Friday 25 December 2009

IT'S CHRISTMAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAS!!!!!!!

After our fab meal last night - thanks to the Head Gardener - we all woke up rather late but the Head Gardener had breakfast cooked! HUZZAH!!!!!!!!! Smoked Salmon and Scrambled Eggs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! huzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhh! Following this we opened our presents, of which more later, and then headed down via the octogenarian mother's house, to the Head Gardener's sister's house for Christmas dinner where we had a fab time altogether.

So here is the present count - most of it relates to the allotments!!

From the head gardener - FABBY camera bag! So no more sporting fabby camera (last year's present) round my neck and no more having to leave it dangling from a post while digging or superivising digging.

£75 gift voucher from octogenarian mother for fabby Pheasant Hill shop in comber to buy home-grown organic free range rare breed meat for festive occasions throughout the year - allotment produce to accompany these.

£50 voucher from Head Gardener's sister and brother in law for Walker's Seeds in Newtownards - enough to get all seeds necessary for planting for whole growing season apparently plus fab vegetarian book for cooking the produce!

£40 worth of vouchers from Head Gardener's Other Sister vouchers for Hillmount Nursery Centre. Can you see a trend here?

Cash (undisclosed as classified information) from Head Gardener's Mother.

And a fab meal and whole day generally. Even the drive down there is beautiful on a bright clear winter's day as they live at the bottom of the Ards Peninsula. And have horses! And it's great! And I was left in charge of the sherry! I was told to pour it out so I did without thinking that possibly the number of glasses in front of me (20) was three times more than the total number of adults (or for that matter people) in attendance. Still it added some feeling of style and sophistication that the glass was replaced instead of a top up. Also since I had driven home on the past three occasions I decided that it was time the Head Gardener took his turn even though he is just starting to have the cold/flu thing that I had last week. At the moment he is in bed with nightnurse, so to speak. Hopefully that will sort it out by tomorrow.


Hope you all had a great Christmas!!!!!!!

It was Christmas Eve on the Allotment............


And there we were digging up our root veg. The Head Gardener had offered to cook Christmas Eve dinner for his team! We had not been for a good while so we were both keen to get down and see what was happening!

Quite a lot! Brussel sprouts were doing well but not well enough for tomorrow. Dug up some carrots and some parsnips. Leeks and garlic doing well. Purple sprouting broccoli sprouting. Next it will turn purple. The remaining lettuces have bolted entirely and look like rows of miniature rockets about to launch! quite impressive really. If completely inedible.

Unfortunately I had a camera malfunction in that I forgot to recharge it. So no photos.

I helped in the harvesting by holding the bag.

We had a team christmas dinner on Christmas Eve. We had Gardener's Delight Game Pie with two root mash. It was supposed to be three root mash but the carrots didn't really hold up. You win some, you lose some. Anyway the recipies for each will follow at some point when the Head Gardener wakes up but the one for the mash is roughly:

Boil two equal quantities of root veg - in this case parsnip and potato, and mash.

Afterwards we had Allotment Widow Mince Pie which is not for the faint hearted but well worth it. I am about to steal the recipe shamelessly from Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall because that was the one I used. And you can't copywright a recipe. And I don't think he will be losing any sleep over it anyway. Come to think of it, it has no direct connection as such with the allotment except that we had it after the two root mash. But I am not bothered. I am also keen to share with you my recipe for pastry as I experimented with three or four and this is the best one so far. This is shamelessly stolen from Mrs Beeton.

Here's the history - In medieval times mincemeat did contain actual minced meat (as it says on the tin). The meat, however, is "invisible" and only gives more body and subtance to the mincemeat. Everyone who has sampled my wares since I made this has said that they prefer it! So here goes:

Ingredients:

500g finely minced beef
250g beef suet
250g currants
250g raisins
500g tart eating apples
200g soft brown sugar
125g ground almonds
100g preserved ginger in syrup finely chopped plus 4 tablespoons syrup from the jar
100g mixed candied peel finely chopped
garted zest and juice of 1 lemon
grated zest and juice of 1 orange
1/2 teasp freshly grated nutmeg
2 teasp ground mixed spice
250 ml brandy.

I would recommend drinking the rest of the brandy whilst preparing the mincemeat.

METHOD

Put everything in a large bowl and mix thoroughly.

