Landshare/Garden Update

Oh it's been a while, hasn't it? I'm rubbish at this blogging-regularly thing. Half the time I take the pictures, then forget to write it up.

Anyway, as it's now nearing the end of August, it's time for an update on my landshare experience and garden.

Landshare

Well the potatoes came up nicely, then they started wilting horribly - I think they were being eaten by slugs. We've also had strange weather - it's been either really hot or really wet, so I don't think that has helped much.  Only one of the leeks that were planted survived (well, one and a half) and the carrots didn't do very well, probably because the soil is hard and it's been so dry.

It was strange because it wasn't my vegetable patch - it was J and K's, so while I would have liked to put down some (organic) pest control, they didn't, and it wasn't really my place to interfere. Despite all the problems, there were a few mini-harvests, which looked like this:

 This is right out of the ground - no cleaning. Which shows how dry the ground was. The carrots were tiny and a lot of them had been eaten by something (ants maybe??), so I just ate the remainder raw and they were very sweet and delicious. The potatoes were also really tasty. Onions were small and mainly ended up in salads.

J+K came round a couple of weeks ago with a bit of a bombshell - J had been offered a job elsewhere in the country, so they were leaving. =( Bit of a shame as they were nice, but ah well. They've left me the last surviving leek.

There's another, baby, one too and I'm not sure if it'll grow or just die, but at least this one looks healthy.

I've decided that I'm going to give the veg garden a bit of a go myself, now, so I'm not reoffering my garden on landshare just yet. We'll see how I cope alone!


Herb Garden

The herb garden has been doing really well. The fennel is huge, the parsley and sage are both doing really well as well. The coriander bolted quite quickly, as it was so hot, so I let it go to seed and have been drying it out, hoping to plant some of the seed.

As well as the planted bed, I also have two large pots of mint (I dug those out of the ground and into pots as I'd heard they would take over everything). One large pot of oregano and a pot of feverfew.

Vegetables

My step-grandad   gave me some veg when I went to visit him - a tomato plant and two squash/courgette plants. I shoved them in a grow bag on the patio and here's how they are doing now:

I had the first tomato today as one lone one had ripened - it was really tasty. Lots more on the plant which are startin to ripen now.

Been having problems getting the courgettes to pollinate. I've tried hand-pollinating, but so far only have one successful courgett growing:

Nearly ready to eat this one =D

I've been regrowing celery scraps as well, which seems to be going well. Maybe I'll blog about that later when I have a successfully grown one!

So, the plan is to dig over/weed the landshare plot and maybe plant some winter crops.

Strawberry and Apple Jam with Scones

The thing with strawberries, is they look delicious, but you blink and they're going soft and then mouldy. Well this time I decided to preempt that disaster by making the rest of my strawberries into home-made jam. This is the first time I've made jam, so I didn't want to make a huge batch.

I searched for a few recipes online. I wanted to keep this simple, so ended up taking a basic recipe of strawberries, apple (which provides natural jelling), sugar and some lemon juice. I added a little honey and vanilla essence to mine as well.

 Cut strawberries and grated apple in the pan.

 With the sugar added and starting to cook.

At this point I thought 'oooh it would be nice to make some scones to go with the jam!' so I quickly knocked together a scone mixture using what I had, which turned out to include no eggs and no milk (self-raising flour, pinch of salt, sugar, powdered milk, water, vanilla essence, lemon juice, butter).

 Just 4 as there's only me. =)

Once the jam had simmered for a good while and thickened, I decanted into a couple of jars. Could have put it all in the big one, but I decided to do a little jar for a friend who made me some lovely plum jam last summer. (I did taste it first to make sure it was edible, lol, and it's very nice, although also very sweet. When I make this again, I'll use less sugar).

 yummy scones. =) I'm not a big fan of cream, so I just have mine with butter and, of course, the jam.

A very British tea. Served with Earl Grey tea, of course. ;)

Making my herb garden

I've been dreaming of a herb garden since I moved into my house and with J&K growing vegetables in my garden now, I was inspired to stop dreaming and get on with it lol.

I'd booked a week off work, and planned to spend some of that doing this. Day one was sunny, warm and the ground was dry and hard as nails lol. I dug about half of the patch and then had to stop for the day.

Day two was drizzling, but I was determined to carry on, and actually the moisture seemed to make the digging easier and I got the rest of it dug up. The ground here is very clay-y, with flint and chalk stones. So after I'd dug the patch out and de-turfed it, I spent a good couple of hours going through it with a fork, trying to break up all of the chunks of clay.

Finally, I got to a point where it was manageable. Still quite lumpy, but I was running out of energy. I dug in a few buckets of compost.

