Armillatox

Last summer a friendly fellow blogger suggested using Armillatox to combat white rot in my onions. I’d never heard of the stuff before, so off to Google I went to look it up.

Armillatox is sold in the UK and Europe as an all natural, totally biodegradable, non polluting ‘soap-based outdoor cleaner’, intended for use on greenhouses, paths and patios. However, in America and elsewhere exactly the same formulation is popular as a herbicide, pesticide and fungicide, solving problems from black spot to vine weevil to club root and indeed white rot. So why is it not sold as such in the EU? Apparently in 2003, the EU ruled that any garden chemical registered for use before 1993 had to be re-tested, and safety data brought up to date. The cost of such testing was around £3 million – completely prohibitive to many small companies, and as a result more than 80 brands were taken off the shelves purely for economic reasons. (See this Telegraph article for more.)

I hate to use chemicals on my plot, and keep things as natural as I can, but the white rot was only getting worse and I do love my shallots and leeks, and they do say this stuff is completely natural and environmentally friendly. A bit more Googling showed that many UK gardeners still use Armillatox to treat their soil against all kinds of things, and they love it. So out I went and bought a bottle...

Okay, now for the embarrassing bit. To treat soil for white rot, the (US) product’s website recommends using a dilution of 1:100, and applying 5 litres per square metre. An easy enough calculation, you might think. Well, don’t ask me what was going on in my addled brain yesterday when it came to applying the stuff, but I got it wrong. Waaaaay wrong… I think I put 6 or 7 times too much of the stuff on. I was mortified when I realised and spent the rest of the evening in a state of misery, combing the internet for signs of hope. Was my soil ruined? Would I have to wait 7 times as long before I plant my onions? (The recommended period is three weeks after application.)

Some people said as long as we got a few heavy rain showers it’d be fine. Some said my onions might taste of the stuff. Some pointed out that using anything not licensed as a pesticide/fungicide as such was illegal (a fair point, actually, but it’s exactly as illegal as making your own soap-spray or garlic infusion to ward off greenfly, and show me a gardener who’s never done that). A certain major UK gardening forum promptly told me off and locked my thread to prevent further discussion; a rather unfriendly overreaction considering I was just asking for advice. And some told me they most certainly wouldn’t eat vegetables grown on soil contaminated with carcinogenic coal tar, thank you very much.

Well, that was a new one. Off I went to Google again. But there’s even more confusion on that matter…

Coal tar, traditionally used in soap and in treating nasty skin conditions, especially psoriasis, and also commonly used in food additives, cosmetics and for coating playgrounds and car parks, was withdrawn from many products (information is painfully vague) in the EU in 2006.

Cancer scientists say that preparations with more than 5% crude coal tar are carcinogenic. (Remember Armillatox’s recommended dilution is 1:100, and it can’t all be crude coal tar. With the amount of water applied too, not even my accidental overdose would have come close to 5%. Oh, and I'm putting it on my soil, not my skin.) But evidence is apparently sketchy, with results of animal tests completely unsupported by evidence in humans, and controversy everywhere. Psoriasis sufferers are certainly keen to insist it is not harmful.

Environmentalists say that coal tar releases harmful PAHs (polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons) into the environment. But PAHs are everywhere in our environment anyway; they’re released by any combustion of carbon-based fuels. Wood, coal, diesel, cigarettes, incense… oh, and by grilling, frying or smoking food. Studies on places where coal tar was used industrially but then banned show no reduction in PAH levels even five years later. PAHs also occur in space, and some scientists believe they may have more than a little to do with how we all got here in the first place. Seems a little like banning beaches to protect us from sun exposure to me.

Then I received a pleasant and reassuring message from the makers of Armillatox:

“Don't worry, it will not have contaminated your soil - Armillatox is totally biodegradable. …Leave 21 days before planting your onions and you should have no adverse effects.”

Well, now. They didn’t reprimand me for unlicensed use and are quite happy for me to plant in the treated soil. But then, perhaps they thought I was American; my email address doesn't really give anything away...

