In amongst the bulbs I planted a couple of weeks ago were one or two Crocus sativus. They were already starting to flower, so I didn't have high hopes for their survival.
This is the saffron producing Autumn flowering crocus, which produces pretty, if short-lived, lilac striped flowers punctuated with crimson stigma.
As always, I stuffed them into a pot & let them be. It has still been so exciting to see them bloom. We carefully extracted the three saffron stigma from each flower, and put them to one side to dry out. I had in mind a recipe for St Lucia cakes (Saffron Buns) that a Swedish friend made for me many years ago, and just had enough saffron without having to cheat with turmeric.
The recipe looks more complicated than I remembered, but I set an afternoon aside to get baking with the boys.
The result? We'll have to wait to next year. 'Someone' tidied the saffron strands into the bin...
Sunday 13 November 2011
Radish Blue...
Last year I got a selection of different vegetable seeds to try. I love trying new crops, as long as they are easy to grow, and was particularly intrigued by a European radish.
Labelled Radish 'Hilds Blauer Herbst und Winter', I sowed a row in the spring as a catch-crop, to fill a gap whilst the soil warmed up & we got more organised with our weeding & sowing.
As usual, I lost the seed packet within minutes, so I pulled a few early when they were small to try at home. Man alive, they were hot! Having retrieved the packet, I realised they should be left until the autumn to crop, and are usually served sliced & salted & served with German beer. They have formed the most beautiful lilac honey scented flowers that have been covered with pollinators, and are worth growing for these alone.
I have saved lots of seeds (the pods can be eaten when young), which I will sow again, and enjoy giving a few away. The roots are still as hot as before, but work really well as an annual horseradish, especially in a beetroot relish recipe by Pam Corbin for River Cottage http://www.foodloversbritain.com/FoodMatters/Recipies/Preserves/Roasted-Sweet-Beetroot-Relish/
I just hope they store as well as the packet suggests...we still have a dozen blue radishes the size of baking potatoes...
Labelled Radish 'Hilds Blauer Herbst und Winter', I sowed a row in the spring as a catch-crop, to fill a gap whilst the soil warmed up & we got more organised with our weeding & sowing.
As usual, I lost the seed packet within minutes, so I pulled a few early when they were small to try at home. Man alive, they were hot! Having retrieved the packet, I realised they should be left until the autumn to crop, and are usually served sliced & salted & served with German beer. They have formed the most beautiful lilac honey scented flowers that have been covered with pollinators, and are worth growing for these alone.
I have saved lots of seeds (the pods can be eaten when young), which I will sow again, and enjoy giving a few away. The roots are still as hot as before, but work really well as an annual horseradish, especially in a beetroot relish recipe by Pam Corbin for River Cottage http://www.foodloversbritain.com/FoodMatters/Recipies/Preserves/Roasted-Sweet-Beetroot-Relish/
I just hope they store as well as the packet suggests...we still have a dozen blue radishes the size of baking potatoes...
Tuesday 25 October 2011
Bulbling over...
As October Half Term is traditionally the time the children decide to get into the garden and use the water pistols they have ignored all summer, I have used the opportunity to plan ahead (for once) & get some spring bulbs in the ground.
I love bulbs: they are such low-maintenance plants and, if chosen well, can give welcome pops of colour throughout the year. It always surprises me that a brown dessicated husk can produce such exquisite flowers.
I have chosen a mass of mini bulbs to plant this year, from www.miniaturebulbs.co.uk . These have gone onto the small slope at the back of the garden. We originally left the bank as turf for the family to run up & down, but the shade from a huge Copper Beech (Fagus sylvatica 'Purpurea') has prevented the turf from growing, and given way to creeping buttercup (Ranunculus repens) & ivy (Hedera helix). I have weeded out the buttercup & ivy, and backfilled with a small handful of bulbs as I go. I hope to introduce wild flowers gradually to cover the dying bulb leaves in the summer.
I no longer bother sprinkling bonemeal in the holes, after the dog carefully dug up 50 bulbs one autumn, licked them clean of bonemeal & deposited them around the edge of the lawn. I also don't put gravel or grit sand in for drainage either, as I would have to negotiate the web of tree & hedge roots to dig even deeper (hence the choice of dwarf bulbs).
Although bulbs are mostly geotropic, turning & settling themselves to their preferred position in the ground, you will enjoy most success when the bulbs are planted 2-2.5 times their own depth, with the tips to the top & 'beards' (roots) to the bottom.
Crocus 'Ladykiller'
Erythronium tulumiensis
Fritillaria meleagris
Narcissus 'Minnow'
Narcissus 'Ice Wings'
Tulipa batalinii 'Honky Tonk'
Tulipa 'Little Star'
Tulipa clusiana 'Tinka'
Oh, and a bag of 30 bulbs that I found sprouting in the shed. I am hoping they were once intended for our garden or a client, and therefore must be a bulb I like. Or shallots...
I love bulbs: they are such low-maintenance plants and, if chosen well, can give welcome pops of colour throughout the year. It always surprises me that a brown dessicated husk can produce such exquisite flowers.
