Christmas from the garden

Christmas is one of the busiest times in the kitchen, but it doesn’t mean you can’t pop out to the garden too… especially to harvest things.

Christmas cooking can be like the climax of the harvested year. You can give your jams away as presents, eat redcurrant and cranberry jelly and sauce with your Christmas meal. Harvested chestnuts or other nuts can be used in desserts. Dried cranberries or raisins are great for puds. And of course, anything that is still green at this time of year can be added to your wreath or house for festive cheer.

Dried Cranberry Chocolate Cake anyone?

But you don’t have to stop there… what about the main Christmas meal?

What about growing and cooking your own Christmas dinner?

For future thinking, here are some traditional Christmas dinner things you could plan to grow for next Christmas:

• Potatoes – we always plant so many we still have plenty in the ground come Christmas day. As long as they are well buried and not planted in too damp a place, potato tubers will be fine against the frosts.
• Brussel Sprouts or Brukale (Brussel sprout crossed with kale).
• Kale
• Broccoli
• Carrots – yes, you can still be harvesting carrots from the ground at Christmas, if you cover them with fleece.
• Parsnips
• Cabbages
• Beetroot – why not add some to your roasted roots?
• Celeriac – ditto, or a celeriac mash? Or just boiled?
• Celery – homemade stuffing anyone? And in that case how about freezing some pears or storing some apple too?
• Onions
• Runner- beans or peas – store them in your freezers all year round from the first harvest onwards.
• Pumpkin or squash – usually USA’s Thanksgiving, I know, but how about roasting some and creating a vegetarian/vegan replacement for the usual meat?

Homegrown Brussels and Brukale

Christmas is a holiday, a time of celebration and of having fun with loved ones. To me, it is also a time to be creative and original, to do what I love by going back and cooking from scratch, a way of tying up my year of cooking and growing. This year we will be having our own cabbage, beans, pumpkin, celeriac, beetroot, carrots, potatoes and Brussel Sprouts, not to forget homegrown redcurrant jelly and homemade cranberry sauce… What a way to celebrate an end to 2018!

RIP David Austin Sr. 

What do you grow/dream of growing for Christmas time? Let us know.

For Christmas baking recipes, check out Beagle Baking (https://bellasbakingsite.wordpress.com/home/)

Just type ‘Christmas’ into the search bar and it will show you some festive treats.

And then, after all that food, just follow Rainbow’s advice:

Bed.

space2grow won an award!

space2grow just celebrated its 1st birthday. We had a buffet in the therapy cabin where we had homemade apple crumbles, pies, rice dishes, and a delicious potato and leek soup with homegrown produce.

A year ago there were six of us looking at a bare acre in wet September. Now, we have nearly 40 volunteers that come to work as part of a relief from mental health problems, ranging from addictions to depression, as well as people who just like to get some fresh air and be part of a community project.

space2grow 2017 – just starting out

Not only did we celebrate the charity’s birthday but we were also celebrating the award we received last week. Despite being less than a year old, space2grow entered into the South East in Bloom Awards, not expecting to succeed in anything at all, but we were surprised with a 3rd category award – there were five levels of achievement with the first being “Emerging” and the fifth (highest) being “Established and excellent”. Somehow we won an award in the third category called “Advancing”.

Well done space2grow.

https://www.space2grow.space

 

Red Cabbage

Just look at that red cabbage… homegrown and harvested from the plot yesterday.

It was the first time I have ever grown red cabbages before and I thought it was so beautiful, I decided to eat some. I went from cabbage hater, to ‘green cabbages are ok’ to ‘wow, red cabbages are good cooked too!’

Why should we eat cabbages?

89g of raw cabbage contains –

• Protein: 1g
• Fibre: 2g
• Vitamin K: 85% of the RDI
• Vitamin C: 54% of the RDI
• Folate: 10% of the RDI
• Manganese: 7% of the RDI
• Vitamin B6: 6% of the RDI
• Calcium: 4% of the RDI
• Potassium: 4% of the RDI
• Magnesium: 3% of the RDI

Vitamin B6 and folate are essential for many important processes in the body, including energy metabolism and the normal functioning of the nervous system. Cabbage is especially high in vitamin C, a potent antioxidant that may protect against heart disease, certain cancers and vision loss. While both green and red cabbage are excellent sources vic C, red cabbage contains about 30% more. One cup (89 grams) of chopped red cabbage packs in 85% of the recommended intake for vitamin C, which is the same amount found in a small orange. So I might avoid Fresher’s flu…

Cruciferous vegetables like cabbage contain many different antioxidants that have been shown to reduce chronic inflammation. Sulforaphane, kaempferol and other antioxidants found in brassicas are likely responsible for their anti-inflammatory effect.