Confused? So am I.

But if anyone has any wisdom to share, please do, because I’ve got 100 Stuttgarter Giant onions, a load of Picasso shallots and French Cledor garlic and three varieties of Leek seedlings (Malabar, Musselburgh, Autumn Giant 3) preparing to go into that plot and I'm still kinda worried…

Update: Since this is one of my most-viewed blog posts, I thought I should update it with the results of this little accidental experiment! I'm pleased to say that my onions etc. had no funny taste and didn't seem to be at all affected by the armillatox. However, it didn't stop my white rot problem either!

Winter Veg

It's so satisfying, in the middle of winter, when we feel we've been neglecting the plot terribly, to go down there and see the rows of parnsips, swedes and leeks still standing faithfully waiting to be harvested! The past few weeks we've feasted on parsnip soup, parsnip bread, roasted root veg, creamed leeks - and we're still getting through the autumn's squash as well.

Parsnips seem to grow particularly well on our plot and with very little care. Here is just a fraction of our 'White Gem' crop.

 Of course, they're not all perfect.

The swedes suffer quite a lot of slug damage, but there are still plenty for us too.

And I was worried about our leek crop back in the autumn as there seemed to be a lot of onion flies on them - not something we've suffered before - but the cold weather seemed to see them all off, and the leeks have made a terrific recovery with very few signs of damage. Looks like I forgot to take any pictures of them yet, but I can show you the delicious creamed leeks I served here with cheese and chive mash and a lovely piece of lemon-and-herb-crusted pollack.

I used roughly the recipe from Sarah Raven's Garden Cookbook, but it's a fairly standard recipe: just slice your leeks finely, fry gently in butter and olive oil for a few minutes until soft, then stir in double cream, a little mustard (I love wholegrain) and some salt and pepper. I do believe I sloshed in some white wine too, letting it reduce before I added the cream. Sarah's recipe calls for a sprinkle of chervil at the end, but sadly I didn't have any.

Pumpkin Party!

Gosh, 70 days since my last post. I don't know why I find this so difficult in the winter - it's not like there's nothing to write about. Less, but not nothing.

70 days ago I told you about the 64lb pumpkin we were given absolutely free. Well, two weeks later we invited all our friends over and fed them a monster 14-dish pumpkin feast...

We cut the pumpkin open the night before so we'd have time to come up with something else if it wasn't very good inside. It was so big and had been sitting around for so long I was concerned it'd be flavourless or stringy or dry, or maybe even mouldy. I needn't have worried! The flesh inside was the thickest, firmest, juiciest and most fragrant I have ever seen in a squash! The whole house filled with the fresh, fruity scent as we carved it up and cubed it, stuffed it into bowls and pans, roasted big pans of it for puree and crammed the rest in the fridge. We even nibbled some raw, and it was just delicious - like melon but without the sweetness. It had never even crossed my mind to eat pumpkin raw before! We took out around 8kg of flesh (we could have had more) and we kept the shell as intact as we could...

Next day my friend Dave and I spent pretty much twelve hours straight in the kitchen, preparing our four course buffet. Eddie took an apple corer to the pumpkin shell and turned it into a rather lovely candle-holder, filled it with tea-lights, and scattered bright red autumn leaves from the garden around it to complete the autumn theme. He cooked up some hot spicy cider (with a pinch of nutmeg, allspice berries, cinnamon sticks, cloves, 2tbsps brown sugar per litre of cider, and a splash of brandy) and we were ready to go...

Appetisers

Spiced Pumpkin Seeds
Having saved all the seeds when we carved the pumpkin, rinsed them and dried them, we tossed them in a hot frying pan with olive oil, salt, paprika, smoked paprika and cumin, and then spread them out on a baking tray to finish roasting in a medium oven for 30-40 minutes. I've seen plenty of recipes similar to this, where you leave the seeds unhulled, but I have to say I found the hulls rather chewy. Are they always this chewy? They were delicious, anyway, and people were still muching the leftovers at the end of the evening.

