Monthly Archives: January 2012

Time to take stock…

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Early spring – or depending how you look at these things; late winter – is traditionally a time for planning for the upcoming gardening year. I thought I’d get things started by making a list (for myself mostly at this point!) of all the food I have growing permanently in the garden. Considering most vegetables are annuals or not very winter hardy, this is mainly going to be a list of fruit bushes and herb plants.

Fruit trees:

None in the ground at this point. I had a small plum tree but sadly it had to go due to a bad case of silver leaf fungus.

On the bright side, I have been moving some plants around and created space for one or two small apple trees. But I have not yet chosen the varieties I would like to grow.

Lemon tree (potted) – After a challenging first year in the garden (not helped by my purchasing and putting it outside in a pot before the last frost had passed) it seems to be doing extremely well now. I’ve kept it indoors for the winter and it is absolutely covered in flowers, with one actually developing into a mini lemon already.

Not technically a fruit tree, more a shrub – I’ve got two very small Japanese Flowering Quinces. Technically they are ornamental but the fruit can be made into jelly just like normal quinces. I had a stray flower or two in late autumn so I’m hopeful they’ll flower and fruit this year in spring also.

Soft Fruit:

Raspberries – lots of them! These are well established canes, which seem to have been in the garden for many years. They fruit in July mainly and although it can be hard to keep up with them during that month, I might want to plant some late fruiting ones as well because by September I really start craving the fresh raspberries again.

Gooseberries – I planted two green ones and two red ones last year, sadly one died and I’m too disorganised to remember which where planted where. I expect my first harvest this year and then I’ll see what proportion of green and red I’m left with.

Redcurrant – Out of the two I planted last year,  only one made it. But it’s looking very promising for this season.  Once again, this year I’m expecting the first harvest.

Blueberries – Two tiny little shrubs at the moment. Hopefully they’ll fruit this year for the first time.

Loganberry/Tayberry – Not sure what it is, but I planted a cane of something that looked different from a raspberry last year. It’s quite small so I’m going to have to wait and see what the fruit looks like.

Green Grapes – Last summer I picked up a bargain grapevine from Aldi which I intend to train along a fence. Not sure what sort of progress I can expect this year.

Rhubarb – Ok not really a fruit, but I like to eat sweet preparations of it so I’ll keep it in this section. There is one great big “Glaskin’s Perpetual” and another much smaller one which might be Victoria, not sure. The big Rhubarb plant was very productive last year even though I only grew it from seed around 1.5 years ago. The other one I only planted last year and it didn’t grow very big yet but this year I should be able to harvest from that one as well. I would love to grow some more from seed (I’ve been collecting different varieties) but for now my garden is simply too small!

Strawberries – Too many to mention at this point. I’ve still got around a dozen decent sized “mainstream” type strawberry plants, with a similar quantity of small runners creeping through my flower beds. Add to that around 15 little Alpine Strawberry seedlings and a huge selection of seeds which I still need to sow this spring, I’m sure I’ll be swimming in strawberries this year!

Passionfruit – I’ve trained a passion flower to grow up a fence panel. It’s not very big so fingers crossed it will survive the winter and flower this year.

Elder – One by now 2 year old Sambucus Nigra “Black Lace”. It is almost 6 feet tall now and I am looking forward to lots of blossoms for Elderflower cordial this year. I doubt if I’ll leave enough to develop into berries.

Herbs

Sage – Two types – purple sage and a very attractive variegated green sage. Although I’m worried about the purple one, it looks very sad indeed and I might just need to replace it this year.

Rosemary – One small plant and a few cuttings. Not nearly enough but hopefully they’ll grow quicker than I’ll need to use it for cooking.

Thyme – Two plants of simple green thyme, generally enough to cover my needs. I would like some different varieties though.

Mint – I’ve been having some issues growing mint, last year the plants didn’t recover from the winter really, maybe I’ll have to refresh them this year.

Lemonbalm – upon moving into the house we found a vast patch of lemon balm all along one edge of the garden which I’ve pulled up for the most part. I don’t have enough use for it to grow that much, and it just takes over everything else. I did keep some in a pot though.

Parsley – Two types ; flat as well as curly parsley. These I planted from supermarket pots a few months ago after my previous batch of parsley had gone to seed. If they are anything like the previous ones they will soon take over the herb bed and I’ll have plenty of parsley for all sorts of interesting recipes (parsley pesto anyone?)

