Thoughts on the Winter Garden

I have to share a wonderful quote I heard today that expresses perfectly how a gardener feels during the long winter season:


From December to March, there are for many of us three gardens - the garden outdoors, the garden of pots and bowls in the house, and the garden of the mind's eye.

Katherine S. White


If only I could get real life to reflect the lavish creation of my mind's eye.

Photographs of the Stages of a Tomato Plant

I haven't planted a single seed yet this year and I need to get cracking. This time last year, my tomato seedlings were thirteen days old. The only suitable place I have indoors is one little south facing bedroom window sill (my kitchen window is covered in herbs, cacti and succulents) so I can't afford to lose my seedlings.

Thinking about tomato seeds has made me nostalgic for last years journey from leggy seedlings to scraggly plants, building up to lavish foliage, blossoming into sweet yellow flowers, exploding into firm greenness and finally bursting into rosy red sweetness. I've compiled a photo diary of the progression of my old reliable Moneymaker tomatoes, which were grown outside. I put them out a little early and they took a battering from the wind (I am missing a photo of the plants just before they were put outside - they were healthy and starting to fill out). Some of the stems even cracked, as you can see in the third photo, but they all recovered. The fourth photo shows the cracked stem has grown back some leaves.

The stem cracked on this plant so I bound it together with insulating tape - worked perfectly.

I love when the plant is at this stage with its mix of red, yellow, orange and green. You'll notice that I have removed most of the leaves - this is so more of the plant's energy can go into fruit production.

Most of the tomatoes were eaten straight off the plant, while we enjoyed the gorgeous weather that lasted for months. This batch went towards making delicious, rich, sticky relish that the party goers ate the day of my son's first birthday. You can see the recipe here. I had made the relish countless times before with cheap supermarket tomatoes but the result when I used my own organic home grown tomatoes was not like anything I had made before. The relish was darker, more intense and far superior. If I ever found it hard to justify spending extra on local, organic produce when the supermarket offers the same products for much cheaper, this relish made the difference in quality so obvious.

My Garden: 11th February 2015

It's been a while since I've posted an photo diary of my garden. The last month has been cold and uninviting and my trips to the end of the garden have been fleeting and only when necessary. Now the first flashes of spring colour are erupting and suddenly the garden is a comforting place to be, once again.

These delicate crocuses will be my first flower of the new year:

Hyacinths are another bloom I am looking forward to witnessing in full flower:

My daffodils and narcissuses have multiplied over the last few years developing into little bunches of flowers where originally only one flower stood. As you can see, I am not lawn proud although the grass has yet to be cut this year:

Now to the back garden where the good stuff stands. Even though I haven't been very productive outdoors over winter, I still have quite a bit going on from plants that are producing food for us to eat at the moment, to plants that won't be mature for another few months.

One lonely leek remains:

Back in the Autumn I covered the neighbouring onions (Senshyu sets) in a layer of seaweed that had washed up on shore after a storm:

As you can see, the seaweed has completely decomposed into the soil:

My garlic is coming up strong. I bought four seed bulbs for planting last autumn (Provence Wight, Iberian Wight, Early Purple and Solent) along with one bulb of Iberian saved from my own harvest. By planting that amount I was hoping for a harvest of one bulb per week for the following year, plus some left over for planting next season. Finally, I would be self sufficient in one crop!  I planted my own bulb and the Solent, keeping the others for later planting....and I lost the damn things. I've searched the house with no luck. I couldn't bring myself to pay for more bulbs and resigned myself to the hope that they would turn up in time for late winter planting. Well it's February now so I think that ship has sailed.

Finally after almost a year after sowing the seeds, my purple sprouting broccoli is starting to produce a beautiful colourful head:

I have eight plants, far too much for one family, but they are not all looking quite so healthy. Fat pigeons have been perching on top and dining to their hearts content. It's time to pull out the netting again:

Finally, my broad beans have been coming along under cover.  I took them out for a breath of fresh air today. I have only two plants out of about six seeds planted. I should have planted more.

Beetroot Chocolate Brownies

When you have giant beetroot to use up (some weighing up to a kilogram), you have to get creative with this beautiful purple root. And man is it versatile. I am constantly trying to convince people to let go of their adversion to beetroot which stems from memories of cheap jars of harshly pickled slices (which I happen to love too) and taste it in it's natural form, maybe roasted, steamed or boiled. 

If that doesn't entice you, how about something like these?

Who can resist BROWNIES!? Evidently I can't as I've eaten a chocolatey gooey lump the size of my head over the last few days.

It's like looking at the surface of some delicious uninhabited chocolate moon.

Chocolate and beetroot is a tried and tested cominbation and you will find lots of recipes online for cake, muffins, brownies etc. I adapted a recipe from old reliable BBC Good Food. The cooking time given on the original recipe is 25 minutes but I think you would have to be using quite a shallow tray to achieve this. If you are using a loaf tin like I did, the cooking time is 55 minutes.

I used raw beetroot and steamed it before adding to the mix. You could use shop bought vacuum packed cooked beetroot but be aware that it has to be hot for the recipe so the chocolate will melt.