Put into sterilised sealed jars and keep for up to a month before using. It should be left for at least a week before using to let all the flavours blend. I made mine two years ago and just finished using the final batch last night. I felt it benefitted from this but obviously can't really recommend this!

And now for the pastry!


INGREDIENTS

8 oz plain flour
1 level desertspoonful castor sugar
1/4 teasp baking powder
6 oz soft butter
1 egg yolk

Sift the flour, sugar and baking powder into a bowl together.
Rub in the butter to make breadcrumb consistency
Add the egg yolk.
If necessary add a little water.
Roll out thinly and use at once.

You can make mince pies to the standard shape or "crescents" using the pastry cutter, placing the mince in the centre and folding over. However my favourite way of doing it is to line an 8 inch pie dish, fill with the mincemeat mixture and do strips of pastry as lattice work across the top. Whichever way you do it, bake at 180% for 15 - 20 minutes until golden.

GIVE IT A GO!

Wildlife seen - one bird of prey which was neither a buzzard or a peregrine falcon - may have been a kestrel, lots of oyster-catchers freaked by said kestrel, and some other unidentified bird that was sitting in the sheugh (is that how you spell it?) and which I scared out of it.

Tuesday 1 December 2009

The end of the year......................................






Well, we have now come to end of our very first growing season! And what a time it has been. I will you can see from the pictures how far we have progresseD! The allotments have been badly affected by recent rain - we have renamed the area round our shed Lake Allotment and the shed looks like our lakeside cabin! I think the brussel sprouts and garlic are still ok! We harvested our lovely pumpkin a couple of weeks ago and made it into pumpkin pie on saturday. This recipe is shamelessly taken from an American cookbook! But it works!

You need American pie pastry although you could use any shortcrust pastry but this is the shortest ever of shortcrust pastry!

American Pie pastry

8 oz 225g plain flour
pinch of salt
1 tsp caster sugar
50z 125 chilled lard or white cooking fat - if veggie just use same quantity of butter
1 oz 25 g butter
approx 4 tbspn very cold water.

1. Sift flour salt and sugar in mixing bowl.

Cut the two fats into small pieces and mix together.

Rub half the fat into the flour very lightly with your hands until it feels like breadcrumbs.

Rub in the remaining fat until the mixture makes lumps about the size of small peas.

Sprinkle with cold water a little at a time and blend it with your fingers until you can make it into a cohesive ball. Be careful not to let it get damp and heavy.

Roll out. If it crumbles this is good! Just flatten it into the pie tin and "patch it together" rather than trying to keep rolling it. It is incredibly short!

Chill until you are ready to use it!

For the filling..................................

Chop your pumpkin into small pieces and just cut off the skin. Steam it until cooked and strain well.

2 eggs.
8 fl oz 225 ml milk
14 oz 400 g pumpkin - cooked or tinned.
5 0z 125 caster sugar or light brown sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1 tbspn melted butter

Whisk eggs.
Combine milk with pumpkin - mash it if possible.
Beat in well with the eggs.
Beat in all the other ingredients.
Bake at 200 C for 45 minutes until a knife blade inserted comes out clean!


So I will now upload a couple of before and after photos of the allotment. To sum up our first year we have had a big adventure! We have dug the beds, weeded, planted and grown courgettes, potatoes, carrots, parsnips, pumpkin, peas, tomatoes, garlic, scallions, marrow, beetroot, italian beans, runner beans, lettuce and sweetcorn. In the summer we hardly had to buy any veg. At christmas we will be eating our own brussel sprouts and we have next year's garlic planted..............And apart from all that the craic was mighty!

Sunday 11 October 2009











Went to the allotment today after having visited Castle Espie to say "hello" to the brent geese and have soup. Marrow is still going for world domination. We harvested some carrots, admired everything else and I supervised the head gardener doing some weeding. Everything seems to be doing well. Our pumkin is also going for world domination.

We already had courgettes from the last time at home which is why this qualifies as an allotment dinner. Also the structural engineering done by the head gardener to make the home-smoked rainbow trout had to be seen to be believed. And we used herbs from our garden for the smoking.

This is what he did.
Got a biscuit tin and drilled two holes in it.
Got old gas camping stove.
Put a layer of sawdust out of the garage into the bottom of the biscuit tin and put some rosemary and bay leaves on top. Dampened the sawdust. The sawdust was also from his making the raised beds for the allotments in the garage. How River Cottage is that?
Then put chicken mesh over the sawdust in the tin.

