than this year; it’s so tasty in soups and stews. – Hopefully they don’t start sprouting too early; at least the garlic upstairs has had a burst of unforeseen activity

The tiny cloves (rather bulbs) we have seen before and also flowers (ours are winter garlic so the quality doesn’t deteriorate if and when they have flowers) but this is something new…

As the summer was rather wet we were worried about the herbs – sweet marjoram suffered badly but for instance thyme harvest was better than we expected (though it took rather long to dry)

The last bunches are still in the sauna but it’s about time to transfer them into jars. The extended family uses lots of thyme but I suspect we might even have a bit extra for the catering enterprise.

Once again I visited my daughter – a traditional before-Christmas visit. Felt really like at home: got squash for dinner every day. – And speaking of squashes, these beauties decorate nowadays our livingroom

Two Marina di Chioggia and a Musquee de Provence.

…we are today. Yesterday Pekka had a look at the weather forecast and made tracks to the vegetable patch: up with carrots, parsnips, leeks, Hamburg parsleys and thyme. The Jerusalem artichokes were already harvested but still out; now they also are in the (unheated) sauna, waiting to be taken to the restaurant. Yesterday we peeled, sliced, steamed and froze parsnips and Hamburg parsley; today’s programme is slicing leeks, putting them in vacuum bags and freezing them – the only way not to have the wild strawberries in the freezer smell like leeks.

Last week we went to Helsinki and (among other things) took some firewood and vegetables to my daughter’s family. As usually, the squash selection was rather formidable

The two biggest ones – Marina di Chioggia and Crown Prince – are off camera.  She wants to have a few squash plants herself next year – Gold Nugget (lower left hand corner) was our first suggestion as their yard is relatively small.

It’s not as if we’d have a shortage of squashes left to us. Here again is a dinner

Cornell’s Bush Delicata with carrots, onions, garlic and chicken.

Last weekend we were cruising round the vicinity in the hope of still seeing migratory birds. Nothing – till a few kilometres from home we found them: 30+ whooper swans

Very late for them but as you see, quite a few this year’s cygnets and it takes a long time for them to learn to fly. Fortunately it has been warm and the lakes are not frozen.

… though not so fast as we anticipated: harvesting has been slowed down by the (for us) unseasonably warm weather (all of +6!) and today and in days to come by the wintertime (yeah – thanks a lot for that, dear Management! For us it means that it is greyish instead of black when we get up – and black by the time we would usually be still working in the garden). Anyway – today we bagged the last Jerusalem artichokes, some 20 kg of them, so the patch is now ready for replanting. A few carrots, the majority of parsnips, leeks and thyme still in the ground; the idea is to have there enough of them to take fresh bounty to my daughter when we visit her family next weekend ( her artichokes she prefers to get steamed and pureed – I have obviously spoilt her…).

Yesterday we went to the city for our weekly shopping spree and to take some pumpkin pie to Pekka’s parents. At the parking place an elderly man came to us and asked whether we’d want to buy vendace he had caught that day. We for sure wanted – bought a kilo and had a festive dinner:

Fried vendace with stir-fried onion, leek, squash (Fairy), chilli (Hungarian Black), garlic and herbs. Bowing to the tradition, we ate the vendace with our fingers. – We are using these days our wood-burning stove; it is quick and gives enough extra warmth so that we don’t need to turn the central heating on.

And from the Squash and Pumpkin Gallery

Cream of the Crop

We have really done our best to ensure winter vegetables for granddaughter Alexandra (age 3.5 months) – the selection at the moment includes carrots (white, yellow, orange and the raspberry-orange in the photo),

parsnip, Hamburg parsley,  cauliflower, calabrese, courgette, squash, sweet corn – we are still discussing Jerusalem artichoke as it causes wind with some people and that would not be so good for a baby. The vegetables are just steamed, pureed and then frozen in ice cube trays. We have told her parents that for all we care they can buy a potato for her every now and then – we are not going to freeze potatoes.

As you can see from Alexandra’s diet we have  quite colourful carrots; about half of them are still in the ground – but we are getting to them slow by slow.

