Jon’s garden, cats and tea

When I told our friend Jon about the gorgeous virginia creeper cloaking a shed at the allotment he offered to give me a cutting from his garden to get me started on my shed’s covering.  I couldn’t resist taking photos of his gorgeous plants, trees and feline friends when I popped round to collect my potted cutting.  That was a couple of weeks ago when the autumn shades of red and yellow leaves were at their most vibrant.  I suspect Jon’s virginia creeper has dropped all it’s leaves now….. that the ivy is still climbing…that these leaves are no longer red…that the water snails have had their fill of apple…that Jon has made some tasty dish using his home grown thyme……and that his cat Greenhouse is still refusing to give any ground to the stray cat that has adopted Jon’s garden bench as her new home.  Jon’s offer of tea turned into a rummage in the cupboard when I asked for something herbal or fruity.   We cracked open Jon’s vintage tea boxes from his travels several years ago and we sampled some surprisingly palletable coffee coloured passion fruit tea.  We then moved on to 10 year old Egyptian hibiscus leaves authentically served with a dash of honey – the colour of a fine red wine and totally delicious.Jon’s family moved to his house when he was 8 years old and this plant was transferred from his grandmother’s garden soon after.  It’s over 80 years old.  How amazing is that?  Pretty cool I’d say and I’d love to be able to recall key moments of my life through the changing landscape of my back garden.  Jon’s inspired me to consider growing bamboo at the allotment.  He has an amazing bamboo plant that’s over 10 feet tall.  No photo unfortunately as the bamboo provides shade for the garden bench and you may recall what feline distractions are to be found under there!

planting spring bulbs

The purchase of these lovely allium bulbs was inspired by Bulbmania to bring a little colour to my garden in the Spring when other plants are still sleeping.  I’ve not planted bulbs before and had to scribble the name of each bulb on the paper bags I wrapped them in at the garden centre.  I don’t really want to play ‘guess who‘ with the flowers next spring.  Admitting I didn’t know the names of Henley’s flowers was one thing but planting bulbs and being baffled about what to expect when the flowers emerge would be a bit daft.

So what can I look forward to in the spring?  Irises of course, although they’ll be a season too soon for our wedding anniversary. Anemone bulbs looked too intriguing to pass up precisely because they look nothing like bulbs.  I can’t wait to see what emerges from such a strange knotty lump and I jumbled up all the colours in one bag so at least there will be some surprises come Spring.  I began this post at the end of September; harvest season and the long awaited rain then kept me from completing it.  I’ve since planted a few of the bulbs in a space between the strawberry patch and the spinach bed after removing the dwarf bean plants and feeding the soil with chicken pellets.  (note to self:  planted 25/10/09) I’ve got another week or so to decide where the rest of them are going to go (along with some lovely looking mini bulbs called Puschkina Libanotica which will produce blue striped white flowers).  Just as well I’ve been busy digging in spite of the rain!

urban apple scrumping

We went out on our bikes last weekend to make the most of the fading autumn sunshine and my foraging feelers spied these lovely apples high up in the branches of a tree on our way home.  There were a couple of small green windfalls on the ground but like a magpie to shiny objects I was drawn to the large red and yellow tree ripening apples on the branches beyond reach.  ‘C’mon‘ sighed George as I stood astride my bike transfixed,  ‘you can’t have them, it’s scrumping if you take them!‘  I had no intention of scrumping of course and every intention of asking so I paused while he cycled off and smiled to myself as I wheeled my bike up the drive to knock on the door.  Two minutes later when George doubled back to find me I introduced him to Sue and Martin who had picked all the apples they could reach and were more than happy for us to return the next day with the car and a ladder to take as many as we wanted. What a haul!  An entire tub full of apples.  I shall return with an appley delight when I decide what I’m going to do with them all; in the meantime a damson jam thank you had to suffice. I did wonder if any of the neighbours would approach us while picking as Sue and Martin were out when we arrived but apart from this fine lady peering over the wall of the house opposite we were left to our peaceful picking.