Make your courgette gratin:

Ingredients:

Courgette, finely sliced
oil for frying
garlic
cheddar parmesan and breadcrumbs combined

Place Rainbow trout on to the chicken mesh. Light your gas cooker to high heat and leave to smoke. Doesnt take too long.



Method

Heat the oil in a pan.

Add the garlic and cook until soft.

Add the courgette and cook until browned.m

Pack tightly in layers into a loaf tin.

coat with cheese and breadcrumb mixture.

Cook at 180 degrees in the oven for 20- 30 minutes.

While the courgette is cooking, cook your fish in the smoker! It only takes a very short time. You will know it is done when you hear the fat sizzling!

Sunday 4 October 2009

and another moment

Went today. no photos as battery needs recharged. The marrow is going for world domination. The corn may yet ripen...................we are always hopeful. Harvested a courgette and all our tomatoes. some had ripened some will yet with the help of Mr Banana as the actress said to the bishop.................I went for a short walk along the flood defences and was rewarded with the sight of thousands of brent geese feeding off the eel grass in Strangford. It was a memorable sight.

Saturday 26 September 2009

A wee moment today












We went to the allotment today and I had a moment. I was sitting watching - sorry supervising - the head gardener weeding. It was a very warm late September day and for once the allotments were not like wind tunnels. We had harvested Italian beens, lettuce, carrots and parsnips and had a bag full of of beetroots, courgette and marrow from the previous trip at home. We also got a small quantity of italian beans, tomatoes and beetroot. The octogenarian mother was at that moment making carrot and apple cake, all home grown. I am planning to do a big roast starring all of these vegetables tomorrow before I start my new job on Monday. We also have a huge marrow (ooerr missus). I didn't know before that marrows were courgettes that have bolted. It is huge and I have named it "Yasser". We are going to leave Yasser in peace to see how big he gets.

I just felt that we had reached the end of our first growing season and could think of myself sitting in exactly the same spot this time next year with a whole year of fab veg in the meantime. . We have planted winter veg such as brussel sprouts and brassicas. We still have sweetcorn and pumkin coming on. I will be making pumpkin pie for thanksgiving - well why not! We planted garlic which we will harvest next year. I have the recipes planned. All this gave me an unbelievable feeling of contentment.

On the way home we went to the fabulous Pheasant Hill farm shop in Comber to get meat to roast tomorrow. They do all their own livestock all organically grown, free range all the rest of it. The owner will engage you in conversation about whatever it is you are buying. On Thursday I got two steaks from there - moilie cattle - and we had them on Friday - they were brilliant. Apparently the roasting joint we got was from the same animal!

As we speak the head gardener is sitting watching a DVD of the first series of River Cottage. Having watched the tribute to Keith Floyd and toasted him copiously, I suggested we watch the first series of the bible sorry River Cottage to see if there was anything we could identify with. There were many, apart from the moneyed family background, career as a chef in a top London restaurant and the Channel 4 budget.................


So to sum up:

How many hours spent - about 2
work undertaken - harvesting rest of italian beans and pulling plants out of bed to get it ready for planting garlic, weeding, watching the head gardener weeding, more weeding, pulling up weeds, hoeing the bed, planting garlic, watering everything, harvesting lettuce, carrots and parsnips and planting the garlic.

Cost of seeds/plants - no idea.
What has been planted - garlic
harvesting - large bag of veg including lettuce, carrots, beans and parsnips.

supermarket value
carrots 85p
lettuce £2.30
beans 46 p
parsnipos £1.00
beetroot £4.50
courgettes and marrows £2.10
tomatoes 35 p

Social time - five minutes talking to new allotment neighbour and waving at everyone.

Wildlife seen - if we count the last visit that would include Brent geese arriving in from Canada. Also wee sparrows and general tweety birds. That is the technical name for them. Don't know I mentioned it in a previous post but we also saw a peregrine falcom taking a mud bath and the head gardener has seen a fox.

I need to go to bed now. A short time ago a heard loud shrieks of laughter and general hilarity from downstairs. Apparently the head gardener had just discovered the delights of our local ITV station's late nite output which seemed to involve a phone in on some numbers game, a blonde girlie presenter and nobody actually phoning in. Obviously it was all too much for him and he has now gone to bed which would seem very sensible to me.