I could do with some edging, but I'm trying to re-use and make-do rather than buying new things and I'd already spent money on the herbs. Hopefully I can get hold of some wood from somewhere. =)

Herbs planted. There's a bit of space for the oregano to go once the cuttings have taken root (hopefully lol).

Top row is spearmint, garden mint, chives (2 lots), coriander (2 lots). Middle row is lavender, fennel, thyme, basil (2 lots, one is very very tiny). Bottom row is rosemary (2 lots, larger one looking a bit worse for wear, I'm hoping it will pick up now it has more space to grow), sage (1 purple, 1 green) and parsley (1 curly at the top and 1 italian flat).

I also potted up some wild strawberries. I went to visit my grandad yesterday, and he and his wife gave me a tomato plant and two squash/courgette (they weren't sure which was which) plants, so I'm planning to just get a grow-bag on the patio to stick those in.

Don't think my body will be able to handle anymore digging anytime soon. I have Rheumatoid Arthritis and the day after I'd finished the herb patch, my right hand was pretty seized up and the fingers swollen. Worth it though. I'm very proud of my efforts and hopefully the oregano will just finish it off nicely. =D

Stuffed Mushrooms

Back on the boxes this week.

When I get large portobello mushrooms, I like to stuff them. Very easy to make a delicious meal that way.

mushrooms
Spring onions
wet garlic
3 herb and pork sausages skinned.
rice

I'd usually add some stock or seasoning too, but as these sausages were already very herby and the wet garlic and onions strong, it really didn't need it.

As the top picture, I hollow out the mushrooms, chopping up the flesh I've dug out and mixing it with (in this case) chopped wet garlic and spring onions.

Generally, I just chop up whatever I have lying around, mix it with the sausagemeat, stock and some cooked rice.

Then I pile it into the hollowed-out mushrooms, put them on an oiled baking tray and bake in the oven for 15ish minutes at gas mark 4 or 5 until the mushrooms are hot through and slightly softened.

Mexican-style salmon, more greek salad and thoughts on this week

Another magazine recipe with some small changes.

Salmon fillets
tomatoes
red onion
avocado
green chilli
fresh coriander
lime
paprika
olive oil
aubergine
yellow pepper
garlic

slice the aubergine and pepper and add whole garlic cloves. Coat in olive oil and paprika, and roast for 10 mins.

add the salmon and continue to bake until everything is cooked.

meanwhile cut the tomatoes, red onion, chili, coriander and avocado, and mix with lime juice to make a chunky salsa. Season with salt and pepper.

More Greek Salad and some thoughts

This is actually just to show that I'm USING UP ALL MY VEG!

I didn't get a box this week, I went out with some recipes in mind and bought ingredients. I am pretty proud of the fact that at the end of the week I'm left with two (still unripe) avocado and a tiny amount of lettuce and that's pretty much it. I don't normally eat salad, but it was actually really nice to have a burst of fresh, summery food this week.

My favourite was probably the roast veg with mozzarella. I made enough for two meals and ended up eating it all. Mixing the bread in with the vegetables was something I wouldn't have thought to do and it worked really well.

Although the three main meals I made (greek lamb, mexican salmon and roasted veg) shared most of the same ingredients, they were really varied and I liked that.

On the downside though, doing it this way was more expensive. I spent about £5 more on vegetables than I do on the box and the box normally lasts me a fortnight - this lot lasted a week.

Roasted Mediterranean Vegetables with Mozzarella

mmmhh mmmm more summery food. This one was inspired by a recipe in a magazine.

Aubergine
Red Bell Pepper
Yellow Bell pepper
Red Onion
Garlic
White wine vinegar
mini plum tomatoes
ciabatta bread
olive oil
mixed dried italian herbs
fresh basil
mozzarella cheese

Cut the peppers, onion and aubergine and mix with olive oil, whole cloves of garlic and the dried herbs. Put in a roasting tin and roast in the oven.

Remove from oven, add the vinegar, tomatoes (halved longways) and the bread torn into pieces. Leave to cool a little until warm.

Add the mozzarella and basil leaves.

Greek Lamb kebabs, salad and tzaziki

Now that the days are getting warmer and we've had some sunshine, I get into the mood for summery food. Salads, Mediterranean dishes etc.

Both the lamb and the tzaziki are better with time to marinade/chill, but actually this meal is so fast and easy and yet so delicious.

Lamb Kebabs

diced lamb (lean is better)
garlic
coarse sea salt
lemon zest & juice
olive oil
fresh herbs (I used mint and coriander. Dill also works apparently, but I'm not a fan of dill.)

chop the garlic finely, or grate it and mix with the sea salt, then add the rest, mix well and coat the meat. Leave to marinate.

Once the salad and tzaziki is ready, skewer the meat and grill or barbeque, turning to brown all sides.