 

give a ‘hog a home

At this time of year hedgehogs are starting to scout out hibernation spots and are often drawn to their nearest unlit bonfire.  If you’re making a bonfire to celebrate Guy Fawkes night or burning garden rubbish please look out for hiding hedgehogs before starting the fire.  The Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust reports that hedgehog numbers are in decline due to a loss of habitat, development pressures, possible loss of food sources due to intensive farming and the possible effects of slug pellets.  And hedgehogs have recently joined the red squirrel and bottlenose dolphin on the UK Biodiversity Action Plan list of species in need of conservation and greater protection.

Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust advises people to help protect hedgehogs by following these guidelines when building a bonfire:
• Build the bonfire as close to the night as possible so there’s less chance of a hedgehog moving in
• Make your pile of material next to the bonfire site and re-build the stack before lighting it
• Search the bonfire for hibernating creatures using a torch and rake before starting the fire
• Move any hedgehogs found to a ready-made hedgehog box or somewhere dry and safe away from the fire
• Before bonfire night make an alternative hedgehog home by raking up grass cuttings or autumn leaves into a pile a safe distance from the fire.  Hopefully sleepy ‘hogs will choose to snooze there instead of the bonfire.

I must admit I’d not given much thought to hedgehogs before coming across these lovely little knitted fellas made by Julie at Little Cotton Rabbits (click on the photo to go straight to the post they feature on).  Julie is a master knitter and has a pattern for these hedgehogs, come pin cushions, in her Etsy shop and I have it at the ready for when I go into hibernation from the garden.  Julie donates a portion of the profits from the sale of this pattern to the British Hedgehog Preservation Society and it got me thinking about who my local hedgehog charity might be.  If you’re in Gloucestershire too and wondered where spiky waifs and strays end up check out Oak and Furrows Wildlife Rescue Centre.  They have some really interesting articles about being hedgehog aware to create gardens for happy hedgehogs and why hedgehogs hibernate (so we don’t try to rescue every hedgehog  spotted out and about in winter uneccesarily).

Other useful ‘hoggy links

• make your own hedgehog home fact sheet from Tiggywinkles Wildlife Hospital or use wooden wine crates and hosepipe.
• various ready made hedgehog houses are available on-line – a Hogitat, a wicker house, a wooden house
• become a hedgehog foster carer (most animal charities need foster carers for all sorts of baby wild animals)
• Bonfire night poster produced by the British Hedgehog protection society

© Harry hedgehog photo taken by Tim, British Hedgehog Protection Society.

resisting temptation

Wellies adorned with stripes and spots are on sale at B&Q and I think I did really well to come home without a pair.  My heart skipped a beat when I saw what I thought were giraffe print wellies.  I walked past, glanced back, paused and retraced my steps to ummm and aaaah.  I even went so far as to try one on (a bit snug in my usual size 4 with my extra pair of allotment socks already on).  Maybe a size 5?  I picked up another pair to check the label and read ‘Size 5 leopard print‘.  And back on the shelf they went.  An easy mistake to make mixing up your animal prints in the flush of excitement at spying giraffe colours.  I don’t suppose anyone else would have realised either if I had got them.  But I would have known and it would have been like settling for a rice cake when you really want chocolate.  And of course there’s the small fact of not actually needing them:  my 5 year old green wellies, also purchased from B&Q, are doing a fine job of keeping my feet dry inspite of being stored in a shed with no roof.  As long as I remember to do this and check for spiders before I put them on it’s fine! While I was at B&Q I had a look at the sheds and daydreamed about which little hideaway I’d choose if I found a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow to buy a shed (after buying a house with a cottage garden to put it in!).   Maybe a nice little potting shed?  Or a Wayne Hemmingway designed storage shack?  Or perhaps a summer house for snoozing and entertaining in between digs?

And if I really had money to burn perhaps I’d bring a bit of cheek to the plot by getting one of these Butt Butt’s for collecting the rainwater from my shed/shack/summerhouse…

What would be on your gardening wishlist if you found a pot of gold?