Monday 31 August 2009

Dinnerus Romanus



I made a Roman feast! I did! Honest! And some of it counted as allotment food!

About a month ago we were in Bath and my souvenir of our visit to the baths was a selection of books with historical recipes in them. One was "A Classical Cookbook" by Andrew Dalby and Sally Grainger. Ok so I have revealed my sources!

On Saturday I decided we were going to have a feastus romanus to celebrate my newus jobus. Again more later when all signed, sealed and delivered. In the mean time I am allowing myself a brief period of rejoicing which meant a roman dinner on Saturday. I have long been interested in food history, anorak that I am, and so was hugely excited. We recently watched a BBC programme where they had two presenters who had to eat Roman food but they gave them the really rubbish things to eat because obviously if they gave them the good stuff there would have been no drama!

I should explain that we had our meal in true Roman style lounging on the sofas and eating off the coffee table!

First up, although not allotment-based, was Conditum Paradoxum which sounds like a medicine. It is to be seriously recommended! SERIOUSLY! It is a spiced wine.
Romans traditionally served a honeyed wine called "Mulsum" as an aperitif but this one is a step up from that (oooooh get us! ) and includes white wine, honey, black pepper, bay leaf, saffron and a date. It was great - a bit like mulled wine only better.

First course various fruits including our own figs. I got the same type of fig as we have from a certain well-known supermarket and really there was no comparison. you can see the difference in colour etc from the picture.


I also made a dish called "Moretum" or garlic cheese with garlic from the allotment and it was really not for the faint hearted! In fact I shall put a warning on it:


DO NOT MAKE THIS DISH IF YOU DO NOT LOVE GARLIC. DO NOT PLAN TO KISS ANYONE WITHIN 24 HOURS OF EATING IT!

The original source, according to Sally, was from a book called "Cato's Farm". He was an early Roman soldier and politician who apparently expelled people from the Senate for lacking in morality. All he would have had to do was breathe on them after he had eaten his moretum. That would expel anybody.

He was obviously a very busy man because he also wrote a farming handbook for people who were looking to invest in a farm which really covered all aspects of it and included advice on how to make it profitable and how to store and cook the produce - a bit like an early Roman River Cottage. Apart from the slaves. So anyway this is his recipe for moretum which is a bit like humus in texture and apparently is best eaten spread thinly on crusty bread.

MORETUM

Ingredients

2 heads (20 - 25 cloves) garlic - honestly I did warn you - peeled
225 g pecorino romano, parmesan or similar hard Italian cheese
1 large handful of coriander leaves
2 heaped teaspoonfuls chopped fresh celery leaf
1 teasp salt
1 tblspn white wine vinegar
1 tblspn olive oil.

It also calls for 2 teaspoons of rue which I didn't use partly because I couldn't get it and partly because it is, as they say, boggin. It was herb used in Roman cooking for some inexplicable reason. Apparently it smells foul and tastes even fouler and could possibly be poisonous. Heidi the Herbalist in Holywood said she had never been asked for it as a cooking herb before - only as a treatment for rheumatism. But she said she would get me a plant. I just want to see how foul it is myself.

METHOD

Get your slave to grate the cheese and then pound all the other solid ingredients together in a pestle and mortar to form a smooth paste. If you don't have a slave or a pestle and mortar, do it in the food processor.

Stir in the vinegar and olive oil.

We loved it but it is VERY strong.


For the main course we had roast shoulder of pork but I can't really justify putting the recipe here since it had no significant allotment ingredients. But I had never tasted anything quite like it!

Have to go to bed now.

Pflaumenkuche von die schwesterin in Deutschland!



Havenm't visited here in a while. In fact we haven't been to the allotment for ages the reason being that we have all been very busy. I have been offered a new job but more on that later as I don't want to tempt fate. In case you are wondering why I am doing this at 1.53 am I can't really sleep. Must be all the excitement. Or maybe the aerobics.

This is the octogenarian mother's recipe for "pflaumenkuche" which was more "inspired" by what she ate whilst visiting die schwesterin in Deutschland und seine familie rather than an actual recipe. Die schwesterin ist very gut at making die kuchen so if die schwesterin or die schwesterin's familie ist ever reading diese they can let me know if there ist anything they would do different!


