Processing the Harvest

Peppers!

I did not dehydrate because I realized if I wait a bit many of them will turn that lurid red they do - and so make it much more interesting.

But figuring out uses for peppers is a daily chore. Yesterday was a lovely dish. Put two very lean pork chops, with various seasonings on them, in a small dish which just fit them. Put 5 cut up peppers ( red banana, yellow banana, pale green banana, bright green banana, and a huge jalapeno) on top. Then 1/2 a can of pineapple rings broken up, 1/2 the juice with some cornstarch (corn flour) and a good bit of soy sauce, and some brown sugar, poured over - baked lightly covered 1 1/2 hours and had with Jasmine rice. It was great. Next time I will double the peppers.

Peppers and okra are in the days soup almost every time. I like the simple one of a couple of my dehydrated carrots simmered a minute to tenderize, then the cut up peppers (2 to 3) and in a bit - the okra in big pieces with my dried onion and when getting done a packet of chicken noodle soup and a stock cube. That is because it takes no effort - but I also put them in all my other soups. Summer is okra, pepper, tomato, and beans season. (the flying squirrels ate my bean plants)

 

Isn't it amazing! When asked a question like the above the mind goes blank. Is there anything in particular you would like to know? We have no offshore banking headquarters here but we do have offshore banking as branches from elsewhere.

The island is owned by the crown and we have a Governor 'selected' by Queen Elizabeth who serves five years living on the island as a figurehead. However as you know we have our own government, Tynwald known as the House of Keys and headed by a Chief Minister, he is selected by our government not the people of the island. The island being small does not have counties or states but parishes and each individual parish has an MHK (Member of the House of Keys) who represents his allotted parish in government. This MHK is selected by the residents. The island is classed as semi-independent and pretty much minds it's own business unless the English government decides to interfere, I say that tongue-in-cheek. There are occasions when the EU regulations do come to the fore here, one in particular is health and safety and those regulations being the blight of Great Britain in general!

 

Sealand is quite a diverse place and to be honest I don't think there are many Britons bothered about it's existence. It's not really the ideal location for any form of gardening or business for that matter.

 

Sealand is a metaphor or something; about empire or something....Especially with the half life of concrete being about 70 years depending, especially with salt water and steel rebar. So soon it will be at half life, then half of that coming and catastrophic failure is penciled in on the calendar - but vaguely. I love it; a grand statement no one is listening to, and no where to really go with it, but it is a big statement anyway. Nationhood writ small.

You Manx can look on Sealand like London looks on you - and Brussels looks on London.

I have 6 pounds of shrimp I bought off a shrimp boat in the harbor. Boats put out flags saying shrimp and sell to the public - the boat will get twice or more than the dock side buyer pays - but has to sit there bored and tired and sell them piecemeal. The prices are high this year, $3.5 a pound, $4 for large ones. 6 pounds for $20 is what I paid. I like the littler ones better. Shrimp are almost 2/3 head, tail, and shell, by weight - so about $10 a pound for shrimp meat. You can buy frozen small peeled, imported, shrimp for less - but it is almost tasteless and of very dubious provenance. It is an industrial agri product. This was caught yesterday right off the shore in the pure waters of the Mississippi Sound.



And a couple tiny white trout (no size limit caught off the harbor wall - tasty but little) So I have the shrimp in the refrigerator. I find fresh shrimp bland. Ones caught the same day are hard to peel too - So I will leave them for 3 days to age and them boil them in very spicy and salty water and freeze in bags. I like them Cajun style where they are cooked in water with so much salt and cayenne pepper they are cured almost like a kipper and very firm and flavorful. Boiled 2 minutes in the spice/salt water and then let soak in the hot water 10 minutes. The boil in plain water one minute and cool in ice way to me is just bland. They are pretty, and plump and tender - but bland. I like them hardened and salt cured that way.

I peel them after cooking and freeze them in small bags to put in soups and salads. These white trout can be caught in good numbers with cut bait but I use live bait and they do not hit that much - I am after bigger fish - but should go out just for them and fillet and freeze, they are really good. I cannot get my wife to fish - although she always comes along she never bothers to fish, just watches - if she did we would get a lot more. (she does get a license so she can hold the rod if I go off, the license is $12)

 

I like the sound of those shrimps Colne. Can you boil the heads and peelings for stock and the reduce to get a kind of "nam pla"? I adore a good shrimp pate with thin "French toast" and a crisp white wine....
Jenny

 

I do not know anyone who does that, here they are boiled head on and then the head thrown away. Shrimp heads are full of odd stuff and turn black in a few days unless cooked - the heads are not appetizing looking inside - but my chickens eat the heads and peels. I net my own shrimp in the fall. I will try to remember to take a camera next time, the shrimp boats are all beaten up and photogenic, as are the fishermen - probably third generation fishermen. Shrimp are the traditional food everyone associates with seafood dishes here on the coast. We have two fishing fleets - and they overlap - oyster and shrimp; with some crabbers.