Cabbage is full of gut friendly insoluble fibre, a type of carbohydrate that cannot be broken down in the intestines. Insoluble fiber helps keep the digestive system healthy by adding bulk to stools and promoting regular bowel movements. Cabbage is also rich in soluble fibre which has been shown to increase the number of beneficial bacteria in the gut. These bacteria perform important functions like protecting the immune system and producing critical nutrients like vitamins K2 and B12. Eating cabbage keeps your digestive system happy.

Red cabbage contains powerful compounds called anthocyanins. They give this vegetable its vibrant purple colour. Anthocyanins are plant pigments that belong to the flavonoid family. Many studies have found a link between eating foods rich in this pigment and a reduced risk of heart disease. Cabbage contains more than 36 different kinds of anthocyanins…

How to eat it?

Raw is probably best as most of the nutrients will be withheld that can sometimes leave during the cooking process. But I find raw cabbage icky. Steamed is the next best, followed by boiled, roasted, fried.

We boiled it and ate our red cabbage with lots of other homegrown produce for dinner – potatoes, sweetcorn, green Savoy cabbage, carrots, runner beans and courgette. It was beautiful and yummy and helped to ease my sore gut that had been suffering all day. See – homegrown produce is so good for you!

Update: one more pumpkin left to harvest… the other plants have all turned brown and died from powdery mildew so I cut their fruits off and took them inside to cure (more information here for those who are interested: Curing pumpkins). I’m leaving the last one on to make sure it ripens more and will take it away when the plant finally has to go.

Blight has hit the veg garden and the potatoes are starting to go – thank goodness it came so late this year as the main crop potatoes have managed to grow properly before the disease came. The tomatoes are going to suffer and I am expecting a lot of green ones to fall off soon but we did pretty well with the red tomatoes being grown outside this year in this once in a lifetime heatwave.

The autumn harvest of raspberries is being as wonderful as always. We had them last night for dessert along with homemade chocolate brownie ice cream and cookies and cream ice cream (recipes can be found on my Beagle Baking blog:

Chocolate Fudge Brownie Ice Cream

https://bellasbakingsite.wordpress.com/2018/07/27/cookies-and-cream-ice-cream/  ).

Update continued…

In my last post I got very excited about making my first preserved chopped tomatoes from our homegrown crop. I will end that little story by saying I used them in a homemade paneer curry last night and it was great – along with homegrown onion, garlic, coriander seeds and mustard seeds in it, and homegrown runner beans on the side, of course. Here is a link to my paneer recipe if you need it, part of my old cucumber post —> Cucumbers

Now that the rain has settled in … 😦 I’ve had lots of time to catch up on making preserves. Spent a busy Friday making two batches of strawberry jam and a chutney – recipe coming soon!

 

But I took the chance yesterday to snap some quick pictures of the garden in the sun before the rain came back and would love to share some with you. Below is a picture of our William red rose. It is the most prolific yet at the moment. I counted 7 flowers and another 8 buds getting ready to open the other day. This after mostly just 3 at a time for the last couple of years. It shows how good feeding a rose is… It is a beautiful, delicious smelling rose I highly recommend.

Next up we have the sweetcorn. It has grown so tall this year – taller than me, which isn’t saying much, but that makes it over 5’3… They have been loving the summer and he sprinkler and are looking really good. Next test will be to see if they have produced any kernels…

I grew most of my tomatoes indoors this year, which I always do because the English weather is often rubbish, but we do always get a few rogue plants in the compost we spread outside. These often come to nothing but this year they are laden with fruit and look stunning!

Below is a photo of the one chickpea plant that decided to germinate. The little brown pods are the beginning of what will hopefully turn into an actual chickpea being grown. Fingers crossed.

Runner beans are doing very well, but I’m going to have to start using a ladder.

Pumpkin!

The other huge plant this year was the courgettes. The actual plants were whopping in size. I should have taken a photo earlier when they looked even more striking, but I got one now to remind myself in the future that courgettes need space!