To get this recipe from her was a fairly tortuous process as she "just makes it" and I have added wee bits and pieces because I am a control freak. So there.

Ingredients:

170 g plain flour
120 g butter
2 tbspns icing sugar
1 egg beaten
2 tbspns ground almonds
2.5 kg plums - halved and stoned

Method:

Mix the flour, butter and 1 tbspn icing sugar to the consistency of breadcrumbs.

Mix egg and 1 tbspn ground almonds

Add to dough, mould into a ball and wrap in greaseproof paper. Leave to rest in the fridge for at least half an hour.

Roll out pastry and cover flan base.

At this point I would blind bake it in the oven but this suggestion produced an indignant "Well you asked me what I would do.............."

Cover pastry with remainder of ground almonds.

Fill pastry with halved plums in circles.

Bake in the oven at 180 for 50 minutes.

Sprinkle toasted almonds and glaze with honey. Return to overn for further ten minutes.

I would also have added ground cinnamon at this point but it was really not worth the argument..............................................

We have all eaten quite a lot of it over the past few days!

The head gardener also made chutney so again recipe to follow.

Monday 24 August 2009

Pflaumenkuche

Try saying that when you're drunk! Tonight the Head Gardener made potato and beetroot mash which looked amazing. It was bright purple! Brill.
Recipe to follow since he wants to make a few adjustments to it. Then the octogenarian mother rang and asked if we wanted to over for pflaumenkuche. She made this with her victorias. The recipe is a German one from my sister who, handily enough, lives in Germany. It is very nice. So all three of us sat there eating huge amounts of pastry and plums (again recipe to follow) and watching the Queen in Uganda. As you do. The Head Gardener spent quite a lot of time reading one of the octogenarian mother's cookery books. It had a fairly comprehensive index of all types of food including things such as tripe and brains which he took great delight in. If he had one at home he would never go out! Unfortunately no photos at the moment since they are all on my camera which is at the octogenarian mother's house. Oh well. I think the Head Gardener is getting fed up with me constantly photographing our dinners because it delays the start time!

Sunday 23 August 2009

Send her victorias.............................










We had the octogenarian mother up for dinner tonight - she was feeling better - and made her an allotment based dinner. She was in rare form. She enjoyed her visit to Canada apart from the endless driving and intense heat. She said she hadn't got used to there not being lots of people around yet. My uncle has five in his family and lots of grandchildren.

First up was Onion Tart. This is a good one. Two members of the Head Gardener's family are veggie and once when we were entertaining for Christmas he made this as their main course. There was nearly a battle over it with the rampant carnivores.

Onion Tart

Ingredients:


150g butter
200g plan flour
1 kilo of onions sliced finely
1 tbspn olive oil
salt
black pepper
3 egg yolks
200ml double cream
100g gruyere finely grated

Method


Rub 100g butter into 200g plain flour and add enough cold water to bring the mixture together.

Press it straight into the tart tin with your fingers - do not roll or chill.
Line with greaseproof paper and gill with clay baking beans or real dried beans.
Cook for 15 minutes at 200 degrees
Remove paper and beans and return to oven to cook for further 5 minutes.

Heat the butter and olive oil in a pan.
Add onions and cook very gently for about half an hour - make sure they don't catch or go brown. They should be golden and soft.

Remove from heat and season with a pinch of salt, a pinch of nutmeg and some black pepper.

Beat together 3 egg yolks and the double cream.
Add the gruyere.
Combine the onions with the egg, cream and cheese mixture.
Spread evenly over the pastry case and bake at 190 degrees for half an hour until the filling is lightly puffed and golden.

Serve hot from the oven!

We had potato salad (standard recipe) with our own potatoes as well.

For desert I had plums that the octogenarian mother had brought from her own plum tree. They are Victorias which were always her favourite. She loved them so much that as a child she thought the words of the chorus of the (British) National Anthem were;

"God save our gracious Queen,
Long live our noble Queen,
God save the Queen.

Send her victorias
Happy and glorious.....!"

She had an image of the queen receiving a crate of plums. The Head Gardener didnt want any so I was more than happy to eat them.

And now to figs.