Using a food processor and hand mixer will make your work a lot easier but it is possible to do this without appliances. You would have to melt the butter and chocolate over the hob and grate the beetroot before adding. 

Ingredients

500g raw beetroot

100g butter cubed plus extra for greasing

200g dark chocolate chopped into small pieces (as always I used Madagascar chocolate from Lidl)

1 tsp vanilla extract

250g caster sugar

3 eggs

100g plain flour

25g cocoa powder (I used Bournville)

Method

Pre-heat the oven to Gas 4/180C/350F

Grease and line your tin - I used a 2lb loaf tin

Peel and cube the beetroot and steam until tender

Turn on your food processor and add the hot cooked beetroot, chocolate pieces, cubes of butter and vanilla extract

Blend until the mix is smooth - the hot beetroot will melt the butter and chocolate.

TASTE IT - it is to die for. To be honest, I wouldn't blame you if you just abandoned the rest of the recipe and decided to eat the whole bowl with a spoon.

In another bowl, beat the eggs and sugar with a hand mixer until they are pale and frothy. 

Into the eggy sugary froth, fold the chocolate mix slowly until blended. Try not to mix too long or hard so you conserve the air.

Into this mix, sieve the flour and cocoa powder and slowly blend everything with a fork. This is a bit time consuming as the flour tends to sit on top of the liquid but it will all come together nicely.

Pour the finished mix into your prepared tin

Bake for 55 minutes if using my 2lb loaf tin - less if you are using a more shallow tin. The best way to gauge is to cook until the top has crusted but there is still a very slight wobble underneath.

Cool completely and cut into slices.

Store in an airtight lunch box and they will keep moist up to a week. Although I've never known a brownie that lived a week.

Leftovers: Natural Yoghurt

Proper sugar-free natural yoghurt is one of those foods I think lasts a lot longer than what is stated on the tub, usually a conservative three days. If you happen to have some leftover after the three days and would prefer not to eat it straight, consider using it in a cooked dish before you throw it out.

1. Baking

My excess yoghurt usually goes into the healthy breakfast muffin recipe I have posted here before. These muffins are a simple batter mix that freeze excellently and defrost rapidly. Take one straight from the freezer in the morning and it will be ready to eat by the time you get your tea break at work.

2. Healthier topping on savoury meals

For meals that call for a cheese topping (enchiladas for example), consider making it healthier by only using half the required quantity of cheese and mixing it with enough natural yoghurt to spread over the dish. You can then bake/grill as normal. It will still brown and look delicious.

3. Cool down or cream up a curry

If you need to tone down a spicy curry, stir the natural yoghurt into the dish a minute before it finishes cooking.

4. Marinade your meat

Natural yoghurt will tenderize your meat and is especially suited to chicken and lamb. A no mess technique is to put your meat in a ziplock plastic bag, pour in the yoghurt, seal and shake/squeeze/mush to coat at the meat. Store in the fridge until cooking, preferably overnight.

So become a cultured individual and get friendly with natural yoghurt!

Why Frugal Living Works For Me

A constant state of dissatisfaction is, I think, a pretty accurate description of today's quintessential sedentary 9-5 urban modern life. In Ireland, where we have freedom, opportunities and safe living, people are still not truly happy.  And you might be surprised to discover the kind of people who are happiest. In my experience, it is not wealth, social status, beauty or anything tangible that increases a person's happiness.

But we are all different and have to do the best with what we've got, so everybody's path to happiness will be different. For me, free time is my ultimate goal. That is time to do anything I want, whether that be to do nothing at all. I am lucky to work in a job that allows me to apply for unpaid leave so keeping my living costs down means I can afford to work less. I have been working a four day week for six months now. My expenses are still the same from when I was working five days (slightly greater in fact as I now have a child), and I am still saving money. My job is not a high paid job. I pay rent of €350 a month. I pay for part time child care. I have a car (which I bought for cash with savings).

I began to look at purchases in terms of time. I see a beautiful pair of boots in a shop window and I want them. I look at the price - €80 - or one day's work. So it's the boots or a day off work. The day off wins and I walk on.

I just don't buy things anymore. By things I mean non-perishable items (not food/medicine/cosmetics/cleaning products/fuel - of course you can make frugal choices with these life necessities too). It took me a while to get to this point. I built up my possessions for the first few years that I started working - long lasting pieces like a guitar, cooking appliances, reference books, a range of jewellery, good clothes and shoes. But once you get to a certain level of personal and household items, you just don't really have to buy much anymore. What I need was a reason. Becoming a mother was the driving force, but I had been thinking about paring down my lifestyle for a while. My time is everything to me now. When you wear the same clothes for years, they eventually come back into fashion!

I Grew a Jalapeño Pepper

It may be small and it may be wrinkly but its a ripe jalapeño pepper and it's spicy. No propagator needed, just grown outside in the elements for ages against a south facing wall and ripened in a brown bag on my kitchen window sill. I didn't even expect it to be red!