Monday 25 April 2011

Mosiac Monday

Dandelion Clock


Strawberry explosion


Dried chillies from Calabria


White daffs


Three Cornered Irish Wild Garlic


Bay Tree Blooms




Baby Wild has learnt how to blow on Dandelion clocks, it's adorable!  I can't believe how much further ahead Donegal plants are in terms of blooming.  The daffodils are long gone here, where as mine are still blooming in Scotland.  The hedgerows are in full scented bloom and the country side looks beautiful.

Imagine my surprise to discover that there is more than one type of Wild Garlic! Three Cornered Garlic, also known as Three-cornered Leek, this spring-flowering bulb carries 2cm long bell-like white flowers on stems which are three-sided and about 30cm high.  Along the centre of each petal is a narrow green line and between 3 and 15 flowers are arranged in a drooping one-sided umbel not unlike that of a Bluebell.  The leaves are very markedly angled, coming three to a plant from the base.  The flowers can be seen growing along roadsides, in hedges, banks and other shady places. It is thought to have introduced into Ireland some three-hundred years ago and it has become naturalised in many counties.  It belongs to the family Liliaceae. 

Am surprised not to find other wild herbs that I have eating in Scotland, like I don't see any Jack By the Hedge here, never mind ramsons.  But wow, haven't the strawberries simply adored the freezing winter and warm spring! They are just so strong, both at home in Scotland and here in Donegal. Even the wild strawberries are exploding all over road sides and pathways - so lovely to see their delicate little flowers everywhere. My family have somehow allowed strawberries to completely overtake much of their garden here. I have never in my life seen so many plants! So I'm going to pot some up and set them outside the family restaurant for visitors to buy or swap over the Easter break.



Happy Easter

Having eaten more chocolate in one day than she has for the past year, Baby Wild is adding to the excitement of Easter in Ireland with so many animals to play with!  I think she's having the time of her life with so much to explore and scream at.  I'm finding it rather exhausting!

Thursday 21 April 2011

Veg Patch Plans & Daydreams

I've actually had my veg patch planned and started for a few weeks but never got around to putting it up here until now.  It's not massive, but it fed us well last summer despite the fact that I had no idea what I was doing and paid no heed to the law of rotating crops or any such wisdom but decided to stick everything in the ground and see what happened! Add to that Daddy Native also following this approach and sticking in corn willy-nilly and it was bit of a site! However it did kinda work.

So this year I have dug over the patches multiple times, added fertiliser and a my first home made compost pile and gave it a good mix to try and amend for the sins I committed last year.  I haven't been grown up enough to actually measure the patches and draw a 'to scale' plan as yet, but below gives you a fair idea of my hopes and dreams..... 
Can you tell I went to art college?
It wasn't to study illustration as you can tell perhaps!
So far most of it is planted.  The rectangular patch is actually a mini poly-tunnel at present starting off the beans and peas and some salad leaves as an experiment to see how this lazy approach works out.  The cold frame out the front has all the spinach, more herbs for the herb garden out front, carrots to grow in pots, and the patisons.  Our bedroom window sill now has more (better established) carrot seedlings, cherry tomato baby plants grown from seed, tomato seedlings, pepper seedlings, and more herb seedlings. 

So at this moment in time the veg patch still looks bare, although I know what lurks and is hopefully sprouting beneath! Things are so much slower to get started in Scotland!  I am comforted by remembering that after the Easter hols I will be able to plant some of my babies into their summer homes in the veggie patches to be lavished with care and attention.... oh and to see if they can survive Baby Wild's toy gardening tools......

