h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Sheesh. Life is so busy at the moment, but in brilliant ways.

First of all the Cavaliers had a cricket match over at Moretonhampstead, but with an unusual twist. My friend Natalie runs a pony rescue centre up there, and I suggested to her at a barbecue (after a few beers, of course) that we had a game on one of their fields to coincide with a fundraising day. Seeing as the field in question was a pony field, roughly mown and covered in holes and divots, this was quite a challenge. I had three days off this week - Bob knows how that happened - and I spent the first two of them sorting a pitch out. It's a three-hour round trip to the centre, and it took me about six hours all told to get a square mown and a pitch prepared and marked.

On Saturday we played a seven-a-side match 'against' them, although as they only had three players of their own we loaned them a few of ours. It was a cracking match, ending when my Dad bowled my uncle to give DPTC a win by one run. More importantly, a post-match whipround among the players and spectators raised just over £75 for the centre's appeal. Match report to follow, probably on the Cavaliers' website. It felt like the sort of match the Cavaliers were designed for.

Kev and I stayed on at the centre through the evening and treated them to a great campfire, a dusk nature walk and some storytelling. we plan to do the same for them, cricket match and all, next year.

I've also done a little harvesting in the garden; my vegetable gardening has been quite a success:

A huge haul of chillies; loads of jalapeños and nagas from the plants G gave me, and two thriving apaches I grew myself from seed. The only question is what to do with them, because I have more than I can eat already. Suggestions welcome, and if anyone wants a couple I'll be happy to pop a couple in the post.

Sixteen onions of various sizes and a few less small garlic plants. The garlic is a bit disappointing in size, though I used leftovers that may not have been ideal for growing over here.

Plenty of tomatoes, mostly cherries, ripening by the day and being eaten occasionally by squirrel or mouse or both. Now I know how big they should get, I'll probably bring them in to finish ripening.

Good crops of both potatoes and carrots; I think the potatoes are ready, but the carrots are still growing. I think I need to thin the latter out.

Sweetcorn, which hasn't thrived but is hanging in there, and will probably give us a few worth eating.

My beans got eaten by slugs - twice. Pellets next year.

I've decided to level the flower bed in my garden and give it over to vegetables, because growing my own veg has been quite exciting. I may even cloche the section in front of the rabbit hutch next year and have flowers only in the trellis border. I might even start that this week while I'm still enthused about the idea and chuck in some beetroot or something. I still have some onions left too, so I'll give them another go.

On a sadder note, Natalie's Dad died this evening

"A huge haul of chillies; loads of jalapeños and nagas from the plants G gave me, and two thriving apaches I grew myself from seed. The only question is what to do with them, because I have more than I can eat already. Suggestions welcome, and if anyone wants a couple I'll be happy to pop a couple in the post."

Yes please! Any sort of chilli selection would be gratefully received!

If you insist on keeping some - make chilli sauce. Gently fry chillies with onions and garlic until soft, not brown, cover with water and stew for about 20-30 minutes. Add other ingredients to your choice - I like to put in some red wine vinegar, lemon juice, basil and apple sauce (homemade, natch). Very important - you must make sure there is an appreciable acid content if you are bottling the sauce, because that devil salmonella really enjoys it otherwise. Get a pH meter or some universal indicator strips if you can and take the pH down to 5 or below.

Chillies freeze pretty well, too. I must write a Guide Entry with all this in - it's been on my to-do list for ages.

You've had better luck than us, though. Our chillies are only just fruiting, and we've had a few handfuls of runner beans and tomatoes, a few courgettes and a reasonable amount of mange tout, but apart from a whopping pumpkin crop to come, it's all been pretty disappointing this year.

B

I'd be delighted to, B. It would be quite appropriate, in fact, as you advice earlier in the year made me think seriously about growing vegetables in the first place. As soon as the apaches are ripe in a week or two (they were planted late) I'll get some off to you.

The chilli sauce is a great idea, and I'll be able to use my own garlic and onions in it.

Have you ever made a chilli-flavoured oil with them?

Natalie? Sorry to hear that, whoever she is.

Sounds like you've had a good season, although I'm sorry to hear about the pellets for next year. It's why I don't grow veggies. I never get a chance to eat any of them before the slugs.

I just convinced my neighbour not to use them, but for a different reason - she has a dog.

