When the Garden Gives You More Than You Can Eat...

Preparing for the inevitable glut.

There comes a point every summer when everything seems to ripen at once.

One day you're wondering whether the beans will ever flower or the tomatoes turn red, and the next you're standing in the kitchen with baskets of vegetables, bowls of fruit and a quiet sense that you've somehow grown enough food to feed the entire village.

It's one of my favourite times of year.

Growing your own isn't really about producing perfect vegetables or becoming completely self-sufficient. It's about eating with the seasons, wasting as little as possible and making the most of whatever nature decides to give you. Some years it's tomatoes. Other years it's apples. There's always one crop that decides to become gloriously enthusiastic.

At Chaos Cottage we're preparing for a familiar abundance. We've already had a load of rhubarb (and that keeps giving), broad beans were next - I have two large tubs shelled and ready to be steamed to remove their tough, bitter inner skins. The blackcurrants are almost ready to pick. Then there'll be various other beans - runner, French, Borlotti; courgettes, tomatoes, cucumbers, plums and, later in the year, our faithful cooking apples, pears and the hedgerow sloes.

The challenge isn't always growing them (or keeping enough for ourselves after the spaniels and wildlife have had their share).

It's making sure none of that hard work goes to waste.

Start preserving or using before you're overwhelmed

One of the biggest lessons we've learnt is not to wait until the kitchen is overflowing.

As soon as the first sensible harvest arrives, we begin preserving or storing little and often. A couple of jars of tomato sauce this week are far easier than trying to process twenty kilograms of tomatoes on one frantic Saturday afternoon.

I'm currently experimenting with broadbeans - the first glut! I love them in Buddha bowls, with a Sunday roast and also in open filo or puff pastry tarts. I've tried freezing then previously (after shelling, steaming and skinning) but the result was a bit too soft - perfect for a version of wasabi paste if you add some horseradish but not the best really.

Small batches quickly add up so you have to make sure you've got plenty of jars and such like. I collect them from everyone! Family and friends.

Freeze more than you think

Many vegetables freeze beautifully with very little effort and can be a lifesaver! Last year my Brussel sprouts got eaten by the bugs before we could use them for Christmas but thankfully, I had some from the year before in the freezer that desperately needed using.

Runner beans and French beans can be topped, tailed and blanched before freezing. Broad beans do freeze well too, once they've been podded but are best frozen on a sheet so that they don't end up squished together and soft as ours were last year.

Courgettes are fabulous grated for cakes and in our opinion are a much better alternative to carrots in a carrot cake. Or they can be frozen sliced or grilled and frozen ready for soups, stews and pasta dishes. They also work well stored in olive oil.

Even herbs can simply be chopped and frozen in small portions (use your ice cube maker), ready to brighten winter meals or hung somewhere to dry and pop into pots.

Bottle the taste of summer

Tomatoes are perhaps the most rewarding crop. I generally grow far more tomatoes than we can eat in salads and have been really rather loyal to a particular RHS tomato seed collection which has cropped fabulously. This year because a) my head and time was dominated with concerns for the oldies in our family and b) I was tempted by SheGrowsVeg, I've gone for some heirlooms and I'm not sure they're going to be quite so prolific ... which is a bit disappointing.

Anyway, if you do end up with a glut, as I hope we will, they can become pasta sauces, soups, passata, chutneys or simply be slow roasted before freezing. Opening a jar of home-grown tomatoes in January is one of those small pleasures that makes gardening worthwhile. Roasted tomato soup with lots of garlic, homegrown herbs and some fresh bread (or cheese on toast) is just sublime when eaten in front of an open fire in winter. The easiest, most convenient comfort food!

Blackcurrants are equally generous. Whether transformed into jam, cordial, jelly or simply frozen for crumbles and desserts, they'll brighten the colder months long after the bushes have finished fruiting. I've literally just made a sort of blackcurrant jam bakewell cake to use up last year's jam before I pick this year's fruit.

Just a quick note too, blackcurrants are so full of vitamin C they make a great cordial for fighting coughs and colds - drink warm and add a little thyme for a really great old fashioned remedy.

Don't forget the pantry

Not everything needs a freezer.

Cooking apples become chutneys, sauce, dried slices, bottled pie fillings and cakes. Many varieties also store remarkably well in a cool, airy place if picked carefully.

Beans can be dried and used in stews and casseroles - I do this with the borlotti beans. Herbs can be dried too and look fab hanging in our inglenook fireplace (though the dust can be a bit of an issue!). You can even save Nigella seeds and use them on homemade flatbreads and naan bread.

Later in autumn the hedgerows offer sloes, ready for sloe gin, jelly or syrup. Rosehips make a fabulous cordial good for colds and flu but also really rather lovely in Prosecco or champagne. Blackcurrants can be used to make cassis - we did last year and it was lovely. These are fab tipples for home or even for Christmas presents.

Share the surplus

One of the nicest traditions of country life is sharing.

Neighbours swap beans for eggs, family and friends leave with bags of apples and customers somehow find themselves taking home a handful of tomatoes after calling in to look at a cabinet.

NB: You can't give apples away in our village - every house has at least one eater and one cooker! We've even sent couriers home with bags of them LOL!

A successful vegetable garden almost always grows more than one household needs, and that's part of the charm and the fun.

That said.... our mischief of spaniels, the rabbit that lives behind the polytunnel (we think he's been thrown out of the warren in the hedge), the rat that's under the neighbour's decking, the caterpillars, the blackbirds and pigeons, they all take their fair share before anything gets given out to anyone else. We would like to be more generous but we're surrounded by furry and feathered thieves!

Waste as little as possible

Not every vegetable needs to look perfect.

Slightly wonky courgettes make wonderful soup. Soft tomatoes become pasta sauce. Apples with the occasional blemish are ideal for chutney once trimmed. Pumpkin roasted in chunks hides any irregularity. Though to be honest, we kind of like our veg a little undisciplined.

Growing your own teaches you that good food doesn't have to be flawless.

A slower kind of abundance

There's something deeply satisfying about opening the freezer in winter and finding bags of beans you picked in July, or lifting a jar of tomato sauce from the pantry knowing exactly where every ingredient came from. An autumnal cheese board with homemade chunty is a delight.

It's a quiet sort of wealth.

The harvest reminds us that nature works in seasons. There are moments of frantic picking, afternoons spent stirring jam pans, muddy boots by the back door and baskets waiting to be dealt with.

Then, just as suddenly, it slows again.

So if your vegetable patch suddenly decides to be wildly generous this year, don't panic.

Pick a little, preserve a little, share a little and enjoy the simple pleasure of making summer last just a little longer.

After all, today's overflowing basket is tomorrow's comforting winter supper.