pics by johanna

pics by Johanna

Pickled green tomatoes

The last flowers and the last tomatoes...i want to make them last as long as possible.
The flowers have a limited time, but the tomatoes I can make to last for quite some time.
This pickled tomatoes my mom used to make when I was little.
And I remember very well my mothers meatballs, potatoes, vegetables and the green tomatoes!
An unbeatable combination in my young years.
Now I make the pickles every year with the last batch of unripe tomatoes . And it goes just as well with curries as with meatballs...

1 kg green tomatoes
4 dl vinagre
4 dl water
Cook together for 10 min and let it rest over night.
Then throw away the water,skin the tomatoes and cut them in two or four, depending on size.

1,5 dl vinagre
a splash of water
750 g brown sugar
1 vanilla pod
Cook the tomatoes in the mixture for two minutes and take them out. Keep cooking
the sauce for 10 more minutes and then add the tomatoes for a final boil before pouring into
clean, sterile glasses . Put the lid on and leave the glass lid  down till cooled off.
Store in a cool place.

pics by Johanna

Still a secret garden...

The days are getting shorter very quickly here in the far north. But still the sun gets warm in the daytime and the light quality is magical . It´s still nice to sit out reading and eating(or as I prefer,to lay down under a wool blanket) .  Olaf can never get enough places to sit and write ... this being his latest addition.
 Unfortunately the nights are getting colder though, and soon the plants has to go in.
My hanging plants was a successful experiment as I obviously found the right plants to use,like this,   only covered by moss .These particular plants seems to endure quite a lot of drying up, and I only dip the plants in a  bucket of water with a little organic fertilizer when they are getting too dry.

Nasturtium

One of my favorites summer flowers, both to look at and to eat. Also to grow.
I start them in doors as a early spring ritual, and get my daily kick from seeing how much they grow every day. I love things that grows so fast that one almost can see it. And that grows lush and colorful ,climbs and best of all.. also tastes wonderful.
They have been growing wonderful leaves and flowers for my salads all summer and recently I have
been picking the seed pods and making" capers -like" little pickles.
Here is what you do: keep a little jar with vinegar in it and every time you pick  the little pods with a little bit of the stalk still on, add them to the jar.
When the jar is full, store it in the fridge for about two weeks and they are ready to be mixed in with your salads , pizzas or what ever you would put capers into.

Cranberries for christmas...and Troll-cream

Pics by Johanna

It`s cranberry time and its soon Christmas! Well kind of...because I have attended the first Christmas fair meeting, where we prepare for the big event in end of November,and today I found myself  singing
a Christmas carol .
These berries are for our special Christmas dinner, but  cranberry also makes very good jams and contain these bitters that we tend to get too little of in our diet . And they are fast and fun to pick.

I remember in my childhood ,sunday afternoons ,sitting  cleaning buckets full of cranberries that our family had picked on our sunday-berry-trip in the woods. And then after dinner, my favorite dessert:
Troll-cream. Of course this is only eaten in the land of trolls and it probably would not work to make elsewhere...But it is very simple and delicious; cranberries whipped up with a little sugar and an egg-white. And it needs to be whipped until its grown big and fluffy and stiff. Eaten with some cream mixed with milk and maybe the egg-yolk whipped up with some sugar, it makes wonderful color combinations and taste divine!