I have chosen a mass of mini bulbs to plant this year, from www.miniaturebulbs.co.uk . These have gone onto the small slope at the back of the garden. We originally left the bank as turf for the family to run up & down, but the shade from a huge Copper Beech (Fagus sylvatica 'Purpurea') has prevented the turf from growing, and given way to creeping buttercup (Ranunculus repens) & ivy (Hedera helix). I have weeded out the buttercup & ivy, and backfilled with a small handful of bulbs as I go. I hope to introduce wild flowers gradually to cover the dying bulb leaves in the summer.
I no longer bother sprinkling bonemeal in the holes, after the dog carefully dug up 50 bulbs one autumn, licked them clean of bonemeal & deposited them around the edge of the lawn. I also don't put gravel or grit sand in for drainage either, as I would have to negotiate the web of tree & hedge roots to dig even deeper (hence the choice of dwarf bulbs).
Although bulbs are mostly geotropic, turning & settling themselves to their preferred position in the ground, you will enjoy most success when the bulbs are planted 2-2.5 times their own depth, with the tips to the top & 'beards' (roots) to the bottom.
Crocus 'Ladykiller'
Erythronium tulumiensis
Fritillaria meleagris
Narcissus 'Minnow'
Narcissus 'Ice Wings'
Tulipa batalinii 'Honky Tonk'
Tulipa 'Little Star'
Tulipa clusiana 'Tinka'
Oh, and a bag of 30 bulbs that I found sprouting in the shed. I am hoping they were once intended for our garden or a client, and therefore must be a bulb I like. Or shallots...
Sunday 11 September 2011
Quick quick sloe
It's been a funny old summer. After a startlingly beautiful spring, blossom was fulsome & the promise of a bumper crop was tantalising. The summer has been mixed to day the least, but the soft fruit has held its' own. We have been picking plums, damsons and peaches in Yorkshire a full month earlier than usual. The fruit are luscious, but perhaps not as full of flavour as later crops, because of the lower levels of sunshine. Over the last weekend of August, in Llangollen, we picked the first crop of sloes: the fruit of the blackthorn bush (Prunus spinosus) to make this years' Sloe Gin.
I have been making this moreish winter aperitif for 10 years, starting with one bottle a year, which I would give to an appreciative family member. When she started making her own, & I had 3 small children to wear out, I started making more bottles to give away, gathering the fruit on long dog walks, and experimenting with the recipe year on year, to make it quicker to get from picking to drinking!
These small marble-sized relatives of the plum family usually ripen in late September/early October. Blueish black, with a dusty bloom on the fruit, the long thorns on the shrub make it a popular choice for mixed hedgerows, and once you get your eye in and spot them, you start to notice them more readily. Having once guarded the location of my favourite remote 'spot', I have been known to pick them in a local car park!
Wash the sloes well, and put them in the freezer. This not only kills off any bugs & beasties, it has a frosting effect on the fruit, causing them to split when put in the gin, and preventing the hours spent piercing the fruit individually with a blackthorn spine. Fill a container to a third with the sloes. I use a large Kilner jar, because it is easier to get the fruit out once the gin needs straining. Pour the same amount of sugar on top, and fill the container with the gin. Firmly close the lid & shake well to mix. Try & turn the container every day, to encourage the sugar to dissolve. Strain the sloes from the gin after 2 or 3 months - I usually do mine at Christmas. Leave for a year to mature, or crack it open immediately if you are thirsty. Particularly tasty served with tonic, or drink on its own.
I hate seeing waste (as you will find out), so I have started experimenting with the gin-sodden sloes. I have thrown them into vodka, rum & sherry to perk up old dusty bottles of spirits from the back of the cupboard. I make sloe gin jelly (jam), straining out the stones. A friend makes sloe gin truffles. Which is why she's my friend....
I have been making this moreish winter aperitif for 10 years, starting with one bottle a year, which I would give to an appreciative family member. When she started making her own, & I had 3 small children to wear out, I started making more bottles to give away, gathering the fruit on long dog walks, and experimenting with the recipe year on year, to make it quicker to get from picking to drinking!
These small marble-sized relatives of the plum family usually ripen in late September/early October. Blueish black, with a dusty bloom on the fruit, the long thorns on the shrub make it a popular choice for mixed hedgerows, and once you get your eye in and spot them, you start to notice them more readily. Having once guarded the location of my favourite remote 'spot', I have been known to pick them in a local car park!
Wash the sloes well, and put them in the freezer. This not only kills off any bugs & beasties, it has a frosting effect on the fruit, causing them to split when put in the gin, and preventing the hours spent piercing the fruit individually with a blackthorn spine. Fill a container to a third with the sloes. I use a large Kilner jar, because it is easier to get the fruit out once the gin needs straining. Pour the same amount of sugar on top, and fill the container with the gin. Firmly close the lid & shake well to mix. Try & turn the container every day, to encourage the sugar to dissolve. Strain the sloes from the gin after 2 or 3 months - I usually do mine at Christmas. Leave for a year to mature, or crack it open immediately if you are thirsty. Particularly tasty served with tonic, or drink on its own.
I hate seeing waste (as you will find out), so I have started experimenting with the gin-sodden sloes. I have thrown them into vodka, rum & sherry to perk up old dusty bottles of spirits from the back of the cupboard. I make sloe gin jelly (jam), straining out the stones. A friend makes sloe gin truffles. Which is why she's my friend....
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