© Wayne Hemmingway and B&Q for shed and waterbutt images used
(sheds shown: Corner potting store, Tridoor bikestore, Corsica summerhouse )

potting up strawberry runners

After the late appearance of strawberries in September my strawberry plants are now happily throwing off runners to extend their family (and I discovered that’s why they hadn’t spread very much in the summer: few fruit = few runners).  Strawberries like rich soil but I didn’t have any potting compost at the allotment to bed the runners into.  Instead I used some of the freshly dug soil from planting the spring cabbages and mixed some chicken pellets into it.  I’m going to catch as many runners as I can to refresh the patch next year as I’ve read you shouldn’t keep strawberry plants for more than 4 years.  I think that’s about how old these plants were and although we moved them to a new site this year it wouldn’t hurt to start over again with their new plants.  In fact I may even set up another patch; well you can never have too many strawberries can you!  Sowing some more grazing rye as a cover crop wouldn’t be a bad idea to prepare a nursery bed.  If I can just decide where … The sort of fruit we can look forward to next year (one of our autumn strawberries).

tickled pink

Enormous huggy thanks to everyone who voted for my green tomato soup – I’m tickled pink!

This month’s ‘No Croutons required‘ challenge is to create a soup or salad using root vegetables.  You’ve got until the end of November to get your creative culinary juices flowing and send your entry to Lisa’s Kitchen.

Hmmm, I wonder what…

black cat blessings

Are you superstitious?  Would it spell good luck or bad luck for you if Mikey crossed your path?  It was love at first sight when we met Mikey as a kitten and superstitions and witchy folklore couldn’t have been further from our minds.  So it’s a shame to read that animal charities are finding it hard to home black cats because of their association, especially at this time of year, with bad luck.  After one too many people mentioned it to us when they heard we had a black cat I looked it up and in Britain the reverse is true:  black cats spell good luck and were favoured by sailors as ship’s cat’s precisely because they were considered lucky (if you ask Mikey he’ll tell you it’s for their superior hunting skills!).

If you have a black cat yourself you’ll know there is something very special about them.  Mikey frequently reminds us:

• how to be both gentle and strong (moving gracefully, quietly and calmly out of the way of grabby toddlers followed by fierce pouncing on moths)
• of the need for solitude as well as company (sometimes curled up underneath the spare bed other times curled up on our laps or snuggled up bottom to bottom with his sister)
• that when hearts break hugging more and speaking less is the greatest healer, especially when accompanied by purring

How could you not love a little black kitten?  Mikey at 6 weeks old – May 2003

 

sloe picking in the Forest of Dean

This time last week the Queen was in Gloucester.  Was I down at the Dockside giving the Queen a wave?  No I wasn’t.  I was in the Royal Forest of Dean instead picking sloes with my friend Deb oblivious to the fact that the Royals were on my doorstep (not literally you understand).I wouldn’t have changed my plans even if I had known: Deb is much better company and is as keen on cooking and vegetable growing as I am.  We’d also agreed a chutney and jam swap so nothing was going to stand in my way of sampling some new preserves: plum jam, gooseberry jam and piccalilli.The first location we went to in search of sloes had lots of lovely berries on the higher branches but the lower ones had been stripped bare.  A passing dog walker confessed to having been out picking the week before.  Another passer by gave us a tip off for a second location when he saw us struggling to fill our bowls and using all sorts of ingenuity with bungy hooks to strap down the branches and squeeze past the thorns to reach the sloes.
Deb was more diligent about keeping her gloves on than I was (you can guess why – that’s not her sloe pickings in the front of her dungarees!).  I found my suede gloves to be too cumbersome and took my chances with the thorns.  A little mild tingling from a few small scratches came to nothing with a spritz of the antiseptic gel I keep in my gardening bag.  It pays to handle blackthorn branches carefully though: if thorn tips are not properly removed scratches can turn septic in some people.

