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 ;)