Tzaziki

Greek yoghurt
cucumber
fresh mint
white wine vinegar
garlic
coarse sea salt

peel, chop and grate the cucumber. Mix in with the yoghurt and season to taste, then chill in fridge.

Greek Salad

Tomatoes
cucumber
red onion
black olives
feta cheese
dried oregano
lettuce
a little olive oil


I ate this with wholemeal pitta bread, toasted lightly. Guaranteed to induce a summery mood ;)

Landshare update & Grilled Mediterranean Salad

A Landshare update

Back in January, I posted about Landshare, and how I had decided to offer part of my garden to be turned into an 'allotment' for someone to grow vegetables. I thought I would give you an update on how the process has been going!

Once the snow had melted away and the ground was less frozen, the couple who have adopted part of my garden, J and K, came over and dug out the patch, de-turfing, de-stoning and generally putting in a LOT of hard work in not particularly nice weather. I felt a little guilty that I couldn't do much more than provide lots of cups of tea! Once they'd edged the patch and dug over the soil, they still had to wait a little while for the weather to warm a bit, but then finally they were able to put in some potatoes, then a week later some carrots.

And then I waited. And for ages nothing happened except a few weeds and bits of grass sprung up which J&K came occasionally to remove (more tea-making and cheerleading on my part). The last few weeks though, we've had some very warm days, alternating with wet weather, and the plants have just started to spring up.

Last Sunday J&K came over and added some onion plants to the patch and a polytunnel which I believe is for leeks. I thought I'd share a couple of pictures to show off their hard work!

This is the potato end of the patch, a couple of larger, more obvious plants here, but also lots of smaller ones to be spotted if you look hard!

Onions are next to the polytunnel - three kinds, spring onions, red and white, and then next to them is the carrots. Doesn't look like much is happening there but the small grass-like growth in this section is actually baby carrots =)

Tree overhead could do with some cutting back, but on the whole the plot gets good rain and sunshine and is quite sheltered from the wind.

Close up of the potato plants. Quite exciting!

Now that they've shown me what the plants look like and what the weeds look like, I'll be able to help them out by pulling out weeds when I see them come up. I haven't forgotten about the herb garden idea, but surprise surprise haven't done anything yet.

I do have some lovely bluebells in the wilder parts of the garden though:

Grilled Mediterranean Vegetables and Goats Cheese Salad

I had a roasted Mediterranean vegetable salad at Pizza Express a month or so ago and as I had aubergine, peppers and tomatos, I decided to give it a try myself. No pictures, sadly, as I forgot to take any before I wolfed the whole lot down!!

Serves 2 (though I ate it all myself *blush*)

1/2 large aubergine sliced into 1cm / 1/2inch slices
1 sweet red pepper (I used ramiro) cut into sections
1 large field mushroom cut into sections
3 medium sized tomatoes cut into halves.
1 small goats cheese
mix of salad leaves (I had rocket and spinach)
olive oil for brushing

vinaigrette:
olive oil
balsamic vinegar
dried mint
dried oregano
garlic powder
fresh ground pepper
fresh ground salt

I mixed the dressing up first in a small bowl and left aside so the flavours could absorb.
Sliced all the veg, brushed lightly with olive oil and then grilled.
I was in two minds whether to warm the cheese or not, and in the end I did put it under the grill for just a tiny amount, but I'm not sure that it needed this as I could have just mixed it with the hot veg and warmed it that way.
I arranged the salad on a plate, added some veg and cheese and then some dressing and had with some crusty bread.
It was so, so tasty. I ended up having the second helping too. Ah well, it's mostly good, healthy stuff! =D

-Hannah

Chinese Sausages and Pancakes!

Chinese Sausages

When I was growing up, my family used to go to a restaurant in Chinatown, London, called Poons. It's now called China City, and I'm not sure if it's the same people running it, but the food is still nice.

One of the things we would frequently order was wind-dried Chinese sausages. These seem to come in two main types - a lighter, fatty variety which looks a bit like a thin stick of salami and tastes of rich, cured pork, and a darker variety which has a more liver like taste to it. You can buy these sausages in Chinese supermarkets and whenever I'm near one, I always drop by to pick up a couple packs for me and my parents'... and they do the same.

Last week, my parents were in London and they brought me back two packs of sausages.

lighter type on the left, darker in the pink package on the right.

There are different ways to cook them, one of which is to simply pop them in the pot with your rice and let them cook together. Whilst this gives the rice a lot of flavour, it also means that all of the fat running out of the sausages goes into the rice. The result tends to make me feel a little queasy, so I prefer to steam mine over water, allowing the fat to run out.

I use a Chinese bamboo steamer (actually I own 3 of these because having bought one myself, I also received 2 as gifts. Doesn't matter because the steamer tends to start falling apart after a lot of use, so I'm glad I have back-up sections). As you can stack them up, I like to steam the sausages on the bottom level and the veg above - this way the fat from the sausages is running into the water rather than over the veg.

