Growing and eating wishlist for 2013

Happy New Year!

It's been mild, dry and windy so far.  A brief respite from the mud and rain for our animals and a chance to get out in the garden for us.  Yesterday Paul started clearing the old chicken run area out, we moved the chickens to their free range area a couple of years ago and the old run has been left vacant for a while.  The plan this year is to move our existing fruit bushes into it.  At the moment our raspberries, blackcurrants, redcurrants and gooseberries are in the same part of the garden as the chickens and last year became overgrown and neglected, however, they did provide a lovely space for Fiona, our Cream Legbar, to lay all her eggs, it meant I was crawling about under scratchy plants trying to find them, not much fun.  By moving the plants we will be able to give them all more space and light, resulting in more fruit (and less lost eggs!)this summer.

Getting in the garden on the first weekend in January has also made us keen to plant and eat as much as possible this year.  Last night we feasted on a stew made from the last of our Cavalo Nero (loosely adapted from a Nigel Slater recipe), I cooked pancetta, onion, chorizo, tomatoes and some chunks of potato in red wine and stock for about 30 minutes, then added a couple of tins of butter beans, and some huge handfuls of roughly chopped Cavalo Nero - cooked for another 10 minutes to let the kale wilt and then seasoned with smoked paprika, a splash of red wine vinegar and topped with some parsley (we still have some growing in the polytunnel).  I have to say it was the best dinner this year (;-)).  So with the thought of making the most of our garden I have decided to list things that I would most like to grow in the garden (sadly trying to remember that we don't live in the south of the UK and are very much restricted by what we can grown up here in the far north).

Vegetable Garden Essentials 
(things we already grow, and eat and can't live without)

Cavalo Nero (of course)
Kale (the bigger type than Cavalo nero, can't remember it's name)
Onions and Shallots
Broad Beans
Garden Peas
Tomatoes
Courgettes (especially Gold rush, beautiful yellow sunny ones)
Spinach (the perpetual one works best in our garden)
Lettuce - Romaine, Cos, and Rocket (although not sure if Rocket is a lettuce?)
Beetroot
Rhubarb
Horseradish
Swiss (rainbow?) chard
Chili Peppers (inside the house, bit of a cheat but I love them)
Flat and curly parsley

Nice to have 
(have grown them before and want to grow again)

Purple Sprouting Brocoli - for some reason it hasn't done very well last few years
Pink Fir Apple Potatoes - had a potato free couple of years, but these are my faves
Strawberries - I grow the alpine ones in the herb garden but grown the 'big' ones for a while
Runner beans - taste great, hard to grow up here
Sweetcorn - grew in the garden once (a hot summer) then in the polytunnel but not very succesfully
Brussel sprouts (grew them in our last garden but they take up a lot of space)

Dream on...
(if only we didn't live in Aberdeenshire)

Aubergines
Squash - any kind, especially wee patty pan ones
Bell Peppers (especially those light green ones you get in Spain)

last year in the hen's free range garden (old raspberry canes behind their shelter)

As ever living up here, I think the worst of our winter weather has still to arrive (usually after my first snowdrops have appeared), but I love spending the long nights planning what to do when spring does arrive.

Easy Garden Soup for a Summer (?) Day

Well, Summer what can I say?  Wettest June on record, greyest too.  I've been putting rugs on my horses as the temperature, wind and driving rain has been making them miserable.  The garden has suffered, thank goodness for the greenhouse and polytunnel or there would be nothing to eat from the garden this year (slugs are doing well but I don't fancy eating them!).

To cheer myself up on another wet Monday I've made soup, I know it sounds odd and shouldn't make me feel cheerful - but it worked.

It's sort of based on a summer minestrone or soup au pistou but I just used what I had in the fridge and polytunnel.

You will need;

Olive oil (scant amount - 1 tablespoon?)
One onion, finely chopped
Two carrots - peeled and sliced
Three large celery sticks, chopped
Two courgettes (I had one yellow and one green - looks pretty)
Handful of flat leaved (Italian) parsley
Tin of ready chopped tomatoes (organic)
1 teaspoon of Marigold Swiss Vegetable Bouillion powder
salt and pepper

Method

Saute onion, carrot and celery in olive oil for 5 minutes

Courgettes and parsley from the greenhouse

Add sliced courgettes to the vegetable mix and soften gently for about 5 minutes.  Next add the tin of tomatoes, then fill the empty tin with water and rinse the leftover tomatoes and water into the pan as well.

Now I added my chopped parsley and the parsley stalks chopped very fine too.  Bring to the boil and simmer for about 15 minutes.  Do not overcook otherwise the vegetables will lose their colour and crunch.

