The Village Horticultural Show – September 2009

On the first Saturday in September, the village of Embsay-with-Eastby holds its annual horticultural show. It’s a really lovely day for all ages to participate in and enjoy. The children have made potato and carrot creatures for the last couple of years and this year submitted a stick of rhubarb each. We were able to choose from a lot more produce from the allotment this year too. For us, the growing is for dinner and not for the show, so we knew that we weren’t likely to be awarded many prizes. After all, we grow organic food and limit use of slug pellets, so we inevitably loose some crops to nature. But it’s lovely to be able to take part in a community event, and show our fellow allotmenteers that we appreciate all the advice and help we benefit from throughout the year.

We were quite surprised to have been awarded so many prizes on the day. I have no idea what metrics are used to judge the quality of a vegetable or flower, but here are some photos from after the judging.

Ours is bottom, left. This was our favourite entry, as we could see so many fabulous veggies we’d grown through the year. And to get a prize was really exciting! This is the first time we’ve tried cauliflower, and we got 3 from the 6 plugs that we planted. The vibrant colour is a hit with the kids too.

When I turned up to place our entry, I had a sinking feeling. All of the other entries were really massive. So my perfectly formed but petite aubergine and echinacea head (bottom, right) looked ridiculous. But the judges must have thought that the shining purple hue was worthy!

Damian won first prize for the redcurrant jelly that featured in an earlier blog post. He cut up two pieces of handmade paper from a fairtrade project in Nepal for the lid covering, much to my annoyance at first, but it did look really good.

There weren’t masses of flowers to pick from in the garden, as the border is still establishing. But I managed to select five blooms that were fairly equal. The plant looked a little bare afterwards, but thanks to the late warmth this year we had another flush of buds and they are only just dying off now (Nov) as we’ve had a couple of night frosts.

Same with the cosmos. I wasn’t sure what the etiquette was for stems, so I went for blooms only, and was the only one. But it seemed to work. Had I cut stems and left one bloom on the top, I would have wasted about 40% of the flowering capacity of the 2 plants in the garden, and didn’t want to do that.

The heleniums have been just fantastic this summer, especially given they were only planted in June. I think they might be my new favourite flower. And I love the scent from the achillea used in this display too.

Where have all the bees gone?

…To our front garden? After we laid the new lawn, I concentrated on planting up the new front flower border. As it is our only south facing spot, I really wanted hot colours and the type of flowers that have never thrived in our shady raised borders in the back.

More photos to follow soon on the planting progress, but just recently I have noticed that there is a constant wave of activity over the heleniums.

We have seen honey bees, miner bees and plenty of bumble bees in the flower bed, not to mention the hover flies, lace wings and ladybirds. Unfortunately, fewer seem to visit the border on the other side of the lawn, and a beautiful ruby-stemmed euphorbia I planted in the spring has been ravaged by aphids. It’s not looking so healthy now. I hope the bright colours of the flowers will attract more wildlife for next year, and as an autumn project we will be constructing insect houses with the children.

Redcurrants

I was never the biggest fan of redcurrants in the past. Perhaps the available varieties were more bitter then the blackcurrants I loved. When we took over our allotment, we inherited 2 blackcurrant bushes and one redcurrant. I have to say, that the redcurrants have always been better fruiters and far sweeter to the palette.

After two years of leaving them to get on with it, we’re going to make sure we prune properly this autumn, as the bushes are starting to look straggly. It’s also quite difficult reaching to the other side, for the leggy wooden growth in the middle. I will have to research if there are pruning groups and what the suggested rules are.

Even after 2 afternoons stripping currants, there were still enough to do something useful with. So Damian set to and decided to make some redcurrant jelly.

Method:

Add sugar to the washed redcurrants in a pan.
Cover with water.
Boil vigorously for a while.
Once the mixture is reduced, strain through a muslin to remove the
pips etc.
Decant the jelly to sterilised jars and leave to set.

The result; two jars of the (naturally) sweetest redcurrant jelly that complements many lunches, salads and even cooked dinners.

A week on…

Just a week later, the poly tunnel was really filling out.

And we harvested all of the garlic, and hung it to dry in the garage.

The berries and currants have been fabulous. There really is nothing like eating a home-grown strawberry or raspberry.

And the currants have been so plentiful, despite not pruning properly for the last two years.

The Rolling Harvest Begins!

We’ve been busy documenting progress with the camera after our trips to the allotment, but too busy to keep up with the blog.

Green leaves is pretty much what I’ve been craving all the way from Christmas, as it’s difficult to source locally grown options. Next winter, we’re going to look at ways of heating a small area, just enough to keep one or two plants on the go, but don’t yet know how viable this will be (financially or environmentally).

Poly Tunnel on 1st July 09

This is the poly tunnel on the 1st July, after the tomatoes, corn, globe artichokes, peppers and aubergines were blooming having been transplanted in the grow bags in May, and the seed sown in-situ pak choi and chinese greens were ready for harvesting.

Elephant garlic behind the standard sized bulb

On the same day, Damian dug up one of each variety of garlic for tasting.

And the trug we bought home for dinner was full of fabulous green leafy veg….

Buying locally

We are huge advocates of buying locally, and, that’s not as easy living in the UK as say Australia, never mind in the north.

We are busy planting our seedlings up at the allotment, but are far from harvesting much beyond salad leaves. I stopped in at Booths in Ilkley on my way home last week, and was delighted to see not only Yorkshire grown asparagus, but also sweet peppers. I also picked up some Yorkshire Fettle (Dales-made Feta like cheese) and British spinach and created a fabulous dish for the children in about 15 minutes. I was so pleased, I thought I’d share.