Monday 18 April 2011

Growing Wild in April

Jack-by-the-hedge - grows along fences and roadsides here, has a faint garlic taste.Best of all in a sauce for lamb mixed with a little mint, hawthorn buds & vinegar and sugar.
Morel - only appear for afew days, so freeze them when you find some!  Great in stews & soups, and can stuffed.  Have yet to come across any here in Scotland myself.
Nettle - Use the young leaves as spinach, blanching them in hots water removes the stings and they are hugely beneficial - they have high levels of Vitamin A & C, 2.3% bt weight of iron & 5.5% of protein!
Hairy Bittercress - this stuff grows all over my garden so I am delighted to throw them into salads to try contol thier spread!
Bistort - a traditional bitter leaf eaten after Lentan Fasting. Don't fancy it myself! But there are plenty of traditional easter recipes out there.
Dandelion flowers - mmmmm flower fritters. Now that most of the dandelions are in flower, their leaves can be slightly more bitter, but still edible so don't stop using them as a free & nutricious sandwich & salad filler. Great in bacon butties!
Hawthorn Leaves - a pleasant nutty taste, good in salads or with cold potatoes & beetroot. Goes best in cheese sandwiches. Also has many traditional easter pudding recipes.
Goosegrass - another way to eat my garden free of weeds! I've already got a pile of this sticky plant in a corner of my garedn under my eucalyptus tree.  More fun to play with than eat as it needs boiling or steaming briefly to disolve the clingy hooks.
Wild Garlic / Ramsons - you don't need me to go on any more about this wonderful veggie. Am obsessed!

Saturday 16 April 2011

Recipe Time : Wild Garlic

Daddy Native is starting to get bored with eating Wild Garlic in every single meal.  I'm not though! So I thought I'd share some of the many uses with you while it's at it's best at present and just about to bloom here.


My absolute favourite is simply wilted in a pan with some butter an served either as a side to roast chicken or inside a goey parmasan omelette.  My knees go weak at the idea, I'm easily pleased in Spring.

But to make the most of this glorious free vegetable and get even more fresh vitamins and minerals into your family you can also add it chopped up to smashed potatoes, all over salads (ramp up the vitamin count even further by throwing in some young dandelion leaves. If you chop them finely no one will even suspect they are there!) 
It's also good in stir frys with some ginger and a splash of soy sauce.

Wild Garlic Pesto




a big bunch freshly picked wild garlic leaves
50g shallot, spring onions or leeks
a small handful of shelled walnuts or whatever needs using up in your cupboard
200 ml olive oil, sunflower oil or rapeseed oil
50-60g mature hard cheese (like Parmesan or similar), finely grated
small tsp sea salt
a pinch of sugar




Put the garic leaves, walnuts, shallot and 150 ml oil in a food processor & blitz for about a minute until the everything is finely chopped up.
Fold in the grated cheese, salt and sugar
Fill into clean sterilised jars to within 5-7 cm of the top of jar.
Press down firmly with the back of a spoon to remove any pockets of air (trapped air can cause contamination) allowing sufficient room to swirl the remaining oil over the top of the pesto to seal the surface. Stir pesto well before using and make sure the surface of any pesto remaining in the jar is completely covered with oil before you return to the fridge. (important if it is to keep well).


Basic Wild Garlic Soup, with optional Pesto

For the soup

50 g butter 
1 onion, peeled and roughly chopped
2 medium sized potatoes, peeled and roughly chopped
300 ml hot chicken or vegetable stock
1 big bunch of fresh wild garlic 
2 tbsp cream

For the pesto
2 handfuls wild garlic chopped
extra virgin olive oil 
50 g Hazelnuts, skins removed and toasted
50 g parmesan, roughly cubed


Melt the butter in a heavy-bottomed saucepan over a medium heat. Add the onions and potatoes, cover with a lid and cook gently for 10 minutes or so until the onions are translucent. Add the stock to the potato and onion & bring to a boil, reduce the heat and cook until the potatoes and onions are tender. Stir in the wild garlic leaves and cook for 1 more minute. Add the cream if using and stir.
Blend to desired consistency either in a food processor or using a stick blender as I do. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

For the pesto : crush together the hazelnuts, parmesan and wild garlic leaves in a pestle and mortar or beat them up on your chopping board depending on level of aggression that day.  Season with some pepper and a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and mix well. 