After 10/15 minutes taste and adjust seasoning.  I added salt and pepper and a couple of dashes of Piri Piri sauce, to give it a bit of warmth.

Serve topped with some shavings of a hard cheese (Parmesan, Pecorino, Cheddar etc, I used Manchego it was all I had in the fridge).

Other ideas to top it, a drizzle of basil or garlic infused oil, a swirl of pesto, some crumbled goats cheese, I tend to go with whatever I have.

So delicious, colourful and healthy - it almost makes up for our lack of summer (almost).

April 2011

We are just waiting for the garden to burst into life.  The clocks changed and we are now back to British Summertime, which really makes a huge difference to the evenings (yay!).

Peas and beans seedlings are doing well, and about to be transplanted out of their seed trays and into bigger pots, ready to go in the polytunnel.  P and I have been planning a re-landscaping of part of the garden, including using railway sleepers, granite cassies and some decking to change the levels and add some more interest to that part of the garden.   These are two beds that we established when we first moved here, and now after about 8 years they are overgrown with weeds and too ramshackle to retrieve.

before - tired and overgrown!

One of my twitter friends @4everequine has asked for my favourite shortbread recipe, which I have copied below - it's not actually my Mum's recipe which I can't find for the moment, but another one I have written in my personal recipe book.  I'd forgotten how good homemade shortbread is, so am going to make some this afternoon - it can be an end of school/start of the holidays treat for the kids when they get home!  I think the addition of the brown sugar and almonds give this a slightly toffee-y taste, it's delicious.

125g slightly salted butter, softened
50g soft brown sugar
half teaspoon natural vanilla extract
150g plain flour
25g ground almonds
caster sugar for sprinkling

Cream butter and sugar - blend in the vanilla and then work in your sieved flour and almonds.  Shape into a circular tin and decorate with a fork into petticoat tails pattern.  Chill in the fridge for at least an hour and then bake for 30 minutes at 160oC - leave to cool in the tin before sprinkling with sugar and cutting into 'tails'.

I like to overcook mine a wee bit, as the lovely darker brown edges are my favourite.  Best eaten when still warm with a cup of tea (of course).

First post of 2011

I've started this year with such a feeling of optimism and happiness, perhaps because of the end of 2010 being so cold and dark with snow etc, but I have really noticed a change since the winter solstice.  The days are certainly longer and small signs that spring is on its way are appearing too.  Although I fully expect to have some more snow before this winter is over!

The first order of business this year has been our annual seed order - especially as we have the polytunnel this year.  I want to grow the things I love to cook with most of all - no more huge gluts of stuff that has to be made into chutneys or pickles but I reckon the best use of our time and effort (and to save us money from our food bill) is to grow to the cook's (ME!) order.

My list for this year (so far) includes;
potatoes - first earlies and Pink Fir Apples (my fave)
salad leaves
peas
broad beans
onions - red and white
shallots
garlic
tomatoes - Tigerella, Gardeners delight and Tumbling Tom
swiss chard, kale and cavalo nero
courgettes (but only a few - really don't want the glut of them again!)
cucumbers
herbs
runner beans
beetroot

Our chickens have started laying again with me getting one or two eggs a day - this is so lovely as they are building up to Valentine's Day which always seems to be when they come back to lay.  I haven't had any eggs from my Cream Legbar for ages, but I think as she is a pure breed, she is less likely to lay than the others - I don't really care, she is so pretty and makes up for the lack of eggs by her delightfully scatty nature and funny 'old lady hat' head.

Zac, Brea and Poppy - our horses are all well, and due to the snow and relatively dry weather have been living out most of the winter.  They are so much happier being able to move around in these types of conditions rather than having to stand overnight in a cold stable - this is the reverse of what normally happens when we have cold, wet rainy weather when they would much rather be in.  P and I fitted a heat source tape with thermostat to my stable water pipe which thankfully has kept the water from freezing even down to -18oC. This has made a huge difference to my routine of carrying water from the house every day when the pipe had previously frozen - also made a difference to my poor elbows too!


The countryside around us is so beautiful at this time of year - the low winter light seems to give everything such wonderful colours.  The woods behind our house are a wonderful blend of purples, browns and greens - Birch are my favourite at this time with their smoky purple haze.  I'm feeling inspired to get out and about with my Christmas present, a new camera, although I don't have a clue about photography - I'm really excited about it - watch this space!

Christmas Cake and SNOW!

