Chilli crop doing well!

One result of all the hot weather has been that out chilli crop has come on really well...

 

But, consumers of this season's Tassel  Pickles Dragon range of produce beware... According to this article our chillis this year could be extra hot!

Chillies that ripened during the hot, dry weather will be much spicier than normal, farmers have warned.

Salvatore Genovese, one of Britain’s leading chilli farmers, said peppers that grew in extreme conditions could be up to 20 per cent hotter to taste. His farm in Bedfordshire grows a million chillies a week including the infamous Carolina Reaper, which can top 2.2 million on the Scoville heat scale. He supplies most of the main supermarkets.
“If the plant gets angry, or if you stress the plant you will have a hotter chilli. Extra heat will give you a much hotter chilli,” Mr Genovese said.

Joy Michaud, who runs Sea Spring Seeds in Dorset, said: “The hotter the conditions, the hotter the chilli. We know chillies vary from month to month, so a chilli from the summer will be a lot hotter than a chilli from the same plant in the autumn.”

We shall see. One thing is for sure, our crop is much more advanced than normal and we could have some ready to use within a couple of weeks. Normally we don't harvest until about October.

Beer Day #4

I held off starting another brew as the weather was so hot it might spoil. But after the last few days of lower temperatures I thought I'd get brewing again. The summer looks like being long and a thirst quencher in a few weeks time might be desirable, so I decided to get started on this...

"A real thirst quencher?" We will see. It is now sitting quietly in dark corner of the kitchen. I'm looking forward to drinking it already!

Lebanese Cucumber Soup

As we were having our lunch break in the heat by Alton Water on our Friday walk, we talked about good food for hot weather. I was reminded of this recipe I hadn't done for several years. So I thought I'd make it.. It comes from the classic  Reader's Digest "The Cookery Year", from 1973, which we've had forever.

Here is the recipe...

I didn't have any tarragon vinegar so just used wine vinegar and added a teaspoon or so of dried tarragon leaves. Here it is ready to eat...

Ironically, since Friday the temperature has dropped 14 degrees, so we didn't really need a chilled soup at lunch. But it tasted great and was very refreshing. So, the next time we get temperatures of 30 degrees+, I'll do it again.

Steak & Vietnamese noodle salad

On our Friday walk as we had our lunch we talked about food, and one of the ladies suggested I include some of the things I cook in my blog. So here is one from today.

I've been trying out a number of BBC Good Food recipes recently. After my lovely Vietnamese lunch at the Southsea Food Festival, I've been on the lookout for a Vietnamese recipe. I tried this one for the first time tonight. I couldn't get brown rice noodles so made do with wholewheat noodles instead. I also added some finely chopped root ginger and a little mango soy sauce to the dressing. The fillet steak was cooked only 2 minutes each side. This is what it looked like ready to serve.

Rather delicious, I thought. I will definitely do that one again! Here is the recipe.

Bury St. Edmunds Ramblers Walk - Acton

After the 34deg C heat of yesterday and the evening thunderstorm, it was a lot cooler than yesterday, and it was quite breezy, so the prospect of a 13 mile walk was not so daunting. And the planned walk was not somewhere I had walked before.

This was our route...

...visiting Chilton, Great Waldingfield and Little Waldingfield.

Here is Steve giving his introductory talk.



We had hardly got started, when we had an 'incident'. Someone's hat got blown off and over a fence into a garden. "Can I have my hat back, please?"



You can see from the waving grass that it was quite breezy.



At several points along the way we came across some blackberries that were ripe already.



The hot weather had taken its toll on the water levels in Horse Pond.



Part of our route led up the drive for, and past, the moated Chilton Hall.



We had a drinks stop at Chilton Church...



...and lunch at St. Lawrence's Great Waldingfield.



There are some interesting buildings in the village.



Out in the countryside it was looking a bit like the prairies.



We got a good view of Little Waldringfield on our way. Steve offered a shortcut to the church there for those who didn't want to walk the full distance, but there were no takers.



On our way back to Great Waldingfield, we came across a recalcitrant gate with a bolt that appeared to be jammed. But this was no problem for our intrepid leader, who managed to lift it off its hinges.



Here we are nearly back in Acton...



...and our return to the car park.



A great day's walk. Thanks Steve! You can see details of our route here and a more of my photos on Flickr.

