Squashed!

Last post I told you about my vegetable spaghetti squash that had grown in a rather precarious position. I was concerned that it was going to drop on someone, or pull down the frame and damage everything else. Well I think I must be psychic, or in fact just predicting the inevitable! 

The following day, we had the first substantial rainfall of the summer. and of course along with the howling wind, the squash was pushed from its perch. I wandered out on Saturday morning to find it hanging by its stalk about a foot lower than the frame. It had not actually done any damage but the potential was there. 

Now as it was early in the morning and I was in my dressing gown, I wasn't in possession of my camera to take a picture. A quick rummage in the greenhouse and I found some old net and a few bits of wire and constructed a squash hammock.

This is the result

The one next to it was secured with a bit of string. I think the I shall have to cut these in the next week . 

The next sort of squash to get a mention is the good old courgette. If you have never grown anything edible and want to give it a go, start with these. You cant fail. They are like Triffids, you cant stop them growing and producing. We have been eating them as quickly as possible, but its hard to keep up. That means the odd one has grown for a bit longer than it should. I found this monster yesterday.

We had half yesterday and half today. It still tasted wonderful even though it was rather large. 

And back to Vegetable Spaghetti. It was time to try one. Several people had told me on forums , that they could be a bit tasteless and needed to have something served with them. I decided to make a sauce of garlic, shallot, tomato and my first homegrown red chilli

Sadly the tomato came from a supermarket as mine are only just going red. Heres one I spotted yesterday and today there are a few more trying to go red. 

I looked for ways to cook online, and the most popular way was to roast it. I was a bit concerned it might explode in the oven, so made loads of cuts before it went in. 

I roasted it for an hour on 180 degrees. I think this was probably a bit to long as it was very soft and it wasn't really a spaghetti inside, although you could see that it had been. 

The sauce was easy to make

My chilli was not very hot, quite disappointing really, it tasted more like a red pepper. But I mixed it all together and then it was time to taste. 

I really liked it, but Jim didn't. So that means I am going to have to eat them all myself. They seem to grow even more prolifically than courgettes! The texture of this one was very soft, but as I said before, it think I overcooked it, next time I shall cook for only 30 minutes. 

I caught this chap trying to squeeze through the netting over the strawberries. He was giving it a really good go. 

Thats it from the garden this week, you have seen everything else already. So heres a bit of out and about news. 

On saturday, I had the opportunity to indulge my love of the chilli. We went to The Great Dorset Chilli Festival. I can highly recommend this event. we had a wonderful day out. Cookery demos, Tastings, Chilli Plant Competitions and loads of food outlets had set up in the grounds of a beautiful country house . The atmosphere was great, everyone was having a wonderful time. 

This Mariachi Band was working hard in  the sunshine to keep everyone happy

We bought loads of stuff, not all chilli related but certainly all equally delicious

These are my two favourite purchases.. Seeds to feed my addiction

and a jar of very very very hot chilli jam.. Yum

I hope that my Naga chilli makes jam as delicious as this.

On sunday we went to a festival in Lymington which had a large classic car display. Freda would have been very at home. These two caught my attention. 

Gibson was having a wonderful time listening to his second band in two days. This time it was a classic British brass band.

Hope you all had a nice weekend and have lots of plans like us for the next one.