 

Hi Web, and Shiney. I have heard of dehydrating couyrgettes and would go that route if stem borers had not decimated my entire crop. I think I will have to grow my courgettes and zucchini in pots and use a chemical pesticide. The ones we buy or are given have been grown with sprays so I may just give up the organics for them, but in pots separate from my raised beds. Also you spray before fruit is set, that is when the borers enter the stem.

We eat soup virtually daily - I make at least 3 courses for the evening meal - 4 as often as not, because I like suppertime (we watch a film, or box set, or documentary and like the meal to last an hour) I think slices cut into bite sizes and dried would be great to add. I have dried carrots and onion - collards are the very best dried veg, (all gone now) - and I think the squash family would be too. They may need instant blanching to keep the colour - have to look that up, collards and carrots do.

I think they could be thickly sliced and blanched and frozen - for cooking into dishes because I remember them becoming a bit soggy when thawed. But all guess work from me, I have not done it properly.

Here is fishing time of year. This spring from mid March till recently has been too wet so the Mississippi Sound has been very fresh and I have had no luck at all. but now the dry weather has brought them back, hurray. And soon shrimp for netting too. I have a trout and a redfish caught last night off my porch for tonight's dinner.

Cukes are appearing, tomatoes too many to eat, too few to can - must do something.

 

I need some tamarind, always looking for soup flavorings and have never used it - this fall I will be back in London and visit Southall and stock up on stuff. Web, I have heard some things about storing in olive oil that is a problem if not done right - specifically dried tomatoes and botulism. But then there are virtually almost no incidents of it - so possibly more theoretical rather than real.

I like my dehydrator - the very cheapest one you can buy. I do know better ones are better, mine is extremely uneven - but for the small amounts I do in a year, say 40 pounds of stuff, it is the best choice. Twenty years ago I had to dry large quantities of wild foods in the woods and had good fun with that, up to 1000 pounds a week, in dehydrators I made out of forest wood and had to achieve perfect quality. I would be back doing that now if my tendons and feet had not worn out from construction.

 

Web, I looked at your link to the dryer and would love one - amazing thing compared to mine which is on or off only. But will get by with my dinosaur. Time to dry peppers soon - I am waiting for more to turn red to make the colour interesting.

 

I certainly could buy on-line tamarind but will wait. In my area I suspect I would have to go into New Orleans, something I avoid. The coast has very few Indians, not enough for them to have food shops - the Vietnamese do, and I really enjoy some of their foods I can buy locally - the Vietnamese have added a lot to the Coast and if they use tamarind I certainly could get it here - will check next time I am in Biloxi where a large range is available.

A few crabs in the crab traps, and fish is happening..........any good things to do with fish fillets - I do get tired of them just plain like I mostly cook them. So I have fish, crab, and shrimp in the refrigerator.

Picking the meat from our small blue crabs is a chore but I finally got pretty good at it. Now I can do a dozen in an hour, and that includes cleaning up afterwards. The meat I mostly put in soups, or just heat with a bit of butter - it is too delicate a flavor to be used in many things or is lost. In England we would get the huge brown crabs from the fishing boats in Cornwall occasionally and they were fantastic - a bit like the Dungeness crabs of the West Coast USA where the meat is in the claws and legs. Our blue crab is small enough there is no recoverable meat in the legs, it is in the body joints mostly so comes out in small pieces. I have to pull the traps soon because I have 4 live still from last night and need to cook them. My guess is we will have 7 total, enough to get a bit under 1/2 pound of meat. I find it takes 15 to the pound if they are mixed, 12 if nice ones. The biggest thing is wither they are 'fat' or full of meat. After shedding the old shell the body looks big, but is empty inside - it takes a bit of experience to know to throw those back because it is a complete waste to kill them. The crabs shed all the warm months so plenty of empty ones.



This is one of my traps from previous years, but with more than I ever catch normally, this is the result of several traps emptied into this one. 1-3 crabs per trap is normal and I throw about 4 traps off the land here, 6 if I am taking them out on the boat.