That’s all for now. Hope you all have a glorious twelfth – oh, fun fact, it is international elephant day on 12th August every year.

 

Courgettes, courgettes… update

So it has FINALLY rained.

I don’t like rain, but I am actually happy it is here because it has been weeks without a drop and I am relieved to be given a night off from watering the parched plants.

So as you may have guessed from the title, we have a fridge full of courgettes (zucchini). They are going in everything I am cooking at the moment, such as my dinner from tonight, dahl. For the recipe, check out my Courgettes page, Carrot and Courgette Dahl.

Eaten with, of course, runner beans, and some kale. Using homegrown onion, garlic and mustard seeds as part of the spice base.

Runner beans: froze two bags today, cooked one container that I picked today for dinner tonight, and have another whole container to do tomorrow… before picking the next lot. Does anyone else feel like they have suddenly become blind while picking beans and always seem to miss some that turn into GIANT beans?

Bought a new bean slicer to replace the old one we broke which is making life a little simpler again. Anyone else tried standing there for over an hour slicing runner beans with a knife? I could not move my legs they got such bad cramp…

Pumpkins are beginning to grow – exciting!

Picked the few raspberries that are growing at the moment along with blueberries and wineberries today to eat with homemade cookies and cream ice cream for dessert (recipe on my other blog, here: https://bellasbakingsite.wordpress.com/2018/07/27/cookies-and-cream-ice-cream/ ).

And to top off the day, it was nice to see and get a photo of something other than squirrels at the bird feeders… A nice woodpecker instead.

 

So many strawberries… Homemade Vanilla Ice Cream Recipe

It is so dang hot.

Not that I’m complaining, I love you sun,

But it is getting tricky to get the courage up enough to venture out into the heat trap in the veg garden to pick the fruit.

Someone told me this has been a really good year for strawberries, all due to the time the rain fell this winter (which I thought was all the time. Incessantly. Non-stop). It has certainly been a good strawberry year for us. I’ve been eating them all the time for last couple of weeks.

On top of the strawberries, the raspberries have taken off, along with the red currants, boysenberries, jostaberries and the blackcurrants. I think I almost had a breakdown end of last week due to the overwhelming amount that needed to be picked.

This blurry photograph is of 45 minutes picking of just strawberries. I didn’t even get half way through the patch, and I have eaten a few handfuls from the container already…

Strawberries are those red gems in the veg patch. They are so good for so many different recipes. You have Strawberry Jam, Strawberry and Rhubarb Jam, Strawberries and Elderflower Cake. Strawberries are amazing with natural Greek yoghurt, chocolate cake (which we have been having a lot of, of course), chocolate mousse, mashed with banana (oh, childhood), banana and strawberry smoothies. But one of my recent-ish discoveries has been how good strawberries go with just plain old vanilla ice cream.

It is no surprise that they go wonderfully well with some food chocolate ice cream (because what doesn’t go well with chocolate ice cream?), but as I am not someone particularly ecstatic about the idea of vanilla ice cream, I was very surprised when I had to eat it for dessert at one time in my life, how well the mixture went together.

The subtle vanilla twang and the creamy consistency of the ice cream got marvellously with this juicy berry, but it also looks so spectacular together: the red and white colours mixing together.

I have been replicating that dreamy match lately with some homemade vanilla ice cream (oh yes, I have recently discovered how yummy and easy it is to make ice cream, even without an ice cream maker).

So, lots of strawberries? No problem! Here is your next recipe…

Strawberries and Homemade Vanilla Ice Cream

(Serves 6)

-8 egg yolks -225g granulated sugar -300ml double cream -500ml full fat/whole milk -1 ¼ tsp vanilla extract

1. Mix the egg yolks and sugar in a large bowl.
2. In a saucepan, bring the cream and milk just to boiling point. Pour the warmed contents of the saucepan into the egg yolk bowl and mix thoroughly.
3. Add the vanilla extract and mix in well.
4. Pour into an ice cream container and freeze until solid, about 6-8 hours.
5. Allow to defrost slightly before serving in scoops with fresh strawberries scattered over the top.

June in the garden

It would be hard to summarise what we have been up to in the vegetable garden lately, so I took my crappy phone over with me to take some photos to show what we have been up to…

The broadbeans are doing really well. These I sowed as seed last autumn and we have already harvested a large amount, some small pods, some big that have been shelled.

