So - what's the COSTuluto Fiorentino?

Weather: A short Indian Summer has now been followed by another dreary day but at least we've not had more than a smattering of showers. Max temperature today 16C

Harvest since last post(nearly three weeks - whoops!): Runner beans (at last a few) 2lb 7oz, French beans 1lb 5oz, Costuloto Fiorentino Tomatoes 7lb 6oz, Pears (Williams) 1lb 13oz, Black Russian Tomatoes 8lb 7oz, Spinach 1lb 6oz, Courgettes 3lbs, Butternut Squash 7lb 4oz.

It could be 'eating my words' time - or rather eating my tomatoes time. In an early season post on this blog I lamented the thought that my tomato crop was unlikely to save me any money - it would, I decided, probably be as cheap to buy my tomatoes in the shops.

Well - I have had a huge crop in the greenhouse. Nine plants in three growbags have so far (and there are quite a number still to come) yielded around 16kg. I've converted it to kg for ease of comparison with the sort of prices I'd have paid for these if I'd bought them 'ready grown'!....and I reckon that they would so far have cost me somewhere between £32 and £40 the wide range in the estimates take into acount the fact that it's difficult to find unusual varieties like these in the shops so I've not got an exact comparison. Mind you one of the reasons to grow my own veg is to grow things you can't find in the shops so I'm already a winner.

This means that with the growbags at £5.00 a bag plus seeds and tomato fertilizer I reckon I have spent out around £20.

If you take into account the electricity used to keep the seeds warm in the early part of the year that goes up a bit (a propagator shared by many of other veg seeds)....but knock off the food miles. I'm pretty happy.

And what about the taste?! The Costuluto Fiorentino have been disappointingly bland but they cook up well. The Black Russians are wonderful - every year I've grown them they've delivered. They are full of flavour and when you cook them they provide really juicy tomato sauce. I will grow them again next year as for the Costuluto Fiorentino's - I will probably sow the rest of the seed in the packet from this year and let's give them the benefit of the doubt, it may be that they needed more sun and warmth than we've had this year to develop their full potential but I will definitely be on the look out for another variety.

Any suggestions gratefully received!

Pear Drops....

Weather: Horrible! Max temperature 15C Heavy Rain

Harvest since last post (10 days): Black Russian Tomatoes 5lbs,Costoluto Fiorentino Tomatoes 4 1/2lbs,Runner Beans (flowering, setting pods but pods not swelling properly and most dropping off) 10oz,French Beans 2lb 2oz, Courgettes 2lb 4oz, Aubergine 11oz,Spinach 1lb 3oz,Williams Pears (mix of windfalls and picked 26lbs, Conference Pears (haven't done well this year) 1lb, Green Toms (Costuluto Fiorentino) picked for pickles 12oz, Basil 2oz, Sweetcorn - one cob (delicious).

The big news on the harvest front this week has been the pears. Every other year this tree does really well. I bought it for Bill's birthday about 15 years ago - it's a William's pear you see.... This years fruit has a few blemishes but they are really delicious. It is a pity that the season for eating the fruit fresh is very short, so - apart from giving some away to neighbours - I have taken to looking for good recipes to preserve them.

My mother cooks hers in lemonade and they freeze well like this. I tried simmering them in cider which was lovely. I used pretty unripe pears and let them simmer for a long time so that the cider reduced by at least half. They were good.

The trouble with cooked pears though is that their texture is a bit....well.... boring. But adding crunch to them also seems to mean adding 1000s of calories. There is a recipe in Sarah Raven's lovely Garden Cookbook, which is a sort of toffee tart with lots of butter and sugar and puff pastry. In fact the photo here is the recipe in its early stages with the pears simmering in the sugar and butter. It is utterly delicious if a little sweet for someone with a savoury tooth like me...but it gets a big thumbs up. I'm sure it would freeze well - although mine mysteriously disappeared before I had chance to freeze it!

My favourite pear recipe of the year though is from an article by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall published in the Guardian which I found on line - it is a Pear and Almond cake. He uses ground almonds in the sponge mixture and pears (also pre simmered in butter and sugar) perched on top of it. It is delicious - and I didn't make the same mistake with this one. As soon as it had coolled I cut it into portions, kept two for supper, and put it straight in the freezer. Not only does that put them out of sight and out of mind - the effort involved in defrosting them deters me from having 'just one more piece'!