I deseeded the peppers and washed them without drying them. I placed them under the grill and turned every couple of minutes. I then stuffed them with spinach leaves and cheese. They went back under a low grill until the cheese melted, and the juices wilted the spinach beautifully.

I served with steamed asparagus and toasted pine nuts on top of pasta.

I was disappointed to discover that the pine nuts I buy from our Health Food shop are imported from China, but I felt we could allow that extravagance given the few food miles the majority of our dish had traveled.

Having been served a lattice of asparagus drizzled with clarified butter once in a London restaurant and simply loving it, I clarified some of our vegan spread (we use Pure sunflower) and added some freshly-picked chopped oregano and sage from the herb garden and drizzled on top.

The boys loved it, as did we! And this is seasonal food at its finest…can’t wait for the allotment to start burgeoning!

Laying down the lawn

The front garden has been looking scruffy for a couple of years, but has never taken priority over the back garden or allotment. This year, with weather forecasts of a hot, sunny summer, we decided it would be a good time to finish off our only south facing spot so we had somewhere to sit.

This was too big a job for us to do on our own in a reasonable amount of time, so our good friend Richard came to help. He started by putting a raised bed along the path. I wanted a border to plant sun loving perennials and annuals.

The following fortnight, he came back to help remove the majority of topsoil and old turf so we could level the surface. He also edged the top border with the same tanalised timber. We also spent time taking out some of the awful moisture sapping conifer roots from our neighbour’s hedge that had been bothering our old lawn.

We also decided that levelling the slope would be worthwhile so we could move our garden bench there. Due to the conifers, we decided to not use that area as little will grow well, so we thought plum slate chippings would work well.

We watched You Tube clips like this of how to turf a lawn, not having done it before. Alan Titchmarsh always made it look so easy! We added sterilised organic topsoil and raked to a fine tilth.
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We had the turves delivered on the Friday afternoon, so they were fresh. They had been collected by our supplier from Lincolnshire that morning. Excellent service from Northern Turf who came well recommended. We opted for rye grass as we need a hard wearing lawn with children and a dog. We paid £2.75/m.

After work, we set about laying them. With a space as small as this, Damian made short work of it. Because of the straight edges from the borders it easy to align, and knitting the edges together isn’t difficult. The trickiest thing is lifting the turves – they’re quite heavy.
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We keep an old bread knife for gardening, and even though it was tough to cut, it gave good results.
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For the rockery in the corner, we sprinkled top soil to ‘draw’ the curve, and used the bread knife again.
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A well deserved beer after a good evening’s work!

Recycling eggshells

I’ve known about sprinkling broken eggshells around young plants for a while, but until last year I wasn’t sure how to reuse my eggshells in such a way.

Last summer we spent a disastrous fortnight camping in Wales, the weather was awful. We did visit my Great Aunt in Swansea for the day however, who told me what she does with her eggshells. So simple and obvious really, but now I know it works I’m happy to make my own.

She keeps an old baking tin at the bottom of her oven and puts used shells in it. So when the oven is on, it bakes them.

I’ve found the smell of baking eggshells a little unpleasant, so I tend to keep the tray to bake in the other oven. When I remember, I put the tray in the hot oven after removing the cooked food so that the shells bake in the cooling oven. I usually do this twice, just to make sure they are brittle enough.

They then get crumbled and stored in a tub for use in the garden.

In terms of effectiveness against slugs and snails, well I wouldn’t rely on eggshells alone to prevent favourite young plants being eaten. But every barrier helps, and the eggshell pieces can always be dug into the soil after the season.

This photo implies we eat A LOT of eggs On the contrary, actually. We had omlette tonight for the first time since the start of lent. The broken shells are about 8 months worth of eggs.

Fresh Focaccia

It’s a shame I can’t share the fabulous smell of freshly baking bread & rosemary with you. It’s filling the house and eliciting the anticipation of the summer months.

Focaccia dough with rosemary sprigs

Damian put a batch of white dough on before work, and I’ve just prepared it by flouring the surface, shaping it and liberally pouring olive oil over it. I think it goes so well with rosemary, so have added a few sprigs from the plant I harvested over the weekend.

Rosemary does grow big and leggy, so rather than sticking with our 6 year old plant, I’ve cut off all usable sprigs, rinsed and put them in a freezer bag and into the freezer. Before using, I stand them in room temperature water.

We have a new rosemary plant in the edibles bed I planted yesterday.

The oil we are using at the moment is Equal Exchange Palestinian Extra Virgin Olive Oil which we found in a Fair Trade shop in a church in Oxford. I have have to look for some up here as it is lovely, quite peppery. And it’s nice to know that while we are enjoying it, we are benefiting a much needed community project in Palestine.

New veggie bed at home

When we had the house extension last year, we asked our builder to extend a small bed to the end of the path with the left-over stone bricks used for the house fascia. Over winter, this has been a trough for pots and garden stuff that we haven’t had a home for and has looked very messy.

The warm weather over Easter and last weekend has given us an opportunity to make headway on the front garden at home. This evening, I have finished the edibles bed and I’m very pleased with the results. Mum gave me some lettuce seedlings last week. Most of them are still growing in cells and bought in at night. But I took 4 Lollo Rosso and 2 of the strongest Mizuna and planted them. We had to buy a cloche to protect them (both frost and slugs), but I think it looks smart enough for a bed at the front of a house. I have also planted lavendar, rosemary and thyme and a pot of chives too.

The bed ready for planting

In the next few weeks, we will plant out the rocket, herbs, more lettuce varieties, radishes and if we can squeeze some in, carrots.

Planting finished, just as it was getting dark