We came to the conclusion that dungarees, whether pregnant or not, are the ideal foraging clothing.  Comfortable, ample pockets and with handy buckles from which to hang bags to avoid continual bending over bumps or straining backs and knees. And hooded tops with kangaroo pouch pockets on the front are very handy too. We each collected about 800g of sloes which will easily make a recipe and half’s worth of sloe gin.  It may be a little late to make sloe gin for supping this Christmas and most recipes recommend storing it for a year to enhance the flavour anyway.  So being in no rush to make it my sloes are in the freezer being duped into thinking their feeling the first frosts.  When they’re mixed with the gin their skins will burst more easily and save me having to prick them all with a pin.  Or so they say.  This will be my first time making boozy beverages with foraged fruit so I’ll let you know next month if other sloe gin makers are telling tales.I was wondering whether the soaked berries could be used for anything once the gin is decanted and a google search took me to the sloebiz forum.  I may have to rethink my method of making sloe gin if I do want to use the berries.  Slitting each sloe with a knife to ensure the stones come out easily might sound tedious but the thought of turning the gin soaked berries into chocolate truffles makes it an option worth considering.

So, you’re probably wondering where we found our sloes?  Well, I’m not going to tell you (very ‘bah humbug‘ I know!).  If you live in Gloucestershire you may recognise the waterside view from beneath our first blackthorn bush.  Or perhaps you recognise our second location below where yet more friendly dog walkers stopped to ask ‘making sloe gin then?’.  The gentleman in the picture went so far as to dig in his pocket and throw us a boiled  sweet each.  He always has sweets in his pocket for sharing according to the elderly lady we were chatting to when he crossed our path.  What a great afternoon. 

© Docks photo BBC

vegetarian stuffed marrows

‘What do you do with your marrows?‘ was a question I was asked each time I was spotted struggling off the plot with a marrow under each arm.  ‘Don’t you stuff them?’ was the enquirers puzzled response when I said I mostly made a lemony spread for toast or grated it to hide it in just about everything else.  With so many pumpkins being stored for winter I decided it was time one of my marrow’s got stuffed. The filling for my stuffed marrow was made using leftover veggie bolognese (onion, quorn mince, mushrooms, grated courgette, tinned tomatoes, garlic, herbs) mixed with cooked barley grains.  I pre-baked the scooped out marrow halves for 15 minutes by adding a little water to the roasting dish and covering with foil.  Once filled the stufffed marrows only need to be baked for 20-25 minutes or until the cheese topping has browned.  I’m not a huge fan of lots of gooey melted cheddar so tend to use finely grated parmesan which creates lots of flavour and a crispy topping from much less cheese (good news for the waist line as well as the taste buds!).  We each ate a half of a half of the marrow served with our dwarf green beans and lunched on the other halves the next day.I made a third batch of Marrow Cream this month.  I’m calling it ‘Lemon Surprise‘ from now on: creamy is not how you’d describe this preserve and marrow isn’t a word that tantalises the taste buds is it? I’m sharing this post with Andrea at Grow Your Own who hosts a twice monthly blogging event to celebrate home-grown veg inspired cooking.

UPDATE:  Andrea has posted the October round up here -  13 participants, from 5 countries, using seasonal ingredients.

cabbage comeback and the next generation

The cabbages I planted in July are nearly ready to be eaten.  They’re a pleasing size and look very appetising which is a great improvement on how I felt about them a few months ago when they were being devoured by cabbage white caterpillars.  Another example of a Lazarus like recovery in the garden. I’ve been planting these Spring cabbage seedlings from John this week.John dug up some of my surplus raspberry canes last month and when he asked if I wanted anything for them I said ‘well, if you have any spare autumn plants I’d be happy to relieve you of them.  I’m yet to master the art of sowing seeds for overwintering plants in the midst of summer harvesting’. And lo and behold a few weeks later John waved me over to pass on this tray of 25 spring cabbage seedlings.  I planted 15 cabbage seedlings and gave the rest to my neighbour Pat.  For the eagle eyed among you the savoy cabbage you can see was grown by Bernadette and was donated as an unexpected thank you for the damson jam she’d received.  I love the currency of fruit and veg!

