When life hands you green tomatoes, fry them!

After yesterday's apple pressing, we had another very pleasant job to do. We collected all the green tomatoes because of the frost, and now we want to try out things to do with them. It just wouldn't be Windmill if we didn't try to eat everything we've harvested.

What shall we do with the green tomatoes?

One recipe that Tracey was keen to try is Fried Green Tomatoes. This is a popular dish in America, but not often seen here. We had a go at it, and had fun cooking in our fire pit for the first time, which makes this the first carbon-neutral food we've made, as all the wood used was grown here too, and comes from coppiced willow that is already growing again to replace the wood that was cut.

The cooking arrangements

We sliced the tomatoes thickly, tossed them in a mixture of flour with onion powder and paprika and then fried them in a little olive oil until they were crisp on the outside and soft in the middle. We then ate them with the chinese plum sauce Tracey made and some finely chopped onions mixed with a little light mayonnaise in Southern US style. They went down quite well, though we didn't manage to persuade Ellis to try them.

A first taste

Dan tries out the condiments

Helen braving the taste test.

There was another  harvest that needed to be gathered. We were quite excited to see what the Beauregard Sweet Potato had managed to produce. It had managed 3 reasonable sized tubers, which we will use in our cooking over the next few weeks. If you are thinking of trying to grow one, don't just plant one from a shop, ask the garden centre for a special plant instead. This is because sweet potatoes like an equal day to night length, and don't do well unless they've been specially developed to cope with local conditions.

Sweet potatoes! 

Sunflowers, blackcurrant sage and lavandula - last bouquet of the season?