Perhaps next year you can try some pumpkins, and deck out the hotel.

Hi Skanks, long see no time...

Sounds like a good time was had by all... except for an untimely demise, for which my condolences.

I must admit I wish I had a veg plot... not easy in a first floor flat, but prefer them to triffids, and I would love a chili or three, especially a naga , as I spicy food.

I was tempted to nick a load from Kew during the Mediterranean season last year ... over two hundred chilis, but didn't dare!

Speak again soon...

MMF



*btw, had a calling female tawny owl in the car park last thursday... for 4 hours... was a first!!!*

Natalie is the girl who runs the pony centre, who I mentioned briefly at the top of the post. She's a real inspiration, and a great friend. We came up with the idea of the cricket match together and had great fun trying to find two teams to play, and she got the bad news that he was terminally ill on the even of the game. She called me to let me know she couldn't make it while I was up on the field, and suddenly painting lines on a cricket pitch felt a bit silly. So the open day was extra-special, really; I knew she'd be really pleased if we all did a good job, and it went even better than we'd planned. It was a little chaotic at times, because only Nats knew what was really going on and what had been arranged, but when I spoke to her this afternoon she said she was really lucky to know such an amazing bunch of people. Her friends all came up and sorted everything out, and I think she got some comfort from that. Her Dad died a few hours after I spoke to her.

***

I'm hoping to do better next year. This year was an encouraging start, but it was pretty much 'chuck it in the ground and hope for the best'. I've really got the bug now, though. The slugs even get into the rabbit hutch and eat Toffee's food, so I really have to do something about them. You can only go out at night with a torch so many times before you realise why pellets were invented, I'm afraid.

Great to see you too, Fiddler - I'll need your address to send you some of my yield, though! I did see that you'd had a local tawny, but I'm not around enough to read stuff properly here. Three days of backlog seems to be an awful lot

Incoming mail, Skanks...

And remember, the way to good health is keep blood out of your alcohol system!

MMF

Got it!

Well done on your first harvest

I grew a chilli plant this year, it was doing really well. I was looking forward to fresh chillis The plant started to look little sick and the few chilis that were growing stopped I moved the pot it was in and there was an ants nest, they had nested right into the pot

"Natalie is the girl who runs the pony centre, who I mentioned briefly at the top of the post."

Sorry, it was about cricket, so I skimmed that bit.

I remember seeing the slugs on the rabbit food. Have you tried the copper wire stuff? That was in my article, but it was something I'd never tried so can't say if it 100% works. Could be helpful on the hutch legs, as you can't put pellets round the rabbits.

I wouldn't recommend homemade chilli oil unless you plan to dry the chillies first or pasteurise it. It does have a tendency to grow bugs.

B

Oh, and if you're feeling generous, some jalapenos would be much appreciated. Not that I don't like apaches, but several culinary experiments on my back burner call for fresh jalapenos, and I can only get the jarred variety here.

B

I was planning to send you a couple of each at least, B. I warn you, though, the nagas are lethal. I chopped one up tonight and was in some discomfort even after washing my hands; I had a tiny lick of the juice, literally just a drop on my finger, and I can still taste it three hours later. I like hot food, but I think it's going to be too much for me to eat.

Do I recall that you were once non-green fingered? You've definitely got them now Perhaps you can come and sort out my bf's garden it's in an awful mess.

to hear the sad news

opti

I have just one solitary habanero pepper on my plant at the moment. This was my first endeavor to grow anything edible. One little plant given to me by my uncle produced at least a dozen bright orange chilies. I used a couple of them green to make a hot sauce with nopales cactus leaves but I should have left more of the core as it didn't turn out hot at all. I used about 3-4 ripe ones for my salsa (delish!). The rest I gave to some coworkers. One of the guys (and apparently his kids as well ) can eat the things whole. I gave them to him first to find out how well they turned out. I was afraid they may have turned bitter from over watering as I got lazy and placed the pot under a drip from my air conditioner. Apparently that was just right. Not enough water and they get extra hot, too much and they get bitter, but the folks with asbestos lined mouths said they were just right (and still quite hot!)

I can't decide what to do with that last one... I think I'm obligated to chop it up and eat it on something. I see a few flowers so I'm hoping for another harvest in a few weeks.