In the mornings there tends to be frost on the ground. Yesterday Pekka planted some 70 garlic cloves; next week we’ll plant Jerusalem artichoke. The harvest of them has been good – some 40 kg up to now and more than 30 kg still to come – we have promised to sell most of them to a gourmet restaurant that doesn’t want them all at once; I can well understand that – as you can see, peeling them is no joke!

The catering enterprise suggested we’d peel and prepare everything for them and I informed them that in that case they have to pay for time,  Salvequick for my fingers, and for damages to my future – I definitely shall not get into heaven after all the swearing involved in the peeling.

Lots of flowers still in the garden: pot marigold, various snapdragons, blue Nemophila, a misguided lily, and Aster Hulk…

Not at night but just at sunrise – quite pretty and very annoying. Especially as it means that we have to somehow find place in the freezers for carrots, leeks, parsnips and Jerusalem artichokes. Not much for Hamburg parsleys – the everlasting rain has caused them to start rotting in the ground; we managed to get some pureed for the new granddaughter but that was about all.

Only two stems of Jamaican Bell chillies left in the greenhouse – everything else has now been harvested

Today's catch: Hungarian Hot Wax, Jamaican Bell, Fish Pepper, Vlasta and Hungarian Black

Pekka has also made the first effort to harvest the Jerusalem artichokes

Next time he might even proceed to the actual beds – these were all “wild” ones from all over the vegetable garden. Fortunately the catering enterprise is interested in these, too.

The garlic has also been harvested – better quality than we dared to hope; not all of them are in the photo as we had to scatter them everywhere in the house – such a healthy perfume we live in now…

While having dinner

we tried to decide what all to get with the bounty from VegSeeds (thanks!). The burning question is: will there be still new/old varieties to come (Bonbon, Crown Prince, Hooligan, Fairy, Sutton, Medes, Javelin, Femspot, etc)?

Our cactus has managed to survive outside even this wet summer – and it seems to appreciate getting in again… It’s supposed to be a Christmas cactus but seems to be an autumnal equinox one…

Sorry, couldn’t resist the title though actually we have had a – for our conditions – reasonably warm autumn; and an unreasonably wet one (hence the colds). Most of the root vegetables are still in the ground; let’s hope they won’t stay there permanently. There are still some sweet peppers, chillies and tomatoes in the greenhouse but most of them have been already eaten/processed. The last aubergines are in the fridge – and we are already planning a colour scheme of them for next season…

Yes, the leeks are also still in the ground and doing well – here is a short video clip showing mainly how we transplant them. If you have a dozen plants or so it is of course easier to transplant them into peat pots but when you have 100+ you need to have something a bit more intensive…

OK, so we are living on a hill but that only means no wading while loading the Ark; water will be deep when it gets here (in a week or so at this rate).

It was high time to get the squashes in – especially as this is a year of voles and those &¤¤¤#”?!  sweeties have the same good taste as we have: every single Bonbon has been at least nibbled upon. So on the one and only rainless day we called in the neighbour lady to help us with the bounty and she duly came and helped.

Most of the damage is like beauty – only skin deep; but it means that we have to eat Bonbons first and not save them till Christmas. A pity. – As you see, we cannot exactly complain about the productivity of the squashes – either of the vines

A tiny part

or the fruits

A medley

The total weight of the harvest is some 350 kg – quite a lot for two people to consume. There might be a fair amount of surprises waiting for us when we really start sampling the lot; so far we have decided that Fairy (on the top of the trolley in front) will figure on our shopping list for next year – together with the staples: Crown Prince, Bonbon, Marina di Chioggia, Hooligan, Sdobnaya, Forest Nut/Uchiki kuri. Today we tried the latter – really tasty bright orange flesh.

We have also harvested the sweet peppers and frozen quite a lot of them.

Beauty Bell, Sweet Banana, Alma Paprika

The earliest one to ripen has been sun-yellow Vlasta – it remains our favourite. – Sweet peppers and chillies tolerate this kind of weather much better than do tomatoes so we can still get fresh ones from the greenhouse and even from the garden. – The aubergines are still flowering and producing.

With sweet corn it is touch and go : about half of them have ripened, the rest would need sunshine and warmth – both in short supply at the moment.

As you see, you can do a lot with home produce – our son decorated a sandwich cake for their daughter’s christening party with our tomatoes, sweet peppers, cucumbers, parsley; and just fashioned  a rose of ham to the landscape…