Digging for Victory Update

Fathers Day Offering :)  A days Harvest and some local Beer.  I love the name of the Beer.

The Little Apple Tree Looks Promising

Potatoes are taking over!  There are Parsnips and Courgettes in there somewhere. The parsley is still going strong.

Broad Beans, I can't wait.  There are also Onions, Turnips and Beetroot in there, oh and another Courgette.

Runner Beans, Kohl Rabi and Peas.

I love raw peas in the Summer.  Not many make it to the pot.  I have to stop myself from eating them like this Mangetout.

Lettuce is interspersed among this lot, I should stop photographing it and start eating it.

Note to self:  Must try harder next year with Cougettes!

Tomatoes are coming along nicely in the Greenhouse, you can't beat a homegrown tomato.  I also love Tomato and Chilli Jam.

Some of the best things in life are happy accidents (Ask my sons!)  Isn't this self seed Poppy beautiful?  It has taken up residence with the peas and beans, it will be brilliant to attract the bees to set my runner beans.

Lavender Wands: The Scent of the Summer

The Lavender in the garden is almost in full bloom, the scent is absolutely gorgeous.  It reminds me of my childhood, making lavender bags and lavender wands.  I love Lavender.  We buy Lavender oil regularly for sprinkling on pillows and bed linen, we also use it on insects bites or for minor skin complaints.  It is a fantastic plant and I consider it to be another garden harvest.
Today I made my first Lavender Wand of the year.  This is another craft that my Grandmother taught me to do.  She used to make them as a child.

You need an odd number of freshly picked lavender stems, that are dry and just before the flowers are in full bloom.  I used nine.  You also need some scissors, cotton, a needle and about a metre of ribbon.

Remove all of the leaves from the stems and bind together just under the flowers.

Carefully bend the stems over the flowers, try not to break them.

Starting of can be a little tricky but you weave your length of ribbon around the stems, going under and over.

Until you have covered the length of the flowers.  Don't worry if Lavender flowers poke through, they look pretty.

When you get to the end of the flowers bind your ribbon around and stitch it securely.  Tie a bow to the stems.  The end of ribbon you started with may stick out, just gently use the needle to tuck it in out of sight.

I will be using my 'Magic' Lavender wand to help me sleep.  I am hoping to make a few more this year too.

Jamming

Blackcurrant 'No Bits' Jam

I have been busy working my way through my list of recipes to make with Fresh Blackcurrants.

Five-recipes-to-make-with-fresh Blackcurrants

I made the Cheesecake.

Blackcurrant-Marbled-Cheesecake

Now I have made the 'No Bits Jam'.  Again I adapted the recipe.  I only used two ingredients.

Ingredients
Fresh Blackcurrants
Sugar

Method
I used the same amount of sugar to Blackcurrants.  I didn't add any water.  I simmered the blackcurrants and pressed them through a sieve.  Then I added the sugar and boiled until the jam reached the setting point.  This has made a firm set Jam.  It is important to my youngest son that his jam has 'no bits'!

Today I picked fruit in the garden again.  The sun was shining and almost ripening them faster than I could pick them!  This year there seems to be a bumper harvest.

and ................

I have already turned the Raspberries into five jars of Raspberry 'No Bits' Jam.  The Raspberries are ripening and want picking everyday.  I have a 'Creative Spinning Workshop' to go to tomorrow evening and again on Saturday, I am going to bake 'Raspberry Buns' and 'Blackcurrant Muffins' to help me keep my strength up!

My son had an English Literature Exam yesterday he had to write an Essay on 'Of Mice and Men'.  I had to do that when I was at school!   I can remember one quote from the whole book!  The character Lenny used to repeat to himself;
'Live of the fat of the land'.  It gave him hope and comfort to dream of a day when he could own his own land and become self sufficient!  I wonder if he liked jam and turnips?

What a lovely pair!

A lovely pair of turnips, the first two of the year!  Turnips are my accidental speciality.  With my abundance of Blackcurrants and this pair of beauties I am really 'living off the fat of the land'.

They were washed, peeled and chopped within minutes along with swede, carrots and onion.

It was all mixed thoroughly together with some minced steak and seasoned with lots of salt and black pepper.

Wrapped up in a circle of Shortcrust  Pastry and Baked until Golden Brown.

A Cornish Pasty to my mind has to contain a bit of turnip for it to be 'Proper' 

I have shown you 'Cornish Pasties with the recipe in this previous post' I just wanted to show off my turnips!  I am off to Google 'Vegetable shows', I think mine are winners!

Radishes

This is a beautiful picture of Peter Rabbit eating radishes from Mr Mcgregor's garden.  This Beatrix Potter story was one of my favourites as a child and I loved reading it to my children.  I am a bit of dreamer and for me the humble home grown radish conjurs this delightful image.  My son loves picking things from the garden and eating it, he nibbles on Parsley and Chives when there is not much else growing.  He also eats a stick of rhubarb dipping it into sugar.  We are truly living off the fat of the land! 