Pumpkin Houmous
I got this recipe from here. I took the easy route and mixed the pumpkin and spices into shop-bought houmous, and served the dip with carrot sticks and strips of pitta bread. Different and delicious.

Starters

Curried Pumpkin Puffs
These deep-fried fritters were dead easy to make and really indulgent and tasty, although I think they could have had a bigger proportion of pumpkin in them as the flavour was a little lost.

Pumpkin and Chestnut Roulades
A rather complex and cheffy dish from Simon Rimmer. We had to use mascarpone as we didn't have enough ricotta, and we had terrible trouble with the delicate sponge (coloured bright yellow with turmeric!) sticking to the baking trays, but somehow we kept it together and pulled this off, and it was well-worth it; the roulade slices looked really fancy and tasted even fancier!

Pumpkin and Goats Cheese Tarts
I rolled puff-pastry out thin and cut it into 2" squares, then scored another square a few mm inside, just cutting halfway through the pastry, glazed the edges with egg wash, and chucked them in the oven for a few minutes until they rose. Then I mixed pumpkin puree up with some seasoning, a big pinch of rosemary and a squirt of tomato puree, dolloped it into the pastry cases, topped with a slice of goats cheese and baked again until the cheese was melted. These improvised tarts were one of the favourite dishes!

Pumpkin Soup
I found a recipe that claimed to be the 'perfect pumpkin soup', but I'm afraid I wasn't impressed and thought it rather bland. However, a few generous pinches of mustard powder and cumin spiced it right up and made it a winner!

Main Courses

Spicy Squash Stew
Yep, I couldn't resist whipping up my favourite veggie pumpkin and bean stew, featured previously on this blog.

Chicken Tagine with Pumpkin
We made this Moroccan-spiced dish in Dave's slow cooker, and by the time we were ready for it the chicken was falling off the bones and the flavours were beautiful. The chicken is marinated in spices first and, with potatoes included, it really does constitute a complete meal. Must make this again...

Sausage and Pumpkin Casserole
Now this is probably my favourite dish of the evening, and one I've made a couple of times since and will make many times more. The flavours are just incredible - really sweet and fragrant.

Pumpkin and Ricotta Gnocchi with Red Pepper Sauce
I wasn't a big fan of these - I found them rather pasty and bland - but my sister loved them. I think perhaps they'd be better finished off under the grill, or perhaps with less flour to let the pumpkin and cheese flavours come through properly.

Dessert

Pumpkin Pecan Pie
Well we couldn't have a pumpkin party without a pumpkin pie, could we? But I'm not one to do things the normal way, so we made this variation with a 'praline' layer of brown sugar and cruched pecans at the bottom. Of course, I was completely stuffed by the time it came to dessert and only had a tiny piece, but wow! The creamy texture and spicy flavours were fab.

Pumpkin Teabread
Couldn't resist trying this moist teabread glazed with honey and served with butter. It came out incredibly dense, but went down a treat.

Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Cookies
These were one of the first things we baked in the morning and we could help nibbling on them throughout the day, they were so good. They have an unusual very light, cake-like texture - we took to calling them cakies instead of cookies!

Pumpkin Fudge
This was the only real failure of the evening (although the guy who ended up eating it out of the dish would disagree!). It tasted lovely and was really creamy, but it just didn't set! Ah well - it's got to be worth another go I reckon...


Needless to say, everyone was full by the end, and the leftovers kept us going for a few days too! Actually we could have used even more of the pumpkin - much more! - if we hadn't wished to keep the shell looking nice. I felt a bit guilty letting the rest go to waste. Next time I will plan better and use more. Still, I've learned some good recipes, hopefully got a few people to try something a little different, and I have a feeling this may turn into an annual event...

Squashes

Well, I've been busy with other things lately and these pictures are a few weeks old now, but I'll show you them anyway.

