A Truncated View (Truly) From The Greenhouse; A Better Life (Part 2)

By the time my loyal reader gets around to reading this shorter than usual missive, I should be the proud owner of a brand new left hip. I take nothing for granted, but I’ve lost a little bit of weight and I’m in reasonably robust health, so I’m hoping the convalescence will be measured in weeks, rather than months. I haven’t walked up a fell for a long while now, I intend, in the fullness of time, to rectify this situation.

There have been some pretty decent days, weather wise, in recent weeks, with a reasonable amount of sunshine, so I’m hoping the slow process, where capsicum ripening is concerned, will pick up a little bit of pace. It may be time for a couple of bananas, a large paper bag and a short prayer to the Mexican goddess  Tlatlauhqui Cihuatl Ichilzintli (look it up if you don’t believe me).

Much excitement when I came across this fearsome looking pepper. My first thought, confirmed by research was a ghost pepper (Bhutla Jolokia) which weighs in at an impressive 2 million Scoville units, or thereabouts. I also had no idea where it had appeared from (I know, the bush) but I assumed I’d got a rogue seed in a packet and left it at that. I had a visit from a chap who’d given me several plants to add to my collection and I excitedly told him about the discovery. It’s a chocolate habanero, he said (a bit dismissively). He didn’t need to add that I’d have known this, if I hadn’t misplaced the markers from the pots. Still, it’s a formidable looking thing and at 100k to 350k on the scale, not too shabby. We tasted one of the orange habaneros while he was about, fruity and spicy, with a lingering heat that’s plenty for me.

Although slow to ripen, there are one or two peppers beginning to look as you might expect. The sweet mini-peppers, which I expected to be a range of colours, are seemingly ripening to an orangey yellow, the bell peppers remain resolutely green, although the flesh is quite thick and starting to sweeten. The Hungarian Hot Wax, which for a long time have been a pale yellow-green are turning red and the cayenne chili’s are slowly starting to take on the deep red you’d expect.

Any road up, the selection of peppers came in handy to make a bit of a stir fried vegetable accompaniment to serve with some paprika and lime marinated chicken and a few tortillas “fajita” style. The white onion came from the onion patch and the oregano from the small herb garden in the curved wall outside the house. A bit of salt and pepper and a splash of olive oil was all it needed to create a colourful, spicy, but not over-hot feed. Truly home grown and very tasty, with it.

The corn took a bit of a battering (as previously mentioned) but with a bit of input of B&M department and the tactical deployment of a couple of lengths of “michael” (it’s a long story) we managed yawk them all back into a more or less vertical position to let them ripen on for a further week or so. I copped and roasted a couple with the chicken and they were very tasty, but they could have done with another 10 minutes or so. The family have had a share and we’ll probably give them another go next year.

By this time last year I had red, yellow and green bell peppers, although not in the numbers that the plants are bearing this year. Noticeably, the outer skins on this years crop are less rough and aren’t showing (apart from the odd fruit) any of the hard brown discolouration we’ve previously seen. I’m guessing it’s down to the watering regime, which seems to have worked better for the peppers than the toms. Having said that, “no two growing years are alike” as old Norm used to say.

I know, I know, more food, but I couldn’t not mention the last of the fresh tomato Sunday breakfasts and the (updated) recipe. I have cooked down several pounds of toms, so I won’t go without over the winter, but there’s summat special about picking and eating them on the same day (not always the same day, TBF). Chop 2 or 3 Padrons (or green chilies) and soften them in a bit of butter and olive oil. Add some tomatoes cut into a rough dice, skins, seeds and all, discarding any really thick core material if you like, chop up a couple of ounces of spicy chorizo, or salami and chuck that in the pan for the last couple of minutes of cooking. Don’t rush it, let most of the watery juice evaporate off, season with salt and pepper (I add a bit of sugar too) and serve on toast. That’ll get the old endorphins coursing through the system and it can see off a mild hangover, too!

The intended memorial to Norman hasn’t really gone as well as planned, the site of it’s in the header picture, but you wouldn’t know that just by looking. Any road up, I’ve got another cache of hazel saplings, all bred from nuts rather than cuttings or root stock, and we’re going to plant these out in the lee of the crags top, between the first two large trees looking from the left. The hawthorn tree above this site is where his ashes are. It’s my hope, sentimental old curmudgeon that I am, that Maya will be walking well enough, by the time the winter weather’s broken, to accompany us in the planting of them. His legacy, as humble a chap as he was, lives on and his youngest grandchild should be a part of it.

I spent a couple of mornings last week stripping out the strawberry beds and replanting them. I don’t know whether or not I’ve done the right thing, but I removed all 100 of the existing plants, fed the host growing medium (liberally) with chicken manure and nettle water (giving it a day to acclimatise) before planting on new plants taken from the strongest runners. Although the crop wasn’t too bad, I’d identified some of the less productive individuals and I replaced them with what I hope is stronger stock. We’ll wait and see, fingers crossed, what happens.

I hadn’t intended to write about anything other than gardening and food this time around, having other fish to fry, but (ironically enough) AWS’s QT review kind of coincided with something that piqued my interest following my last missive, from the fragrant Ms Frostrup. To paraphrase, she said (mustering all the fake emotion that only a “woke” media “personality” can);  “Imagine if nobody wanted to come here, then we’d really be depressed about Britain as a nation”. I’d personally take issue with that, but that’s another matter. She went on to say that the UK asylum system is “shambolic” and the “dehumanising” language surrounding immigrants is “shocking”. It’s long been the case that the narrative surrounding this subject is driven by Globalist bad actors and owned by the “Progressive Liberal” cognoscenti along with their bedfellows, the open borders fanatics. Prior to reading the review I’d posted the following on X:  ” (This is) the stifling of debate by conflation. Secure borders & a controlled immigration system, with proper checks & balances & equitable conditions shouldn’t be contentious. Uncontrolled mass immigration has been a disaster for the UK. Hand wringing “liberals” like Frostrup did this”. Apparently, this makes me a “hard and far-right, Islamophobic Nazi”, rather than a slightly left of centre chap who still believes he knows right from wrong. Go figure, as a Yank might say.

See you all (hopefully) on the other side.
 

© Colin Cross 2025