Nasturtium pesto

Nasturtiums certainly brighten up any British garden. Not only are they pretty and easy to grow, they taste really nice too! People have been eating nasturtiums for hundreds of years but it is only in more recent years that the humble nasturtium appears to have fallen from grace!

Most people are aware that you can eat the pretty flowers, but did you know that you can also use the leaves to add a zing to your savoury recipes?

For pesto with an interesting twist take:

4 tightly-packed cups of nasturtium leaves

Up to 5 cloves of garlic depending on your taste

1 cup of good quality olive oil

2 drops of Tabasco sauce

1 cup of walnuts or pine nuts

1tsp of sugar

Juice of half a lemon

Method

Put all the ingredients in a food mixer and blend until smooth. You can freeze this pesto in ice cube trays to add a gourmet twist to pasta steak and chicken.

Autumn Mists and Mellow Fruitfulness

With the fabulous foraging season almost upon us, I have decided to team up with the wonderful Ludlow Jam Pan and stock up with preserves such as Raspberry Jam, Marrow and Ginger, a Worcestershire recipe, High Dumpsie Dearie Jam, Greengage Jam and Rose Petal Jelly.

Sara-Jane Brough started the Ludlow Jam Pan in October 2008 and it really evolved from a hobby of serious foraging and using up all the vegetable and fruit gluts from the garden.
Sara-Jane said: "I really loved the idea of home grown traditional uses for all these fruit and veg and decided to start the business from there."

Since then it has grown from doing the farmers market in Ludlow and various food festivals and an appearance on the Hairy Bikers food tour of Britain increased interest.
Sara-Jane is particularly well-known for her Hedgerow and the Crab Apple and Rose Petal Jelly. She said: "My main focus is using traditional recipes and techniques to make the preserves, so it is all done by hand in my own kitchen in open pans. I often get comments like, 'that is just how my mother's jam used to taste,' and 'it is like a taste of childhood'."
All products are free from artificial flavours, colourings gelling agents and thickeners which you often find in commercial preserves.
She continued: "I firmly believe that we are loosing some of the old skills, such as preserving food for the winter months. It is important for me as part of the business ethos to use heritage orchard fruits and the hedgerows bounty, and share these skills of preserving by doing talks and demonstrations."

More of Betty's Thrifty Bits

The Betty Twyford Enamel Cleaning Duo

Keep your AGA cooker spotless with minimum product and effort thanks to the hot enamel cleaning spray and paste. A little bit definitely goes a very long way!

The Apple Store and Potato Basket

Growing your own food, storing it and then cooking it is the perfect way to save money throughout the winter months and apples and potatoes are perfect for winter storage.

The apple store has numerous spacious drawers, which means all the fruit and veggies can be stored for winter without touching each other.

Betty's Thrifty Bits

Here are Betty’s top money saving, thrifty bits specially designed to help you save your pennies.

Betty laundry basket 

How many times has the odd red sock slipped in with the children’s school shirts or worse with cricket whites or delicate lacy underwear?

Here is the solution – this rustic stylish laundry basket has two compartments so your red socks will never mingle with your delicate whites ever again. It fits in beautifully with the country cottage theme and can double up for linen storage and even a toy box.

AGA drying rails

And the AGA drying rail is a must on those rainy days. There is a single rail for small washes, a double rail if you have a medium load and a larger mechanism for the larger family wash.

All the rails easily fit on to the front of the AGA and can be stored away when they are not in use.