Yesterday he had his first crunchy radish of the season and he likes them as much as Peter Rabbit did.  He would eat them for breakfast if I would let him.  I am a spoil sport.  I have a small patch of rocket I have been picking and mixing it with baby spinach leaves for salad,  it will be delicious with a few sliced radishes tossed in.  After a quick Google search I have discovered I have been throwing the most nutritious part of the Radish away, the greens.  I have found a recipe for Radish 'Greens' Soup.  In fact I have found hundreds of Radish recipes.  I could write a book as a follow on from last years '101 ways with a Turnip', '101 Ways with a Radish.'  I will have to be quick though before they all disappear!

Here is a Radish Recipe I have adapted to try:

Radish Butter

Ingredients:
1 Bunch Radishes, finely sliced (save the greens for soup!)
2 tablespoons chopped Parsley
25g softened Butter
1 tablespoon of Mayonnaise

Mix all the ingredients together thoroughly.  Spread on fresh crusty bread or crispbread and enjoy!
This recipe belongs to the 'Cucumber Sandwich' brigade, it gives you the fresh taste of the Summer and would make good picnic food.

Spinach - Garden Harvest

Here is some Homegrown Spinach.  This spinach was actually planted last year and it survived the harsh winter!  This Spinach is very Hardy.  I think it is 'Matador' variety.  I try to use what I grow rather than waste it.  Popeye would be proud of me.

I put some in this Chicken and Chick Pea Curry.

I also made a Spinach and Feta Quiche.  I just made a shortcrust pastry case, blind baked it for about ten minutes then crumbled about 300g of Feta into the base, with all of the wilted chopped spinach I could gather.  I beat three eggs with 150ml of milk, poured it over the Feta and Spinach and baked it until golden and set.

I have lots of vegetables threatening to put in an appearance this year so I am looking forward to more concoctions.  Last year I had a large glut of Turnips...I was going to write a book '101 ways with the Humble Turnip!'  I wonder what this year will bring...

Rhubarb, rhubarb, rhubarb...

My Garden is providing, we are living off the 'Fat of the land'.  Ok I may be exaggerating but I do have Parsley and Rhubarb ready for harvesting.  I have yet to find a recipe using both so we settled for a good old 'Rhubarb Crumble'.  First pick your Rhubarb.

Trim it,  wash it and chop it into pieces.  Here is my top tip for cooking Rhubarb, I do not add any water or 'Sugar' but I mix it with two or three good tablespoons of Golden Syrup.  (If you are trying to cut down on sugar - no sugar fizzy lemonade or ginger beer is good.)  I then put it in a medium oven for about twenty minutes.  It still keeps its shape rather than stewing down to a puree. 

For the crumble topping:

175g/6oz Flour

75g/3oz Butter or margarine
75g/3oz Sugar

I rub the flour and fat together until it resembles breadcrumbs and then add the sugar.  Place the crumble topping over the fruit and bake in a medium oven for a further twenty minutes, until golden brown.  This crumble has been consumed with 'Toffee Ice-cream' or but my youngest stuck to his usual...  'Squirty Cream'.

When I was a child a comedy show used to be on tv on Sunday afternoons.  It was called 'Rhubarb, Rhubarb'.  The only words spoken for the whole show was 'Rhubarb'.  I used to find it fascinating.

Rhubarb, Rhubarb - British Comedy from the 1980s Dialogue consists only of the word Rhubarb.

Look what I pulled today!

I couldn't help it.  I am so proud of them.  I am sure they will look even nicer roasted for Sunday Lunch tomorrow.  :)

Showing off my Parsnips!

Dig for Victory

Today there was some long awaited sunshine.  I have been thinking about the garden a great deal, but the time is not right to do anything about it yet.  This week I have been buying vegetable seeds in anticipation to start the growing year again but the ground has been frozen solid.  I did manage to get out and mooch about and see what is going on out there.  It looks sorry for itself but already there are signs of life and rejuvenation.  The first plant to bud each year is my big old blackcurrant bush, I only have one and it grows enough currants for at least 5lbs of jam each year.  I wait for optimum ripeness then I have to race the Blackbird to get them all picked.


Big Old Blackcurrant Bush - Always the first plant to bud

 I also have Raspberry canes, they are rather intrusive and love my garden so now my neighbour has lots too, wether he wants them or not!


Somewhat invasive Raspberry canes

 Last Year for my Birthday I had three large raised beds put in to the garden, they do not look great at this time of year but there is still plenty going on in there and in the summer when they a brimming with fresh green peas, courgettes, tomatoes, broad beans, turnips, beetroot, lettuce, chillis, rocket, herbs, spinach, onions, potatoes and runner beans they look alot more inviting. 
Please note Percy Pigeon observing the goings on.  We rescued a baby pigeon last year and nursed him for about a week until he left.  We worried about him like you would a pet.  We kept releasing him and then finding him wondering down the path at night in the dark, looking little and vulnerable.  He would bed down in a wicker basket with a Digestive biscuit soaked in  milk for supper, then go about his business again during the day.  One day he was strong enough to leave the garden and now four regularly feed here.  I am sure one is Percy, he has that look about him.

On closer inspection today there are still small tasty offerings to be had, that have proven their resilience against the extreme winter weather.

Kohl Rabi

Lovely Leeks

Curly Kale

Jerusalem Artichokes

Parsnips

Amazing Sage will soon be covered in flowers and Bumble Bees

'Greensleeves' Apple Tree and Percy Plum Tree

I will find it interesting to Blog the garden and its produce as the year evolves, It doesn't look much now but in the Spring and Summer it is my favourite place.