Autumn planting and a recipe

With frost about to make it presence felt, I decided it was time to give baby bear pumpkin and the spaghetti squash a home in doors.

There still a bit 'green around the stem' but hopefully with a spell on the windowsill they should be orange in no time.

A couple of big pots going spare, I chose to plant them up with something that would come in very useful in our house- and that's garlic.  The hubby and I are big fans of spicy food, so if we get a few bulbs growing then they'll be more than welcome, and judging by this picture of a weeks growth we might be in luck!

 

 

 

Writing of garlic has quite neatly brought me up to my recipe, a quick and simple passata, which I made using my home grown 'tumble tom yellow.'

 

 

I didn't exactly get a bumper crop of tomatoes this year, but I really wanted to give making passata a go, so I wasn't going to let a little thing of only having a hand of toms put me off!

 

Tomato Passata 

First wash the fruit and cut into halves.

 

 

Put the tomatoes into a pan with a splash of boiling water and two cloves of garlic

(shop bought garlic this time I afraid!)

 

 

Boil tomatoes and garlic until the fruit is a pulp and until most of the water has evaporated.

Once slightly cooled push the mixture through a sieve to produce a smooth paste.

 

 

And there you have it!  A small but perfectly formed portion of passata! 

Arachnophobs look away now....

For part of my autumnal planting, I have bought and planted up a foxtail lily in potato bag full of gritty compost.  I have attempted to grow these before, but thinking back I am certain I put them in the ground crown side down (doh!).

I have to admit when I bought these bulbs the first time over the internet, I thought I had been sent a Halloween decoration by mistake.  There's definitely a creepy crawly quality to them, so much so that my arachnophobic Mum let out a yelp on seeing them!

 

With eight legged friends in mind, let me share with you a couple of mine.  The first spider lives in my green house were they keep the pests down to a minimum.

 

 

Here is he or she feasting on a caterpillar.

 

The second was visitor in the house.

 

 

 She (hubby confirmed this as in his younger years he had a pet tarantula!) was quite a biggie by UK standards, about 3 inches long, she had to be removed from the house in one of those novelty glasses that holds a entire bottle of wine!  A few days later, another spider of the same species but slightly smaller was found by hubby in the bathroom.  I am guessing it was male looking for love.  Sadly for him his potential mate was long gone and he didn't hang around either. I went to grab my camera, only to find on my return that the camera shy spider had scuttled off...