We are the proud possessors of two fig trees. In 2002 we moved house to Mountmerrion in Belfast where we had a fabby back garden. I decided nothing would do but the Head Gardener would have a fig tree as a Christmas present. As you do. you should try getting a fig tree in Nrn Irn in December. It is a real experience. I went to all the garden centres in the country and they all said they didn't stock them at this time of year. I did finally track one down and bought it on the spot. It is a Sicilian White fig and the tree was a thing of great beauty. I was also over seven foot tall which I could see was going to prove interesting in terms of keeping it concealed. So I hid it in the neighbour's garden. The neighbours were Archie and Margaret who were neighbours from heaven. This still left me with the issue of what to do with it on Christmas Eve. Having no idea about relative sizes I thought I could hide it behind the oil tank. On the night in question the Head Gardener was ensconced in Carols from Cambridge and I said I would like to close the curtains over the french windows to "keep the heat in". This was the only time this was done in the house in five years. Naturally he didn't think anything of this. I then went in next door, as pre-arranged with my co-conspirators, and tried to cart this tree with its pot into our garden in a wheelbarrow. This was no easy feat especially when being aided and abetted by our two neighbours. Any passers-by would have seen two older people accompanied by a younger woman manhandling a tree and wheelbarrow down our driveway and swearing continuously because it kept falling off. We then got it into the back garden and having failed to conceal it behind the oil tank, I thought it best to disguise it cleverly by putting it beside the bin. See picture. Well it was dark.

About twenty minutes later I was upstairs and I heard the Head Gardener shout "HELLO!" He had gone to put something in the bin (damn! Why didn't I think of that?) and found a huge tree.

In the meantime I had also placed an order with another garden centre for a Brown Turkey Fig which they said they would probably be getting in in the spring. I thought that would be better than nothing if I couldn't get one at Christmas. I promptly forgot all about it. So when they rang at Easter it came as a pleasant surprise. It is the most wonderful tree. This one we have trained up against the fence in the back garden and from the very first year we were getting figs from it. The white sicilian took until this year to get settled - maybe that was connected with our house move as well.

This year they have both done well. So tonight we sampled figs from both! The brown turkey fig is the one with the lighter coloured flesh. They were both great!
So all together a great night!

YUMMMMMMMMM


I have just sampled a wee piece of the tart and the rest of it might be in danger! Will have to make sure that it makes it to the octogenarian mother!

One potato.................................



So it was when we were digging potatoes out of a sodden, blight-ridden plot in the pouring rain and the howling wind (in August!) that the head gardener started talking about getting his passage to Americay.......................

We did manage to rescue a large number of potatoes and in fact when I weighed them a short time ago there were 13 pounds. That means that the total crop - we had already had some - probably weighed about 26 lbs! All that from half a dozen salad potatoes.

We also lifted some more onions and the head gardener as we speak is making his famous onion tart - recipe and photos to follow. And we had bolgnese alla vedova di piccolo what's its name last night too! The octogenarian mother is currently sleeping off jetlag. She was bouncing when she got off the plane on Thursday morning so I reckon it has just taken that time for it to hit her. I will be taking her her share of the potatoes and some onion tart later so that she doesn't have to worry about cooking tonight. I also just want to see her for my own peace of mind since she sounded really unwell yesterday. I couldn't get to see her yesterday because I had my hand up the bum of a large purple crow called Bertie. We had a big event in work and I was doing the storytelling. I have a magic story-telling cloak and my friend Bertie who incidentally is a puppet. Just in case you thought there was animal cruelty going on.

So to sum up:

Hours spent working: 1
Work undertaken: holding bag for head gardener to put potatoes in after he had dug them (I got the better option), digging potatoes (head gardener), weeding, putting recycled peat into the potato bed to try and lift some of the moisture out of it and lifting onions.

Cost of seeds/plants: minimal - half a dozen left over salad potatoes from a certain supermarket and some onion sets.

What has been planted - nothing today!

What has been brought on in the green house - no green house on the allotment but the one at home which is really a garden shed with a perspex roof and wall has a bed in it much favoured by Gilbert the Three legged cat. Who incidentally has to go to the vet in the not too distant future. He is the biggest fighter in the area, three legs notwithstanding, and when I came home yesterday I heard the most god-awful screech of cat from behind the houses across the road and Gilbert was nowhere to be seen which is very odd because the sound of the car arriving means he is going to be fed. I went out looking for him and couldn't find him but he turned up eventually. He seems to have a war wound on his chin and it seems to be slightly swollen so he will probably need antibiotics again!