Oregano – grown from seed a few years ago, this is still going strong. It’s not very tasty for cooking I’ve found. So for now I’m just keeping it because it looks pretty when it flowers.I should probably buy a proper plant somewhere because apparently oregano is a little unreliable when grown from seed and you should propagate it by other means if you want to be sure of good flavour and scent.

Coriander – Because this is used quite a lot in Indian cooking, I always make sure I have some coriander. But so far I’ve been too lazy to grow it from seed and always just planted a supermarket plant in a large pot outside. The reason it’s in a pot is because slugs absolutely love it. So if I put it in the ground in between my other herbs, it hardly takes longer than a few days before there is nothing left.

Chives – I probably grow more than I need but it’s very easy to care for and is supposed to ward of certain pests so I’ve got plenty of chives growing in the herb bed.

Tarragon – Fingers crossed my little tarragon plant will make it through this week’s cold snap. It’s still too small to harvest from but hopefully that will change in a few month’s time.

Other plants

Chilli – I experimented last year with a packet of “mixed” chilli seeds. Firstly I was curious what type of chilli would grow (I’m still not sure, I only got one all of last year and it was sort of fat and stubby and not particularly hot. Though that could have been due to my impatience in trying it.) And secondly I wanted to see whether there is any benefit in letting a chilli grow as a perennial. Considering last year was quite disappointing, I’m hoping I’ll get some early flowering this year. And in addition to this plant, I will try to grow some from seeds collected out of dried chilli’s I use in cooking.


Being more self sufficient, as a picky carnivore..

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Over the past year or so I have become more and more interested in the concept of self sufficiency, whereby I aim to produce a lot more of my own foods. I suppose I’m not the standard woolly-hatted hippie who wants to save the world one plant at a time. I don’t care much about the evils of mass produced foods, GM material or whether or not my onions were grown organically.

I do like to eat tasty food and a lot of things bought from shops seem a bit bland to me. However this doesn’t inspire me to shell out a lot more money on organic (supposedly tastier?) items because I can also be a bit of a cheapskate. So I want to be more self sufficient perhaps because I enjoy the process of creating something, growing something edible from dirt, cooking my own jam because I can, etc.

There is just one problem. We don’t eat a lot of vegetables. Also, most days we will be eating a lot of Indian food, a lot of which is hard to grow yourself in the cold, wet, British weather. Also, meal planning is made quite difficult because I’m trying to satisfy some seemingly very impulsive taste buds.

So what does one do when one uses mainly: grains, potatoes, onions, garlic, ginger, tomatoes, green chilli’s, eggs, sunflower/olive oil, various types of meat and dairy (Let’s not count salt, and all the Indian spices I use regularly). The limitations become fairly obvious already. I don’t have space to keep a cow or goat so the dairy and some of the meat is going to be bought in anyway. Also, it’s simply not practical to grow enough sunflowers to extract oil from their seeds and same goes for olives and most grains.

But there are little things that can be done anyway:

Sources of protein:

  • Keeping chickens – this has to be the most popular method for getting your own eggs and at times meat also. Many people have started keeping chickens even in urban environments, though you really do need a sufficiently big garden so there is space left over for growing some vegetables as well.
  • Rabbits – if you’re not fussed about slaughtering and preparing them yourself, you can keep rabbits in your garden even if you haven’t got space for a big luxurious chicken run. They multiply quickly but of course they don’t have the added benefit of laying eggs. They are pretty cute though but if you become too attached it might get harder to actually kill and eat them.
  • Game – If you’ve got the inclination to go out like a hunter gatherer and shoot something to eat, why not look at hunting. Of course we don’t all have our own hunting grounds so you’ll have to ask around your local area to see if there is a club of some sorts which you can join. Of course if you strike up a conversation with friends and colleagues you may find someone who already goes for hunts and doesn’t mind bringing back something or other for you. This is how we managed to get some pheasants which were a good change from the usual meat we eat.
  • Fish – well it’s obvious – take up fishing. We hardly ever eat fish (with the exception of canned tuna and smoked salmon or mackerel) because as someone who grew up in Holland I find the selection of fish available in this country quite appalling. I have never seen a shop selling fresh fish, it’s all a bit smelly and gross looking. The secret to tasty fish is freshness, ideally you don’t want it to be older than a day or so. Catching your own is then a great way of ensuring you eat tasty fresh fish.
  • Lentils / beans / peas – After last year’s success growing runner beans and then drying and storing the mature beans I am encouraged to try more types of beans etc. Because I want to be sure that we’ll actually eat them, I intend to simply grow them from dried beans and lentils from the Indian store. In the past i’ve tried sprouting several types and most seem viable. I’m curious to try: black lentils, Chickpeas, Kidney beans because these are the types we eat the most.
  • Dairy – Well of course if one can’t keep a cow or goat, milk will have to be bought in. But at least some of the processing can be done at home. Some dishes in Indian cooking involve a type of cheese called “paneer” which is very easily made at home. I’ll write about this in more detail later. Also, you can make your own yoghurt at home. With a bit more effort and research other types of cheese can also be attempted so there is plenty to learn on this front!

