Lifting Dahlias 

On By TontowilliamsIn Garden / Allotment1 Comment

  
I’ve had one job on the allotment that’s been outstanding for a few weeks, and that’s to lift the dahlia tubers before the frost gets to them.

I sowed the dahlias from seed at the start of the season and they’ve been flowering well into October, but the forecast for the weekend is for frost and snow. Whilst the latter didn’t materialise, it was cold last night so I went off to th plot this morning specifically to get this task done.

The weather was pretty unpleasant, raining, windy and cold, but it only took a matter of minutes to lift the tubers, remove the remaining top growth and excess soil and they’re ready to store until next season. They’re too small to split at present but I have got 7 tubers from my packet of seed. A job well done.

  

Quick Links 17th November 2015

On By TontowilliamsIn Quick Links2 Comments

Each week I’ll try and post quick links to things that I’ve seen, read or just sparked my interest in the previous week. Mostly gardening, cooking and environmental stuff but not always.

Britain loses top energy rating [Guardian]

World’s Climate About to Enter Uncharted Territory after it passes 1C of warming [Guardian]

Will Reintroduced Lynx Hunt Britains Sheep? [Guardian]

The Week In Wildlife In Pictures [Guardian]

Harissa Roast Chicken & Warming Bone Broth and Tomato & Basil Risotto meets Harissa Chicken Bone Broth [Hole Food Family Blog]

 

Sacred Sierra by Jason Webster

On By TontowilliamsIn Book Review, books

I’ve just finished reading “Sacred Sierra: A Year on a Spanish Mountain” by Jason Webster. It’s a book that I thoroughly enjoyed and here are my thoughts.

Sacred Sierra: A Year on a Spanish MountainSacred Sierra: A Year on a Spanish Mountain by Jason Webster
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is Jason Webster’s story of his first year in the mountainside “mas” which he and his wife Salud move to, and begin to renovate both the cottage and the land.

As he works with the elements he narrates a wonderful story of the characters he meets and the friendships made, as well as his expansion of almond, olive and truffle farming.

Each chapter, told in monthly parts, is started with a traditional folk tale from the area, which adds something extra to what is already a great and well written story.

This book was one that was recommended to me by Amazon on the basis of previous purchases and for once was spot on as something I really enjoyed and was sorry to finish. I’ll be checking out his other books, as he is also a crime fiction writer, although I’d certainly read more tales from his mountainside too, where he ever to write more.

There’s also a video on YouTube, where the author explains a little more about the book.

Hot Pasta Ragu Sauce

On By TontowilliamsIn Cooking

This is a hot Ragu sauce for pasta, that can be made in about 45 minutes, and serves up to 4 people depending on appetite. You’ll need:

  • 1 large white onion
  • 4 cloves of garlic
  • 3 or 4 medium sized mushrooms
  • 1 Jalapeno Pepper
  • 10 large basil leaves
  • 2 tablespoons of olive oil
  • Salt & Pepper for seasoning
  • 500g extra lean minced beef (approx weight)
  • 1 tin of plum tomatoes or chopped tomatoes
  • 1 glass of red wine (optional)
  • 2 beef oxo cubes (other stock cubes are available)
  • 80 – 100 grams / per person dried pasta shapes
  • Grated parmesan or other cheese for garnish

Method:

  1.  Peel and finely chop the onion, and garlic and chop the 2015-11-11 16.52.50mushrooms and pepper (this is a hot sauce so don’t deseed the pepper, but if you prefer a milder flavour you will want to remove the seeds).
  2. Add the oil to a suitable sized pan over a medium heat, when the oil is warmed through add the onion, garlic and mushrooms, and sweat for about 5 minutes.
  3. Add the minced beef and cook until well browned. Continue to cook the onion, garlic, mushroom and beef mixture for a further 5 minutes.
  4. Add the chilli pepper and mix the combine throughout the mixture.
  5. Add the tomatoes. If you’re using plum tomatoes, roughly
    chop-up in the pan with a knife or blade of a spoon. Add approximately 1/2 a tin of water to the mixture, depending on how much liquid has come out of the beef and tomatoes.2015-11-11 17.16.12
  6. Roughly chop the basil leaves and add about half to the
    mixture, along with the stock cubes, and salt and pepper to taste (remember there will be some salt already in the stock cubes, so don’t over do the seasoning).
  7. Make sure the mixture is well combined and continue to simmer on a low heat for 25 minutes, stirring occasionally. If there is too much liquid present remove the saucepan lid to aid evaporation.
  8. In another pan bring enough water to cook your pasta to the boil, add a little olive oil to the water to prevent the pasta sticking.
  9. Once the water is boiling add the pasta and cook according to the packet instructions.
  10. Add the remaining basil to the meat sauce just before serving, and remove from the heat.
  11. Drain the pasta and serve with the ragu sauce, garnish with the grated cheese.