Harvesting and weighing of produce: 13lbs potatoes and two large red onions! lovely. Will just check now to see how much a leading supermarket would charge for these online. Organic red onions are 40p each which means it is £1.20. Wilson's Country Comber potatoes are 75 p a pound which makes it £8.72. That means total value is almost £10!!!!

Time spent on social activities - one of our neighbours gave us two courgettes. We three were the only people in the allotment.

Wildlife seen: worms, a few desolate housemartins flying about.

Friday 21 August 2009

Allotment dinner

The head gardener went to the allotment the other day and was delighted with himself because he was able to get a haul of vegetables to present to the octogenarian mother on her return from the other side of the Atlantic as a "welcome home". He got her courgettes, carrots, potatoes, peas, beetroots and onions. Notwithstanding the fact that she gave me the wrong date for her arrival, she came this morning and was duly delighted with her food! I had also got her groceries from Tesco because we thought she would be tired. I was concerned that she would be tired after a car journey, transatlantic flight, two hour bus journey from Dublin and a train journey from Belfast to Holywood (I had said I would pick her up but she insisted and when the octogenarian mother insists there is no point in arguing). I was concerned because I also knew that she would insist on driving home. I neednt have worried. She spent the flight talking to her new best friend (a lady from Athlone) and sleeping. She said it was her "best flight" from Canada and she was fresh as a daisy and in fact considerably fresher than I was. So that was ok. She was full of tales from Canada about things like driving around in a 1961 vintage chevrolet and watching blindfolded drivers racing vintage Model A and Model T Fords. As you do.

This is the recipe for courgette pasta:

Serves 4
1 kg courgettes sliced finely
Olive oil
salt
3 cloves garlic crushed
2 tablespoonfuls cream
50g parmesan

Heat the oil in the pan.
Add the garlic and salt.
Cook the courgettes GENTLY until they are softened but not browning. This will take at least 20 minutes.
Cook your pasta as required.
Stir the cream into the sauce and heat through.
Stir into pasta and serve.

Brill.

I will not be at the allotment tomorrow as I am spending the day dressed in black hooded cape with my hand up inside a bright purple crow. Hopefully scaring small children.

Monday 17 August 2009

Then and now



These two pictures are of the allotment on the first day and more or less the same view now.

allotment dinners part whatever



Bolognese alla vedova di piccolo appezzamento

I have spent over two hundred and seventy hours of my life cooking bolognese. It is time well spent! I have tried a few different recipes all of them claiming to be authentic. This I think is the best one. I can only claim it in that I have made slight alterations but since you can't copywright a recipe I don't care! My criteria for allotment dinners is that at least one (preferably more than one) of the main ingredients was grown on our allotment. Here goes.

Bolognese Alla Vedova di Piccolo Appezzamento ( Allotment Widow Bolognese)

Serves 4, or 2 if they are us.

Ingredients:

500g salad potatoes (knocknagoneyensis!) or pasta

olive oil for frying

80g butter (6tbspns)

1 large onion chopped

1 large carrot chopped finely

2 rashers bacon chopped

1 stalk celery

150g minced pork

150g minced beef

50g Italian sausage - can be salami or pepperoni or whatever you want. Just make sure the skin is off.

1 glass white wine

15 ml 1 tbspn tomato puree

1 wine glass stock.

salt and black pepper

75 ml double cream

parmesan for grating

Method

Heat the oil and 4 tbspns butter in a heavy pan.

Cook the onions for about 4 - 5 minutes until clear and soft

Add bacon and cook for further 4 -5 minutes until cooked, if you see what I mean.

Add the carrot and celery and cook for a further 5 minutes or until soft.

Add pork and cook until it is browned

Add beef and cook until it is browned

Add sausage meat

Add white wine, raise heat slightly and cook it until it is absorbed

Mix tomato puree and stock or use 400g of your own tomatoes chopped if you have them!!

Season.

Cook on a very low heat for one and a half hours.

boil your potatoes or cook the pasta according to packet instructions.

Stir in the cream, add parmesan if required and serve.

Apologies for the picture but it was the only one that nearly came out! Will get a better one next time!

When I made this over the weekend we had our own onions and carrots.