Wow - what a completely mad end to November, beginning to December!  We have now spent a week with sub-zero temperatures and heaps (about 16 inches!) of snow.

A couple of weeks ago I started to make my Christmas cake.  I use a recipe from a Good Housekeeping AGA winter cook book, you cook the cake overnight in the bottom oven of the Aga.  Although this year I made a few (!) mistakes with the recipe!

 I got a bit over enthusiastic with the chopping and soaking of the dried fruit and put the cherries, peel and brazil nuts in with the rest of the fruit to macerate overnight in port and Cointreau - I'm really hoping it won't affect the taste of the finished cake.

It looked (and smelled) ok once it had finished baking, and I'm now 'feeding' it with brandy once a week up until the week before Christmas when me and the kids will ice and decorate it.

Meanwhile - outside we are living in a winter wonderland!  Snow hit the North East of Scotland last Thursday, 25th November and hasn't really stopped since.   Schools are all shut so we have all been stuck at home, thankfully my husband can work from home so he's been able to help with getting water out to the animals, clearing paths and bringing in logs etc!!

They say a picture conveys a thousand words - so I'll post the next few photos and let them speak for themselves.

View across the glen

Keeping the horses water filled up

Zac, Brea and Poppy

Robin in the stables

Garden - what garden?

Hard to believe that we'll ever see anything green in the garden again when everything is so white outside. Still counting our blessings that we have all our hay in for winter feeding, and our logs are all chopped and stacked to keep us nice and cosy inside.  I am really wishing I had heated waterers like the ones we had for the horses when we lived in Canada, but apart from that it is so beautiful outside and getting us all in the mood for a lovely Christmas holidays - time to get the skis out I think.

back from our Cornish holiday

Or perhaps should be entitled what I ate on holiday!  But first of all just wanted to put a quick link to my friends' garden which is a few miles along the road from me.  They have started to open under the Gardens Scheme for charity and have transformed this beautiful garden by themselves!  It's well worth a visit if you ever get the chance.

http://www.mansefieldgarden.co.uk/index.php


We have just returned from our family holiday to Cornwall, around 700 miles from home and the first time I have visited.  So we had to make the most of it!

During our first week we had lunch at Rick Stein's Seafood Restaurant - Padstow, beautiful restaurant and food (I achieved one of my foodie ambitions by eating here) -  Seared Fillet of Seabass with roasted fennel seeds and sauce vierge; Braised Fillet of Hake with Mussels, Spinach, Chervil and a Malt Whisky Sauce and to finish had Strawberry Pavlova with Creme Chantilly and Vincotto. Fantastic.

On the second week we met up with friends (who own the garden above!) at Watergate Bay for lunch at Fifteen Cornwall - absolutely amazing food.  To start I had Grilled Cornish mackeral with herby fregola di sarda and green olive salsa; then Bocaddon Farm Rose veal 'scaloppine alla pizzaiola' with verdura mista of Florence fennel, red onion and zucchini followed by Strawberry and mascarpone mousse cake, Tamar Valley strawberries and almond brittle.  Completely brilliant food, amazing atmosphere and of course surfing at Watergate Bay too.

The rest of our holiday was spent on beaches, and sightseeing with the major highlight being the Paolo Nutini concert at the Eden Project, followed by a visit to Eden the next day.

All in all, had a brilliant time, now back to our own Eden project (polytunnel has gone mad in our absence), a wee injured cat - Spooky had to have surgery for a discolated hip we have no idea how he managed to hurt himself, and with BIG plans for the railway carriage project.  Looks like a busy summer ahead.

Hello - welcome to my blog

24th April 2010 - 4.00 pm - Cup of tetley in the garden with some home magazines.

Finally it's warm again, spring did feel as if it had arrived a few weeks ago, but it really was a trick to make us hope that the worst winter we've ever had was over. On Tuesday this week, my husband was taking a group of P5's (9 year olds) on a environmental/geology fieldtrip and of course, it snowed on them! Still everyone came prepared and braved the 2oC to have a great day, complete with spotting adders.

Just come back from a shopping trip with my teen daughter, just us this weekend as the boys (husband, teen son and younger son) are off on a scout camp.

So finally I get to sit out in the garden with my tea. Plans for the garden this year include; putting up our polytunnel - (which arrived in about a million boxes yesterday); transforming the derelict railway goods wagon half way up our field into a summerhouse (would love one like MsMarmitelovers!); and perhaps putting in a pond.

Great dreams, but we'll see how we get on.

Now I'm off outside to muck out our paddocks - one of the major benefits of keeping horses at home is the easy supply of well rotted manure for our garden.