Community gardening and chutney!

Our little community of friends within the neighbourhood have a community garden, which I have come to accept will always be a work in progress. While I read and hear about fully functioning communal gardens, I often wonder how people do it! While the idea of a community garden is fantastic, I think it's fair to say that ours often reflects how we're going: When we're motivated and enthusiastic the garden is great, when we're not the garden is often neglected, and it can become pretty overwhelming for us to tackle.

Having said that, I think during the past summer things went pretty well. We actually remembered to plant things in time for summer, and although parts of the garden got overgrown at times, I think we were all feeling enthusiastic enough about our produce to keep the garden looking pretty good. This summer we enjoyed carrots, beetroot, silver beet, zucchinis, butternut pumpkin, potatoes and tomatoes (as well as our huge selection of herbs.)

In the last few weeks some of our produce slowed down a bit, except for our tomatoes. They just kept coming and coming! And although they were plentiful, they were getting a bit past their best. Worried that we were going to let things go to waste if we didn't get onto it quick I organised an ......EMERGENCY CHUTNEY MAKING NIGHT!!!!

(some of our homegrown produce ready to be turned into chutney.)

Here is our recipe and a few pics. This recipe for "Golden Autumn Chutney" was taken from a lovely book "Handmade" (Ros badger and Elspeth Thompson ). It does not make overly sweet chutney, which suits me fine (but just a warning if you like it sweet!). It is sweetened with honey and apples, not huge amounts of sugar.

Here it is: Feel free to go forth and multiply!

RECIPE:
*When it says “assorted veggies” just use what you’ve got in your garden, obviously thinking about what you actually want in your chutney. We used tomatoes and zucchini from the garden, and added a capsicum as well.


6 APPLES (PEELED,CORED, AND FINELY CHOPPED.)
1.35 KG ASSORTED VEGIES, CHOPPED. (WE HAD MORE THEN 1.35KG OF VEGIES SO DID OUR BEST TO ADAPT THE REST OF THE RECIPE AND ADDED A LITTLE BIT MORE OF EVERYTHING ELSE.)
6 ONIONS (PEELED AND DICED)
2 TBSP GRATED GINGER
1 STICK OF CINNAMON
2 TBSP HONEY
1 TSPALLSPICE
1 TSP GROUND CLOVES
1 TBSP TUMERIC
1 TSP SALT
I LITRE APPLE CIDAR VINEGAR

TO MAKE:
DIVIDE CHOPPED APPLES AND VEGIES INTO 3 EQUAL PILES.

PLACE 2 OF THE PILES IN A LARGE SAUCEPAN WITH ALL THE OTHER INGREDIENTS AND BRING TO THE BOIL

SIMMER FOR 50 MINUTES BEFORE ADDING THE REMAINING CHOPPED PIECES FOR A FINAL 10 MINUTES.

REMOVE CINNAMON STICK AND POUR CHUTNEY INTO STERALIZED JARS.

CLOSE THE LIDS TIGHTLY.

Love Mezz

PS Do this with friends. It’s always yummier when you make this with fiends!