So Saturday was open day! And great craic it was too! We met lots of new allotment friends and my cover was blown thanks to one of our allotment neighbours whose not-the-designer-wellies were £10 from Dunnes! It wasn't you I was talking about earlier honest! Thanks for the tea and traybakes - yummy - and I hope you raised a lot of money for Assissi! In fact with the free potatoes from Maurice the farmer, the tray bakes for Assissi and the bag of delicious fudge thanks to Broom Cottage, I had no room left for my scone!



The Head Gardner was able to sit and show off his produce and talk to visitors about his onions! I felt very proud of our allotment as well and tried to take credit as much as possible obviously!

I then thought it would be nice to display some produce in my basket of loveliness at the bottom of the allotment - shame I hadnt thought of it before we left home because our house is coming down with allotment veg and what was still in the ground wasn't quite ready but I made quite a good fist of it anyway. I actually lifted some potatoes! Out of the ground! For the first time! We have had some already but this was the first time I lifted them. The head gardener is very proud of his potatoes and in fact we have named them tescoknocknagoneyensis. People were asking what kind they were. We got half a dozen salad potatoes long past their best at the bottom of a bag from a well-known supermarket that shall remain nameless but was Tescos. The head gardener split them in half and planted them. From that we got a whole bed of lovely potatoes! So that is why we have decided to call them tescoknocknagoneyensis because that is where they came from.

We had originally planned to make some beetroot soup - recipe to follow - but unfortunately one the head gardeners colleagues was leaving and Friday was her last day. So drinking took priority on the Friday night and it was a much as we could do to get up on the Saturday at all much less make a vat of beetroot soup. We had plenty of visitors anyway and one lady wanted to know how to cook beetroot so just on the off chance that she might read this - I know I am optimistic - here is the head gardeners favoured recipe for beetroot soup which I can vouch for -

Head Gardener's Delight Beetroot Soup

Ingredients:

Oil for frying
1 onion
1 clove garlic
500 - 600g beetroots (or as many as you have/want) chopped
1 tin chopped tomatoes
1 litre stock (preferably beef)
Feta cheese

Step 1 Fry the onion and the garlic in the oil in a large pan until soft.

Step 2 Add the chopped beetroot

Step 3 Add tin of chopped tomatoes and stock and bring to the boil.

Step 4 Simmer until cooked thoroughly.

Step 5 Return to pan and heat through

Add feta and serve!


Pride of place on our allotment was what I call our north american plot with the pumpkin and the sweetcorn on it!

There were a few stalls there and quite a large number of visitors. To the lady who took it upon herself to sample our peas I would like to say that I hope she enjoyed them! The octogenarian mother has always been desperate for that - no bunch of grapes in the greengrocers is safe. As a teenager it made me cringe with embarassment (then again is that not what parents are for when you are a teenager?) and pretend not to be with her. I still do this because so does she! She calls it "sampling". She would have loved today because she would have been able to go round and chat to everybody and get their life stories! Unfortunately she was otherwise detained at a vintage car rally in Ontario. What else would you be doing on a Saturday?


It was also very nice of the Ards flying club to put on the air display for us! Although on reflection I think it was more for the Tall Ships Festival in Belfast.
We actually went to see them afterwards - very impressive but very crowded.


So to sum up what happened today -

Hours - 12 noon - 6 pm
Activities - lifting spuds, weeding (head gardener)talking to people eating things showing off to visitors muttering about people taking our peas without asking veg talk gardening tips cookery ideas
talking to people I went to school with about a century ago - no names no pack drills!
Feeling old because of the above.
How much did plants and seeds cost - no idea
what has been planted so far onions, leeks, garlic, peas, italian beans, other beans sweetcorn, pumpkin, beetroot, carrots, parsnips, brussel sprouts, potatoes, cos lettuce, iceberg lettuce, italian lettuce, raspberry canes, blackcurrant, redcurrant and whitecurrent.
what has been brought on in the greenhouse - nothing due to lack of greenhouse. Mind you I frequently get a shock when I look in the hotpress.

harvesting and weighing of produce - about an hour. supermarket value would be about £5.

Time spent on social activities 6 hours time well spent.

Wildlife seen: butterflies, housemartins and a peregrine falcon having a dust bath in the car park!

We were speaking to the man from the beekeeping association who said that there might be a plan for keeping hives at the allotments. That would be brill.
The head gardener then thought it would be great to have chickens and maybe a time-share pig or two.....................................

And I forgot about the courgettes.