 


Growing strawberries from seed

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January is almost over and although it’s been pretty cold overnight, it seems as though we haven’t had a winter at all this year. And yet it looks like spring is coming quickly!

So that means you can start thinking about all the exciting things to grow in your garden this year, and even get your first seeds planted indoors for early crops.

There are a lot of different varieties of Strawberry out there. I have previously explained already that I’m quite disillusioned with all the main stream “commercial” type strawberries. It’s very difficult achieving good flavour when the plant has been bred specifically for other qualities. The most common strawberries people grow in their garden are hybrids which means you can’t reliably grow them from seeds. It is simply a matter of luck what you end up with if you do plant their seeds. The results could be amazing, or quite underwhelming.

So let’s leave those regular strawberries and focus instead on what I built this site for: Gourmet varieties of strawberry, specifically Alpine Strawberries. These are not hybridised and therefore many come true from seed. In fact they are very hard to find ready grown so your only option really is to grow from seed.

If you have enough indoor space (and not necessarily a set up with grow lights, although this would help!) you can start your strawberry seed indoors now. If you take good care of the little plants, they should start to grow quickly enough during spring so perhaps towards the end of the season you could expect to see some flowers and fruits. Don’t worry if they are a bit slow, generally strawberry plants are known to be most productive in their 2nd and 3rd year, so the first is bound to be a bit slow.

How to grow Alpine Strawberries from seed

Plants are meant to reproduce by seed, so this is not supposed to be a very difficult process. Just like any other seed, it needs light, moisture and nutrition to grow.

The easiest way of ensuring that the seeds get enough of all three, is to get a little propagator with a lid, like this. It need not be heated since you’re going to put it indoors anyway. Put it on a bright window sill away from direct sunlight. An east or west facing window is best. Or if you do have grow lights then you’ll probably want to use those.

Put some compost in the tray, keep it reasonably fluffy and light, don’t press it down too much. If it’s very dry, you might want to water the compost to get it moist (not muddy!). Then take your strawberry seeds and sprinkle them over the top. Don’t sow them too densely, but perhaps 30 seeds for a full size seed tray.

Strawberry seeds are tiny so I don’t feel they need to be covered with a thick layer of compost. If you’re worried that they’re too exposed, just swish them around with your finger tip so they get embedded in the compost a little.

If necessary mist with some water and put the propagator lid on.

And wait.

My seeds sprouted within about a week or two, fairly standard in comparison with many other plants I’ve grown from seed. I’ve read on other websites that growing alpine strawberries from seed can be tricky and germination rates are low, but I didn’t find this at all. Perhaps I got lucky and bought very high quality seeds?

Anyway. Keep an eye on the tray so it doesn’t dry out (you’ll want to see water droplets hanging from the clear lid. Once the seedlings come up you can take the lid off and let them grow to a manageable size for pricking out and potting on.

I started mine in autumn and although they haven’t done much over the winter, I hope this will give me a little head start on this year’s crop!

 


How to skin a Pheasant

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Admittedly I’ve been very lazy after preparing the two Pheasants I was given in December. In fact we did go out in the garden, set up a tripod and camera and made videos of what was happening. Unfortunately though I have no experience whatsoever with video editing and so I’ve been putting off doing anything with those videos.

In the meanwhile we were given two more pheasants so this morning I set about cleaning them up for storage in the fridge. I took some photos along the way, but since it was just me on the kitchen floor with my camera phone, I had to stop taking photos once my hands got a bit too sticky. Hopefully you’ll still get the idea though!

Requirements:

  • Large enough work area – preferably one where it’s ok if you get feathers everywhere
  • Poultry shears are extremely useful
  • Sharp paring knife

It was very cold outside so I decided to stay indoors and use a cardboard box on my kitchen floor. Some feathers did find their way to other areas in the kitchen but it wasn’t too bad.