brie baked apples

October has been a month of food related celebrations: National Apple Day, National Baking Week and the RSPB’s Feed the Birds Day activities took place all over the UK at the weekend.  Mulling over how I could combine two celebrations in one and use some of Derek’s golden delicious apples I recalled a promotional advert for French cheeses I’d once seen in a magazine:  apples stuffed with camembert, rolled in chopped nuts and baked in the oven.   mmmmm

to make brie baked apples
4 golden delicious apples
1 camembert/brie
250g castor sugar
500ml water
200g chopped hazlenuts
1tsp ground pepper
20g butter

• Place the sugar, water and pepper in a large saucepan and bring to the boil to make a syrup

• Peel the apples leaving the stalk intact.  Carefully remove the core from the bottom of each apple so the stalk is not lost.

• Poach the apples in the syrup for 10 minutes.  Remove from the pan and stuff each apple with a piece of camembert/brie

• Place the chopped hazlenuts in a wide bowl and roll each apple in nuts until lightly covered

• Pre-heat the oven to 200c/400F/gas mark 6.  Place the apples in a lightly buttered metal tray, scatter any remaining nuts over the apples and roast for 10 minutes.

• Serve with creme fraiche, cream or ice-cream as a pudding for 4 people or a light lunch for 2

The finished result looks quite rustic and homely but if you prefer a cleaner, neater finish I’d recommend buying pre-chopped nuts.  I used whole hazlenuts (hence the dark brown speckles from the skin) and chopped them myself using my coffee grinder but as you can see they’re not chopped they’re… hmm, ground!

I wanted to do my bit for Feed the Birds week as well and decided the wild birds at the allotment needed my sunflower seeds more than I did.  They’ve made light work of nibbling on my giant russians.If you want to turn your garden into a buffet table for wild birds the RSPB’s five top tips for helping wildlife survive the winter are:

• Plant native plants such as hawthorn, ivy and honeysuckle that will provide berries in the winter for adult birds, and insects for young birds in spring
• Make a log pile – it will be the ideal place for insects, fungi, mosses and lichens
• Provide an insect home – insects will spend the winter in these
• Install nesting boxes for birds such as house sparrows, winter hibernation places for hedgehogs, and roosting boxes for bats
• Create a water feature such as a pond or bog garden – much wildlife relies on a regular supply of freshwater

making damson jam

We’re not big jam eaters in our house but with so many damsons to use up from the allotment I took my first tentative steps into the world of jam making.  With fine results I’m pleased to say.  This Sensational Preserves recipe uses orange and cinnamon to enhance the flavour of the damsons and recommends a 10-15 minute delay before potting the jam up to prevent the fruit skins from floating to the surface of the jam in the jars.

1.1kg/2.5lb damsons
1.1kg/2.5lb sugar
1.5 tsp ground cinnamon
grated zest and juice of 3 oranges

• Make the squeezed orange juice up to 300ml/10 fl oz with water then put in a pan with the damsons, cinnamon and orange zest and cook gently in the liquid for about 40 minutes until the fruit is very tender. *

• Over a low heat, stir in the sugar until it has dissolved.  Raise the heat and boil for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until setting point is reached.

• Remove from the heat and take out the damson stones with a slotted spoon.  Put the stones into a non-metallic sieve to drain for about 15 minutes. (*I chose to remove the stones with my fingers before adding the sugar)

• Skim the surface with a spoon.  Stir the jam then spoon into warm, clean, dry jars.  Cover and seal.  Leave overnight to set.  Store in a cool, dry, dark place.

