UK Insider: Peter Picked A Peck Of Pickled Peppers

A Secret Garden for Canning & Preserving foods

The lockdown here and in the countries where my daughters reside  (Italy and the United Kingdom) has produced different side effects. Looking back through the Kitchen Detail posts during the pandemic, the most read one was written by the Italy Insider about the initial lockdown in her adopted country.  My Instagram feed is chock full of photos of  ramped-up sourdough experiments, imaginative knitting (this whimsical barnyard  was actually knitted by Charlene Sinkin, our KD baker during the lockdown), and attempts at writing the next great novel. The Italians moved us all with their beautiful and imaginative singing. Son-in-law Pinky and my grandson revived KD followers with their “Songs From The Shed,” performed in their  garden shed (there is always a garden shed in England) when we were all awash in quarantine depression.

They had moved into their first real home in the darkest days of the lockdown, but when the figurative dawn arose,  he and Anastasia looked up from a lovely patio to a 110ft long, four-stage terrace garden space with a very tired three-tier deck at the top, overlooking a view that would be the envy of any AirBnB ad.  There would be plenty of outdoor space for Theo to race up and down with his scooter, build forts and get roses in his cheeks. Pinky could see the footprint of  12 ft square raised beds in addition to the discovery of neglected hedge roses and a gigantic Del’Haye Rose bush. Later in the spring, struggling elderberry, strawberry and blueberry plants along with blooming poppies and peonies brightened their days. 

Might I Have A Bit Of Earth*

Unexpected flowers aside, for my son-in-law, Peter Wallis, (with the nickname of “Pinky” rumored to have started when he dyed his punk hair an alarming shade of fuchsia as a teenager. He has  happily clung to it as only a British guy can) the real joy was developing a vegetable garden. With a terrace garden that had been neglected for years, he first dug up and created new raised beds for potatoes – something that is not a tradition where I live in Virginia. Their blossoms are beautiful. He recently wrote: “Lockdown came upon us all with many stories of the good, bad and the ugly of human nature, but overwhelmingly of how we strive to survive and make do with what we have and very thankful for WHOM we have with us.” He cleaned, restored and kitted out the garden shed and flew a pirate flag to complete the look. His father-in-law is hopeful that he will have time to fix the broken-down deck so that we can have cocktails overlooking their remarkable view of Winchester and beyond, once the current unpleasantness passes.

A Man Of The Fens

Pinky’s grandfather was a farmer in Norfolk who had been wounded in the Battle Of The Somme in WW1 and became an Air Warden in WW2.  He returned to farming after both wars. He farmed in the famed flat coastal area in the east of England, which is referred to as The Fens.   Pinky has never forgotten his times with his grandfather on his farm, where there were chickens, crops of onions, potatoes and carrots, along with fruit orchards.  His grandparents  produced  milk, butter, cheese, and sugar beet for local shops,  all of which were organic.  All the labor was manual until his grandparents could afford a tractor. The work was hard and relentless. Having observed his grandfather, Pinky first planted the sacred British potatoes. When it was raining (not being on the plain in Spain) he  started the packs of  tomato and chili pepper seeds, plus  seedlings for bell peppers, lettuce, carrots, cucumbers and some onions. He filled their little side conservatory with them and put together a glass lean-to for  seedlings so that they could survive through the early months of spring.  With lots of watering, he successfully grew thirty Roma tomato plants, five chili plants, and two bell pepper plants. His only failure was that none of the onions survived.

August Without Zucchini

The resulting bonanza in August was astounding, and even after sharing produce with local friends, Pinky could not bear to see his hard-earned bounty go to waste, particularly in this pandemic. He remembered stories from his mother (and her own pantry filled with pickled and canned foods) about wartime England, where anything that could be grown and not eaten immediately was preserved for a later meal.  With that in mind and the new scary landscape facing all of us, Pinky planned his own  Pickle For England! campaign. He used saved jam and mayonnaise jars, and purchased additional new smaller sizes. After sterilizing jars in the oven and boiling the lids, he filled them with hot preserve, processed them properly and successfully popped all the lids (which signals the vacuum seal as the jars cool).  He now has green tomato chutney, frozen tomato pasta sauce, sundried tomatoes in olive oil, green tomato salsa, 150 dried chiles that have been pickled or added to chutney. And pickled cucumbers. Upon discovering and caring for the thriving elderberry and blueberry bushes, he has tried his hand at creating  elderberry wine and blueberry vodka plus an experimental strawberry grappa from his discovery of these fruit-bearing plants. He has sent me some of his most successful recipes from this Pandemic Garden.  I am sure his grandfather would have appreciated this small treasured spot of England. 

Last Minute Preserve Shopping

Our farm stand markets are filled with preserving possibilities – some with bushel pricing and also “second quality” produce – which are still dandy for canning, or freezing. Before you embark on your preserving adventure, arm yourself with some knowledge. If  you are not familiar with Cathy Barrow, a local waste-not- want-not advocate of preserving – check out her website. I have her book on preserving and it is excellent – written so that you easily understand the dos and don’ts, plus good recipes to get you started.  She also includes Instructions for curing meats in your home – but that’s another story. Secondly, I like my jars to look inviting, and with no offense to Ball or Mason Jars, which are now promoted to hold drinks as well as tomatoes, I really prefer jars from Leifheit in Germany and  Kilner in the UK. Both companies offer a wide range of designs and replacement lids. I am hoping Pinky’s grandmother would approve. 

N.B. The  Secret Garden is a marvelous book that I read when I was about 11 years old. It is about self discovery and the wonder of Nature, even when neglected. *The quote “Might I have a bit of earth” was Mary Lennox’s question to her unhappy and ill guardian when she meets him for the first time. The two recipes below and this link to creating your own fruit based wines – which is much longer, so read through it a few times – are all from Pinky. He researched and worked with several procedures and recipes and chose these three as his favorites for his unexpected bounty. I have included a link about how to make a pickling vinegar which is used in the UK  and is tastier than the store-bought versions available here. 

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