Broabeans

This week we have harvested: broadbeans, parsley, Swiss chard (or perpetual leaf spinach), rocket, lettuce, radishes, cucumber, garlic, tree cabbage and wild strawberries.

Lettuce

Rocket

After trying sooooo many times to grow spinach and carrots this year, I have started again with fresh seeds – fingers crossed it will work!

I also planted out my pumpkins today, the last crop to go outside. Now I just have to get a serious move on with my sweet potatoes and some of my tomatoes need larger pots too…

‘Charlotte’ Potatoes 

Potatoes are looking as lovely as ever. I think I should just stick to potatoes. They seem to be all I can manage!

Onions

We have had really bad slug and snail damage this year – even the onions have suffered, which is very unusual. Protection has been put in place to save our babies at the cost of bug life 😦  There are only so many crops you can lose before you have to take action.

Summer Squash grown from seed and planted on

Runner Beans

Our lovely runner beans are growing every day. The ones in the front row of this picture are the ones that we planted two years ago and left the roots in the ground. We covered them up to protect them from the frost over winter and now they have grown beautifully yet again. There are another two trenches of beans in the background, and another couple in the garden. Got to love beans.

Grown from seed sweetcorn. Our neighbour kindly gave us another couple of batches from her own garden too. One might produce…?

Cheeky self-seeding orach growing among the broadbeans

Other than that, it has been weeding and feeding non-stop here. Working on clay soil at another garden has made me realise how hungry our plants must be on sandy soil. Compared to the other garden, ours need constant watering and manuring to keep them fit and strong.

So excited for the blueberries…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Recipe: Halloumi and Tree Cabbage

Hello readers,

It has been another busy week of weeding, feeding, planting out, watering etc. in the garden. We just picked our first wild strawberries yesterday, which was very exciting, and I have just picked our first cucumber today, even more exciting! It will be going with the lettuce and radishes we harvested for salad with our spaghetti and parmesan tonight.

But I’ve got another recipe for you today…

I love growing Spanish tree cabbage, seeds available from the Real Seed Company. This is the third year the original sowings have been standing and producing. They make a great green for humans and animals alike.

If you want to familiarise yourself with this easy to grow and care for veg, then take a look at my post about Tree Cabbage.

For now, here is a little recipe to inspire you to try growing it.

Halloumi and Tree Cabbage

(Serves 2) 

-250g halloumi cheese -10 large leaves of tree cabbage -Olive oil, for frying

1. Cut the halloumi cheese into chunks.
2. Rip the tree cabbage leaves from the stalks and into smaller pieces.
3. Warm the olive oil in a frying pan. Add the halloumi. When it is browning on one side, flip over to brown the other. At the same time, add the shredded leaves.
4. Cook until the halloumi is browning and the tree cabbage is turning crispy. Serve as a starter or side dish.

 

Update – 28th May 2018

Hello Blog, it has been a while.

Honestly, I’ve been really busy. Uni exam revision, foot injury and then a lot of catching up of work in the veg garden. Also… I’ve been writing a cooking book specially for gardeners who need a variety of recipes for homegrown surplus or gluts, and some fiction.

So… this week we have harvested our first baby broadbean pods, kale, parsley, radishes, oregano, chives, tree cabbage, swiss chard, lettuce, rocket, rhubarb… it is getting exciting! The harvesting has begun!

The potatoes are doing really well, so are the broadbeans. The runner beans and peas are hanging in there, the fruit trees are all starting to produce, some gorgeous roses are flowering and nearly everything is planted out except the pumpkins. Oh, and a lot of tomatoes and sweet potatoes for the greenhouse.

I found it really hard to get things to grow this year. The cold weather, the hot weather – so unpredictable. I’ve had a lot of failed germinations and then death by stress. Poor plants. Out of the billions of chickpeas I planted, two germinated, one died a week ago. I’m still heartbroken. Taking special care of the last one… Two spinaches germinated, and immediately bolted. My neighbours onions have bolted, one cucumber died in the greenhouse when we suddenly had a -2C. Crazy England.

Spring/Summer has sprung!

Heat wave = spending my life watering the vegetable garden. I swear it dries out a couple of seconds after watering…

But the blossoms are finally out, the broadbeans are growing nicely along with the radishes outside. The tomatoes and cucumbers need potting on. Oh and yeah, I put an axe in my foot so I’m slightly behind in my weeding this year…