Shotley Peninsula 'Bluebell' Walk

My walking friend Joyce asked me if I would like to join her and a few others for a Friday walk. The weather forecast was for it to be possibly the hottest day of the year, so she proposed a route with some shade and water... a rerun of the Suffolk Walking Festival 'Bluebell Walk' on the Shotley peninsula, starting at the Suffolk Food Hall.
"A circular walk taking in bluebells, ancient woodlands and Alton Water Reservoir with spectacular views of the Orwell bridge and Orwell Estuary", was how it was described. That sounded good, although we were clearly not going to find any bluebells in late July!

This was our route....

We set off up the hill to Wherstead Church, but it was rather early in our walk to stop there.



Soon we came to a field being irrigated... and the spray was landing on our path at times. We were already feeling the heat and Joyce and Nicky enjoyed a run through the spray to cool down.



As promised, we had some shady paths to walk along.



Just before we entered the woods of Holbrook Park, we caught our first glimpse of the Royal Hospital School Bell Tower.



The woods were pleasantly cooler, but, of course, there were no bluebells



As we approached Alton Water we saw these rather splendid bulrushes.



Alton Water looked very inviting...



...but, alas, there were warnings not to enter the water due to an infestation of blue-green algae. We were able to have our lunch break at the water's edge, though.



We walked along the shore of Alton Water until we reached the dam.



Water levels had fallen dramatically in the last week or so. On the other side of the reservoir, we saw the forlorn sight of the abandoned Aqua Park - closed due to the algae problem.



We turned to head back north. We saw some lovely landscapes of fields with bales of hay.



No. Don't push any more, ladies. It might just roll down the hill!



From a distance we thought these trees might be yacht masts, but it didn't seem the right direction for a marina. But they were just trees.



Eventually we returned through the ancient Freston Wood to the banks of the Orwell.



Our final stretch back to the Food Hall was a bit odd - the farmer had planted potatoes all along the footpath!



Phew it was hot. We were glad of a drink at the end.

A great walk in spite of the 30deg+ heat. Thanks Joyce! You can see details of our route here and a more of my photos on Flickr.

Bury St. Edmunds World War I Art Trail

I can't remember where I found this, but you can get the leaflets at the Tourist Information Centre and various other locations around town.

The trail has been devised to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the ending of World War I, with a set of 18 (as its 1918 - 2018) pieces of installation art.

"The trail commences on 21st July and concludes on Armistice Day, 11th November.

The trail is made up of 18 separate pieces of art, all created by local artists.

All the pieces of art will be available to buy, after the conclusion of the trail, as the trail is raising funds for the Every Heart Matters appeal, which is being co-ordinated by the My WiSH charity at the West Suffolk Hospital."

You can read more about it here.

Earlier this week I walked into town and attempted the trail, starting at the bottom of the Abbey Gardens. This was my route... complete with meanderings as I sought out the individual pieces.

I photographed each item as I went, but was stymied by a couple being inside commercial premises that weren't open. Nevertheless, as a bit of a crossword fiend, I was able to complete the tiebreaker question despite missing 2 letters. But I still needed to know which art piece each of the missing letters was associated with. Fortunately I was able to revisit them the following day when they were open to complete the set.

Here are a few of those I liked best, but they are all fantastic.

I think that poppy table and benches is my favourite.

It being rather warm I was very grateful to be able to rehydrate at the Greene King Beer Cafe along the way. You can try following my route if you like from the details on MapMyWalk, (Try the 3D option to get a 'fly by video' view of where I went), but you will need to keep your eyes open as you go to find them all.

What a wonderful idea and splendid set of art work. I hope many others enjoy it as much as I did. You can see my complete set of pictures of the exhibits on Flickr

Bury St. Edmunds Ramblers Walk - Great Finborough

This week's Tuesday walk was ideal for the continuing hot sunny weather... plenty of shade and walking beside water some of the time.... and ice creams at our 1/2 way stop!

See what I mean about the shade?



Some of the golf course was green... the greens! (And the tees).



Of course the fields were still as sun-baked as ever.



We had an initial drinks stop at the rather pretty OneHouse St. John the Baptist Church....



...which had a nice shady spot...



But this was where we had our official stop - and ice creams.



We met some lovely horses....



...and it was good to see water and water lilies in the Rattlesden River as we returned, before recrossing the Stowmarket Golf Course.



We got one last shady, leafy lane before arriving back in Gt. Finborough



A gentle morning's walk. Thanks Di and Elaine! I've not posted my usual map of the route as I paused my tracker at the rest stop and forgot to restart it. But you can still see more of my photos on Flickr.