Serve with the pesto drizzled over the top
.






Wild Garlic Risotto




100g pancetta, chopped into small cubes (i normally just use bacon bits as I'm a tight arse)
1 litre chicken stock
2 tbsp butter
1 medium onion, finely chopped
350g risotto rice
100ml dry white wine
4 big handfuls of wild garlic leaves (torn in half) and 1 handful of wild garlic flowers, if possible
25g parmesan, grated




Heat a shallow saucepan or risotto pan & add the bacon and cook over a gentle heat for a couple of minutes until it is starting to brown and release its fat. Meanwhile, heat the stock in another pan and keep at a very gentle simmer.
Add 1 tbsp butter to the bacon pan, then throw in the onion & cook for about five minutes until soft.
Tip in the rice and stir for a couple of minutes until it is coated with the butter.
Pour in the wine and stir.
Add a ladleful of the hot stock and cook until it has been absorbed, stirring constantly. Add another ladleful and repeat. Carry on adding stock and stirring until the liquid has thickened and the rice is just al dente. It should be slightly resistant in the middle, but without any hard chalkiness. Try not to let it turn into pudding! This should all take about 17-20 minutes from the moment you add the wine.
When the risotto is cooked, stir in the wild garlic, cheese and remaining butter.
Season, cover and rest for 4 minutes.
Divide into 4 bowls, stir a couple more whole wild garlic leaves into each one and finish with a scattering of garlic flowers, if you have them.

I do LOVE Nigel Slater. How I wish he was my next door neighbour..... Nigel Slater's nettle and wild garlic recipes

You can always rely on Eat Weeds to trump with a great wild recipe like this Wild Garlic Focaccia
 There is a theory, and a very attractive one at that living in Scotland that wild garlic detracts midges! Look here!

Monday 11 April 2011

Hoe while it is spring, and enjoy the best anticipations. It is not much matter if things do not turn out well. (Charles Dudley Warner)

Wow! What fabulous weather! We even had hot sun in the west of Scotland! Honest!

Well I have blisters from digging over my veggie patch for the final time, digging in my own compost and extra fertaliser to make up for the sins of bad planning last year! I have raked and staked, and planted directly into their marked space beetroot, chard and pattisons.  The peas and different variety of beans are still germinating in the poly tunnel. The courgettes and tomatoes and various others are doing well on th bedroom window sill.  The spinach, herbs, spring onions and flower seedlings are in the cold frame that I hope won't blow away now.

Baby Wild is thoroughly pleased with her raking efforts and flattening of soil. I bought her her own toddler tools to help me and it seems to keep her entertained, although the drawback is now she thinks it's ok to walk across the veggie patch. Hmmm.

So I decided to try and find new toys for her to play with outdoors, to climb and hide in.  Gumtree didn't let me down as there are many trying to clear their gardens from unused and forgotten toys at this time of year. I spied a plastic play house and dreamed of how we would decorate and improve it, with flowers in pots by the side and a new paint job.  I drove the whole way to Ayr to pick it up from the seller... to discover that the seller had promised it to many and given to the first to arrive. Cue tantrum from Mama. Sigh.

On the other hand I did manage to get an amazing deal on Gumtree for a beautiful wooden table and 4 chairs (which Grandpa Wild has already coated with a teak stain bless) and a gazebo for overhead when the weather inevitably breaks.  Following some time finding all my assorted solar lights, and jam jars for tea lights and I was in the mood to celebrate my bargain hunting!

Thursday 7 April 2011

These are a few of my favourite things / blogs

DSC_0085
I tried to this and failed! My 'Crocus Fairy Rings' are in training!

Oh my I have only just discovered the amazing eatweeds blog with some seriously simple and good sounding recipes.  I shall trying a few out this weekend and will report back with my findings.  I'll be the first to admit that eatweeds is the very type of blog I aspire to!


I also stumbled across This Tiny House too today and just swooned by this design! Isn't it fab! Check out the details for a closer look of real cleverness... WOW