Saturday 27 August 2011

Radish Beer Snacks, anyone?

Not so sure what to do with the amount of Radish pods, or nuts as I think of them for some reason, I have amassed since it was suggested that they'd make good beer snacks!  Even I can't drink the amount of beer that would be necessary to wash this lot down!
 Check out all these health benefits of eating radishes, but I'm still gonna need tastier ideas here...
 I've tried cooked radishes and hated them, so I'm not so keen in trying to cook the pods, even with these tempting recipes.
And there are even more still growing!  Help!  Anyone need seeds?

Sunday 21 August 2011

Growing Wild in August

It's the start of mushroom season!.. Check out this Scottish website for advice
Cep; I really want find some Cauliflower fungus; Chanterelle; ring Champignon; Field mushroom; Giant puffball; Horse mushroom; Parasol mushroom; Shaggy Cap; Wood Hedgehog a mushroom with teeth!
Black mustard
Blackberry in milder spots, not here in western Scotland just yet
Elderberries
Hazelnut
Heather flowers fancy some heather mead or heather ale? mmm
Raspberry - not many left though!
Rosehip not content with the stash of wild rose jam I have waiting for a winter treat, I plan to also make some rosehip & apply jelly
Sea beet
Wild strawberry

Happy hunting!  Let me know what you find and show me your foraged treats please!

Wednesday 17 August 2011

Pea shooter

Baby Wild loves the peas growing in the garden so much, she calls them "sweeties"!  Every time she sets foot outdoors she makes a break for them screaming for help to pop open the pods she tears from the bush.  I am proud that at such a young age she appreciates the value of growing our own and understands where some veggies come from.......


But she's destroyed one of the bushes!  It's collapsed altogether into a big tangled heap from being pulled at so enthusiastically.  Oh dear.

Saturday 13 August 2011

Garden progress - August

 
 My garden has really come into itself this month.  Most flowers are in full bloom, making me realise that I need to do some research into what I can grow to fill the gap between my spring bulbs and mid summer when my garden was so bare!  All my herbs are in bloom too, making the front garden gloriously fragranced.


 It's also a little wild though!  I am regretting growing so many nasturtiums.  They are drowning out my opium poppies which have decided to flower for a second time this summer, as well as the more delicate but no less prolific Californian poppies.



The veg patch is doing a great job of keeping the food bills down (and we all need that right now!!) as we have been living off salads and snacking on the peas on mangetout, which are still fruiting happily.  I'm still throwing bags of lettuce over the fence to neighbours, and made a huge batch of lovely lettuce, apple mint and pea soup to deal with the remaining surplus.  I've also been experimenting with thinnings, as I'm so reluctant to throw any thinned seedlings away I've been replanting them elsewhere and giving them to friends.  We've decided that salisfy does not appreciate being moved, so in future the weaker seedlings shall be resigned to the compost heap.



I have new seedlings sprouting up to see how they fare being sown mid summer.  To be honest I also wanted to use up some of the packets of seeds.  That's another lesson learnt this year - stop buying so many seeds!

The flowers a the end of the patch in this photo are the radishes that I let go to seed.  I remember Alys Fowler doing this in her programme The Edible Garden, recommending that they go rather well with beer, sounds good to me!

You can just see two scrawny courgette plants at the bottom of this photo - I managed to rescue these after being almost decimated by slugs a few months ago.  One of them is thanking me by starting to fruit at last!



The asparagus pea plants are still tiny, and took an age to germinate but what pretty flowers!  I'm really looking forward to tasting these.  It has been hard work keeping the slugs away from these guys and munching on my beautiful curly lettuces edging the pot.  The effect is somewhat ruined by the smattering of bright blue slug pellets I ended up having to buy in bulk.

I've started planning a winter veg patch too... but we'll go into that at a later date.  Right now I need to go pull up some greedy nasturtiums!