Category Archives: Blogging

Be more tree

They have nagged me to keep paying to keep this ad free etc but I am not sure that anyone reads my old drivel any more and would they be bothered anyway…there is no Zeb any more, no Lulu. My little heart quite broke when they died. Zeb two years ago, Lulu last year – Brian has two new poodles who came to be with us in January because he doesn’t sleep well without a dog snoring in his ear and I like them lots but… anyway enough of that. Maybe I will write about them but maybe I won’t. But for nostalgia and for love I will keep this name for now and their photo on the masthead.

Here in Bristol it is May, my favourite month, and the sun has come out and it’s got warmer this week. There are new green leaves everywhere, showers of wisteria petals on the street, birds looking hard for insects to eat, as we know there are fewer insects than ever as we have either killed them with chemicals, stripped their habitats both directly and indirectly and I never thought I would miss them but I am worried. Worried and old and sad and useless. Not a player in this world, just a sojourner. So what could I write about that wouldn’t be a bit of a lie, the usual performative stuff for an imagined audience ? Here goes then – here is a beech tree I love. I suspect others do too as there is a wooden bench in front of it. It stands on the upside of a track in the bit of woodland adjacent to Kings Weston House. It’s not very big but it has song thrushes and green woodpeckers, wrens and blackcaps all singing away so if they can manage I reckon it’s a wood of sorts. If you have a phone that can use the free Merlin app you can use it to help you id birds from their calls and songs, it is a delight, no ads, no charges. Try it.

Be more tree – could be something to live by? In various fantasy books I have read the wizard heroes, mostly the men sort, often turn themselves into trees when life gets to be too much. (They usually turn back again and continue their story) I think I would be quite happy to be a tree for a while. Or maybe that thousand year old shark lurking in Antarctica. Somewhere out of the way where no one bothered you too much. Trees do more for me than sharks and are easier to talk to. So I think tree is my first choice. What would you turn into?

Look at those roots and imagine having those at your disposal

And look at the canopy, sunlight through new beech leaves is positively musical – translucent incandescent joy, imagine having those instead of clumsy fingers. Imagine being perched on by squirrels and birds. The wind and the soft night dark and the rain. Honestly I think I would root myself right there and now if someone would kindly give me a wish.

Rocoto – Capiscum Pubescens – the hairy chilli from South America (updated with additional photos Dec 17)

Rocoto This rather gorgeous chilli plant is known in Peru as rocoto. Sometimes it is called the hairy chilli, think of a pubescent boy! And Wiki tells me it will have black seeds which distinguish it from other species of chilli. Thanks to Rhizowen for confirming the id too!

It will overwinter providing it is protected from frost and its stems become woody, so it is also sometimes called a tree chilli and can live up to 15 years!

Neil and Jo were lucky enough to be gifted a two year old plant by Henleaze Garden Shop for Blaise Community Garden – HGS is an independent garden centre where the owner and family grow all sorts of unusual plants in their greenhouses , sharing Neil’s chilli passion – at the back of the shop – and thus are able to offer something different to their customers as well as the stock that comes in from nurseries. Henleaze Garden Shop is next to the Tesco garage on Henleaze High Street and always worth a visit as it is packed with plants and is a genuine local family business.

rocoto fruit.jpg

The Blaise plant is being lovingly tended by Neil in Greenhouse 1 and at the moment is flowering and setting fruit. When fully ripe the fruit will be red and resemble a small bell pepper. Jo has been told it is a hot chilli with a short burst of heat! Can’t wait to try it!

From Wikipedia :

Like all other species of the genus Capsicum, plants of the species Capsicum pubescens grow as a shrub, but sometimes as climbing plants. They grow into four-meter woody plants relatively quickly, and live up to 15 years, which gives them, especially with age, an almost tree-like appearance.^[10] After a first impulse is formed, the plant branches at a height of about 30 cm for the first time, and forms during growth by further dividing into a bushy appearance. More shoots develop from the leaf axils. Some varieties have purple discoloration on the branches, as can be observed in other Capsicums pecies. The leaves have a 5–12 mm long petiole and a leaf blade ovate to 5–12 cm long, 2.5 to 4 cm wide, tapering at the top and the base is wedge-shaped.^[11]

In addition to the relatively long life, Capsicum pubescens differs in many other characteristics from related species.

Flowers

The flowers appear singly or in pairs (rarely up to four) on the shoots, and the branches are at about 1 cm long flower stems, which extend on the fruit to around 4–5 cm. The calyx has five triangular pointed teeth, which have in the fruit a length of about 1 mm. A characteristic different from other cultivated species of the genus Capsicum is the blue-violet-colored petals, brighter in the centre. The anthers are partly purple, partly white.^[7]

PS I found this on the Scoville Scale ( I am growing Anaheim at home this year because I am a wimp!)

Image result for rocoto wiki

Joanna Baron July 2017

Update December 2017

I thought I would update this with some photos of the ripe fruits and a simple recipe for making a red pepper sauce which you can make as hot or as mild as you like and then freeze in little quantities for later use.

By the end of August the first of the fruits were ripening and ready to harvest. The plant was heavy with fruit and its stems would snap off occasionally under the weight.

They are ovoid and smooth and have thick fleshy walls and black seeds

I dried some of them for Neil using a dehydrator, cutting them in half as otherwise it would take forever.

and I made a version of Turkish pepper paste with just one of them (!) and about a kg of sweet red peppers. To do this you roast the peppers and the chilli whole in the oven till the skin is blackened and soft, skin the fruits, and remove the seeds and then pulp the roasted flesh to a smooth paste, add salt to taste, spread on a tray and put back in the oven to darken and become thick and sticky. Then scrape off the tray and store in little pots. It is a fabulous base for dishes like Enzo the Bride red lentil soup, recipe in Sally Butcher’s Veggistan book, adding sweetness, piquancy and heat.

Ham Hock and Kale Soup

On Saturday we made soup. It was a joint effort. I stared out into the garden (it was a cold day inside and out as misted window panes were being finally replaced and so it was like living in a barn as the saying goes) and noticed that there was still a small cluster of dwarf kale plants in the raised bed. Continue reading →