National Apple Day in Gloucester

I had Saturday all planned out: a morning at the allotment and an afternoon at the National Apple Day event at Gloucester Folk Museum.  The rain put paid to my plot plans so I wandered down to the Folk Museum in the morning instead.  I’m so glad I did and hung about for several hours sampling the delights of tree ripened locally grown apples and talking to people with a great passion and knowledge about all things apple.People like Peter, a teetotal vintage cider maker dressed as the Butler of the Wassail, who was intriguing passers-by into the museum to see the horse driven cider press.  The Wassail (a form of salutation ‘Wes hal‘ meaning ‘Be thou whole‘ in old English) takes place in January and gives thanks to the apple tree for it’s harvest and blesses the coming year.  Wassailers share a toast from the Wassail bowl, add pieces of toast to the branches of the tree and speak this response to the toast sung by the Butler:

”Old apple tree we wassail thee,
And hope that thou will bear.
Hat fulls, cap fulls, 3 bushel bag fulls
And a little heap under the stairs.” *

Checkers is a 23 year old half Shire horse (tell tale signs in the knees apparently) who, with the gentlest of nudges from his handler Faye, provided a demonstration of the vintage cider press in action when I got my camera out.  Video footage of Checkers to follow when I’ve edited it for web streaming as well as other digital snippets from the day including: a chat with Martin the apple man about why we should give gas stored fruit the boot and buy from local orchards or farmers markets.a demonstration of a 3-in-1 Victorian apple peeler/corer/slicer and local folk band Way Out West’s ace cover of Jarvis Cocker’s ‘Common People‘ (recognise the accordion player?). I left long after lunchtime with a camera full of stories and a bag crammed with apples and leaflets (and minus the rumbling tummy thanks to generous sized apple slices from Martin the apple man while I made up my mind which variety to buy).  As well as lots of fruit filled fun I learnt a thing or too about the humble apple, have a guide to making my own vintage cider and a greater awareness of local orchards in my area.  The Gloucestershire Orchard Group had about 30 different varieties of apple on display and if you think that’s impressive you can view the definitive guide to over 100 native Gloucestershire apples and plums on their website (a labour of love created by Charles Martell of Stinking Bishop Cheese fame and 337 pages long!).

* from ‘Everything you need to know about a Wassail‘  booklet produced by CROW, the Campaign for the Revival of Wassailing.

feeding the soil with green manure

‘Getting your onions in?’.  ‘Got your garlic ready?’ have been popular questions asked at the allotment in the last few weeks.  ‘I need to give something back before I sow anything else‘ I’ve been saying almost apologetically to clarify my head shake reply.  You see I’ve worked my plot for 5 years and never really gone in for manuring in a big way.  I know that I should but when your plot is in the furthest possible corner from the road and you refuse to drive your car on to the allotment your not left with a lot of options.  Believe me I know:  a morning back in 2005 spent schlepping back and forth to drag bags of horse manure, in the pouring rain, kind of put me off.  Instead we leave an area of the plot covered in black polythene each year which rests the soil and rotates where we plant.  In truth it’s also because I have more space than I’ve ever managed to keep on top of.  But with more time for gardening this year and a massive increase in produce as a result I thought it was time to nourish the soil we have worked and manure the patch we haven’t.  I’ve been reading up on green manures*, particularly the varieties that can be sown as late as October/November.  These packets of Hungarian grazing rye and field beans arrived from the Organic Gardening Catalogue a couple of days after placing my order (the Red Clover is for the Spring.)   It may seem extravagent to buy organic seed for plants that won’t be consumed but I figure it’s akin to the choice between putting wholefoods or processed foods into our bodies.  And, get this, it was the cheapest option for the variety of seeds I’d chosen because the P&P was only £1.75 compared to £5 from other on-line suppliers. 

The feeding of the soil commenced last week with the sowing of the grazing rye on the blighted tomato patch.  It took about an hour and half to dig the rest of the weeds out (started the weekend of rain and muffin making), about the same time to remove the runner bean canes and a couple of the sprout stalks and a further hour to sow the seeds in drills.  I liked the idea of a biblical broadcasting of seed but not the idea of birds pecking it up before it germinated hence the rather tedious sowing in drills.  Fortunately it was a fresh and bright autumn day and the task was made easier with the company of Radio 4 and a flask of tea. 

*  reading - the goodness of green manure, about green manure: five to try, things to do in October, (especially relevant to the green manure seeds I planted)