 

  1. Start by removing all extremities which you’re not going to eat or which have very little meat – Head, wings, feet, tail
  2. Start peeling the skin off from the neck – I’ve found it easiest to start at the back and then doing the wing stumps and legs one by one. Try keeping the skin in relatively large pieces so feathers don’t fly everywhere.
  3. Once the back and legs are clean, do the breast and front part of the neck. This is where the bird has a sack type of thing full of grains it has recently eaten. If you’re careful you can make it come off intact with the skin.
  4. Get any feathers and skin off that you’ve missed, perhaps around the tail area or legs. There will also be feathers sticking to the flesh of the pheasant, get as many of them off as you can.
  5. Gutting: Since after skinning I intend to use the pheasant in bits rather than as a whole bird, the easiest method I’ve found for gutting is to separate the neck and spine carefully from the ribs. This will expose the lungs.
  6. Carefully separate them from the ribcage all around, and open up the bird by separating the spine and legs from the breast. Take care not to perforate any organs while doing this and keep separating any connections between the innards and the ribcage / spine.
  7. If you were able to get the breast separate, you’ll have just the legs and spine with the guts still attached. Carefully cut around the anus and you should be left with all the guts intact and separate from all the meat.
  8. Depending on where the bird was shot from, ideally it shouldn’t smell bad and the intestines should not have ruptured. If however they have, use common sense to discard any contaminated meat. I would say that if there is any torn flesh that looks like it has been in contact with intestinal fluids for a while this should be discarded.
  9. Wash the meat thoroughly, pluck any down feathers out of shot holes and check for bad smells in case you did find that it had been shot in the guts. My colleague (who is an experienced hunter) tells me that washing with vinegar water helps get rid of smells.
  10. Anything that still smells quite bad is best discarded because even after cooking, it will taste quite bad as well.
  11. Check for shot pellets and discard. You do NOT want to accidentally bite into one after cooking!

Are (mature) runner beans toxic and/or edible?

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Flowering Runner bean

Flowering Runner bean

This question seems to be very common all over the web. In fact only a few months ago I researched the exact same topic after realising I couldn’t possibly use up all my garden produce. I had grown some runner beans (Phaseolus coccineus), which in the UK at least are grown for their green (young) pods, not the beans inside. In fact, once the beans inside develop, the green pods become tough and stringy and not very nice to eat at all.

But what if you’re well and truly sick of runner beans with almost every meal, and you want to just leave them on the plant to grow larger and store the beans inside for winter meals…

CAN I EAT THE MATURE BEANS INSIDE RUNNER BEANS?

Turns out, yes you can. Even though they’re different from the red ones you get in cans, mature runner beans are called kidney beans due to their shape. They come in fantastic colours and would look very attractive in salads etc. BUT: you CANNOT eat them raw!

Dried runner beans

Dried runner beans

I HEARD THAT MATURE RUNNER BEANS ARE TOXIC?

Indeed they are, many beans are toxic to some extent. You are NOT supposed to eat them raw, especially not in large quantities. Of course many people grew up stealing a few raw bean pods from the garden or allotment and enjoying the crunchy and fresh taste without getting ill, but this is not recommended. Runner beans contain the toxin Phytohaemagglutinin which can produce very harmful effects in sufficient quantities (for red kidney beans, as little as 4 beans can cause poisoning). Symptoms include nausea, vomiting and diarrhoea. Depending on the quantity eaten, the symptoms may pass once the stomach contents are emptied, or medical treatment may be necessary due to excessive loss of fluids.

SO, IF THEY’RE TOXIC, HOW DO I PREPARE THEM?

But don’t let the above information discourage you! The toxin Phytohaemagglutinin is easily broken down by boiling so all you need to ensure is that your mature kidney beans are boiled for AT LEAST 10 minutes prior to consumption. I prepared fresh beans that I had just shelled and 10 minutes left them a bit too crunchy anyway so chances are you’d want to cook them a bit longer.

Bear in mind that BOILING temperatures are needed ( this means above 100 degrees Celsius). Sticking the beans in a slow cooker that operates at a lower temperature will NOT help and is likely to make the beans more harmful. If you intend to slow cook a meal containing fresh or dried kidney beans, always boil them properly for a minimum of 10 minutes beforehand and then transfer them to the slow cooker.

BUT I HARDLY EVER COOK GREEN BEANS FOR 10 MINUTES OR MORE! AND I’VE NEVER GOTTEN SICK!

This may be so, not everyone is equally sensitive to the toxin contained in these beans. And the majority of the toxin is contained within the beans inside the pods. If you eat the green beans before the seeds inside have matured, they may be perfectly safe with less cooking and in some cases even raw. Follow common sense and culinary tradition, but when in doubt just boil them a bit before use to be safe!