This is some of our squash harvest, picked on the 19th September. Hopefully everyone will recognise the round orange one. The green ones are 'Burgess Buttercup', the yellow curly ones are 'Summer Crookneck' and the heart shaped ones are my favourite - and longwinded - 'Thelma Sanders Sweet Potato' squash. Since that day we've picked another one pumpkin and five Thelma Sanders!

Bit disappointed with the turnout, really - the Thelma Sanders were amazingly productive as always, but we usually get many more pumpkins and I'd hoped for more Burgess Buttercups, but most of them rotted on the vines. And the Butternut squashes are conspicuous by their absence... Good job we harvested when we did, too - we just beat a couple of very early frosts:

We laid our harvest out on the carpet by the back door where they'd get plenty of sun to finish ripening them and 'cure' the skins, and here we learnt a brand new lesson. Don't store squashes on the blossom end. With their blossom-ends to the floor and unable to dry out, both the Burgess Buttercup squashes quickly went mouldy. Doh!

The Summer Crookneck squashes haven't lasted long either - at least, the knobbly ones haven't. The smoother skinned ones are still hanging in there. Must make an effort to finish them soon... Although I'm afraid I find them rather uninspiring. The flesh inside is so thin they hardly seem worth it - I think we will make sure to eat them all at courgette-stage next year. How do you eat yours?

Now, check this baby out:

I have to report that no, we didn't grow this 64lb monster. It was donated to Sainsbury's by another local grower for a competition, and they were going to chuck it out afterwards! Needless to say, we couldn't allow that. So we have planned a 'Pumpkin Party', and we're going to see how many different things we can make from it. More on that in a week or two!

Pie!

Well, I have learned to make pickle, chutney and jam this year. I thought I'd top it off by learning to make a good old-fashioned double-crust pie. I bought Angela Boggiano's lovely book "Pie" months ago and have been meaning to try it out, and with leeks finally reaching a decent size on the allotment, her chicken, leek and tarragon pie seemed perfect!

I found a set of individual pie dishes in our local charity shop and used those, instead of making one big pie like the recipe suggests. And of course, I made a few other changes too...

Chicken, Leek and Tarragon Pie
(serves four)

• Place a 1.5kg chicken in a large saucepan with a chopped onion, a chopped carrot, a tsp or two of tarragon, black pepper and a big pinch of celery salt. Add enough water to cover, bring to the boil, and simmer for 45 minutes until the chicken is cooked through. (Actually, I had a pack of diced chicken to use up so I put that in instead - and it was much quicker too.)
• Remove the chicken from the pan and set aside to cool.
• Continue to simmer the stock, until it is reduced by half.
• Meanwhile, heat a little olive oil and a knob of butter in a pan, add a small chopped onion and two chopped leeks, and saute gently until soft. At this point I added a big handful of sliced mushrooms too.
• Turn the heat up high, add 150ml wine and cook until reduced by half. Stir in 2 tbsps flour and mix in very well.
• Pour in 150ml cream and 150ml of the stock, and a splash of lemon juice. Season to taste.
• Shred the chicken into small pieces and stir into the sauce mixture along with another tsp of tarragon.
• Preheat the oven to 180C.
• Now line your pie dish(es). I confess I bought my pastry, and chose puff rather than shortcrust as recommended - I love puff pastry! Leave a little overhang round the edge on the bottom crust, and don't forget to cut round your dish for the top piece before you fill it!
• Fill the pie with the chicken mixture, brush round the top edge with beaten egg and lay the lid in place. Crimp the edges together with your fingers to seal, then trim any excess away and brush the top with more beaten egg to glaze.
• Place in the oven for 30-35 minutes, until the pastry is crisp and golden.

Wow! Not bad for a first-timer, huh? The flavour of this pie was soooo good - the wine and cream and lemon and tarragon really make it something special. And what made the meal even better was that I served a load of other NomeGrown goodies with it too - roast potatoes of course, and I took the NomeGrown onions and carrots from the stock and added garlic, chard and peas for a delicious medley of vegetables on the side.