You fill the bottom of the wok with water and set over heat to boil, then stack the steamer(s) in the wok.

A few leaves of savoy cabbage in the top level.

Then the lid goes on top to keep the heat in. Need to keep an eye on these to make sure the wok doesn't run dry.

And after 20 mins, the sausages and the cabbage are steamed, and the rice is done:

here you can see the two different types, light and dark:

Afterwards, I let the water in the wok cool and evaporate off, leaving the fat behind and I dispose of this with a paper towel so I'm not putting the fat down the drains.

I have 'introduced' a lot of my friends to these sausages and so far only one has loved them as much as I do. I guess because the flavour is very rich and fatty, it's something that a lot of people don't like... but personally I think they are fab. =)


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Pancakes!

Shrove Tuesday (the day before the start of Lent) in the UK is celebrated by eating (flat) pancakes. I do mine the traditional way with lemon juice and sugar, rolled up. This is pretty much the only day of the year I don't feel guilty for eating 10 pancakes in a row, standing by the cooker as the next one cooks.

I did sneak in a banana and maple syrup one at the end though ;)

Also, I have to add, I am an expert pancake tosser!

~Hannah

box 3 + tons of fruit

5 turkey sausages

beef mince

pork shoulder joint

small savoy cabbage
3 leeks
pack of rocket
2 globe artichokes (first time I've gotten these!)
box close-cup mushrooms
5 apples
6 blood oranges

And I got a complimentary fruit box this week as well:

5 bananas
5 oranges
5 apples
6 kiwis
box of seedless grapes

Leftovers: beef mince, chard, celery, 2 tomatoes, 3 blood oranges, some garlic, some ginger, 2 onions, 1/2 pomegranate (EEP!)

Initial thoughts are that I have 14 oranges and 10 apples to get through this fortnight!!! I think I will try and give some of those away as there's no way I can eat that much fruit by myself.

Also, I've eaten globe artichokes about twice in my life (excluding pickled hearts from a jar), and never cooked them, so I'm really looking forward to that!

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Fruit Salad

So, first attempt to use up some fruit!

1 blood orange

1 apple

2 kiwis

1/2 pomegranate

couple bunches grapes

a little lemon juice.

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Turkey Sausages

grilled turkey sausages, grilled tomato, grilled mushrooms.

box 2

small joint of pork (800g)
beef mince (400g)
diced lamb (400g)

courgettes
swiss chard
ramiro pepper
celery
vine tomatoes

blood oranges
seedless grapes
complimentary lemon

Leftovers: potatoes, 1/4 onion, bananas, 2 cloves garlic
Additional purchases: fresh ginger, onions, garlic, pomegranate, bacon

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Spaghetti Bolognaise (sort of)

1/2 the beef mince, 1 courgette, 2 sticks celery, 1/4 onion, 3 large tomatoes
Worcestershire sauce, mixed herbs, oxo cube, tomato puree

served with spaghetti and parmesan cheese

-I like to put a lot of veg in my spag bol, partly because it stretches the meat out a lot farther and it's also healthier. I normally add bacon too, but don't have any today.

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Banana Bread

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Chinese Roast Pork

pork joint, garlic, fresh ginger
soy sauce, rice wine, chinese five spice, honey, brown sugar

-mixed all the seasonings, completely covered the joint and then put it the oven on a low temp for 2 hours total

served with courgette ribbons, ramiro pepper slices, 2 leaves chard.
with same seasonings as above, stir fried.

and rice.

-chard is less sweet than pak choi, but I treated it the same. It has a more earthy taste, but I don't mind that.
The pork was a wait, but very worth it because it turned out tender and moist and very tasty. I'm not a huge pork lover, but I do love it coupled with chinese flavours, and this was just perfect.

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Moroccan Lamb Tagine

diced lamb, garlic, fresh ginger, onion, courgette, ramiro pepper, fresh lemon juice
dates, apricots, honey, ground ginger, cumin, paprika, turmeric, allspice, cinnamon, pomegranate juice, lemon juice

served with rice and pomegranate seeds

-I love this style of cooking - using a lot of spices and fruits. The result is very rich, but so, so tasty.

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Wastage:

2 bananas
some leftover pork - I had so much of this that I just couldn't get through it all. Next time, I'll either invite someone over to share it, or cut it in half.

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Leftovers:

Half the beef mince - in the freezer
half the chard
half the celery
2 tomatos
3 blood oranges
some garlic
some ginger
2 onions

...so basically lots, but it's all still usable. =)
 
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Favourite meal of the fortnight was the roast pork. It was so, so delicious. The tagine was a close second though.
I had to buy extra stuff for the tagine, but it's actually the first time I've used it and I really wanted to try it out properly.