Quick Links 11th November 2015

On By TontowilliamsIn Quick Links

Each week I’ll try and post quick links to things that I’ve seen, read or just sparked my interest in the previous week. Mostly gardening, cooking and environmental stuff but not always.

Hugh’s War on Waste – Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall look at just how much we waste as a society. Quite shocking statistics, and facts. BBC TV programme (programme video only available in the UK)

Gennaro Contaldo 90 Second Pesto Sauce (YouTube)

The Atlas Snow Arch Greenhouse Build Part 4 Framing the Steel End Walls (YouTube)

How I Built Our Hoop House (Greenhouse), pt. 1: Framing (YouTube)

Energy minister expects UK to miss renewables target, leaked letter shows (Guardian)

Earth’s climate entering new ‘permanent reality’ as CO2 hits new high (Guardian)

The Week In Wildlife – In Pictures (Guardian)

Dog Toy Balls, Some You Find, Some You Loose. OR, How I Fell On My Bum in the Woods

On By TontowilliamsIn Dog, Dogs, Wilson's Story2 Comments

2015-11-09 08.43.44I have two ball obsessed dogs, they love to chase balls whenever we go out for a walk. To be honest it’s great exercise for them, but can occasionally be a little hard on my pocket when we loose balls in the bushes or long grass.

A few weeks ago I bought two new balls for Ruby. She’s particularly fussy about what she will and won’t play with, and so the new ones were of a particular type that she likes. Bright orange and they have a slightly unpredictable bounce, thus making the game a bit of fun.

Within the first week, I lost one of these balls in a bramble bush on one of our regular walking routes. That unpredictable bounce can be a killer when it comes to keeping track of where they end up. We looked for a quite a while, I knew it was in the bramble bush somewhere but I just couldn’t see it, nor could Ruby find it. Eventually we gave it up for lost. Sometimes you just have to accept loosing one, normally the ratio of balls lost to balls found is quite constant, but in this case I think this was about the third one I’d lost between Wilson and Ruby in a week, so my account was way in deficit.

Anyway; skip forward to this morning. We were on the same route and I had the other ball of the pair with me, as well as a different one for Wilson. Once again I threw the ball for Ruby, and it bounced and landed in the same bloody bramble bush as the last one! I thought probably we’d lost that one too, but as I looked into the brambles I could see it, although I couldn’t actually reach it from where I was standing. The bush is on a slope and I had to walk down the slope slightly, and use the ball launcher to extract the ball from within the brambles, being very careful not to scratch myself in the process.

As I was reaching in I also spotted something else – the other ball that we’d lost weeks ago. Feeling pretty chuffed with myself, thinking that we were going to retrieve not only the ball that had landed in the brambles this morning, but also the one that we’d lost in their weeks ago, I got the recent lost ball out and gave it back to Ruby.

I changed position on the slope and reached in to the brambles with the ball launcher once again. I had to stretch to reach the ball, and in doing so was leaning on an old (and somewhat rotten as I was about to find out) tree trunk.

As I managed to scoop the ball up with the launcher there was a loud crack and the tree I was leaning on gave way, I managed to get enough momentum up from the trunk of the tree, but in doing so overbalanced and fell backwards – fortunately away from the bramble bush, but I did end up on my bum in the mud. Ruby did come and check I was okay.

Apart from my pride there were no injuries – and I had the lost ball from a couple of weeks ago, so I returned to the path triumphant, or at least I tried to. My wellies however couldn’t get a grip on the muddy bank and I couldn’t get back up the slope down which I’d come. In the end I did a slight detour and rejoined the path (and my dogs who were waiting for me, they have four wheel drive and couldn’t work out why I was having such problems getting up the slope).

Taking inventory I made sure I hadn’t lost anything in my fall, e.g. phone, housekeys etc. All was well, apart from the fact that we didn’t have the ball that we’d lost that morning. I had the other one in my coat pocket, but in all the fuss of my falling over and trying to get back up the bank, we’d re-lost the ball that had gone in the bramble bush moments earlier.

I sent Ruby down to look for it, but she just ran up and down the bank and didn’t manage to find it. Resigning ourselves to finding an old lost ball but loosing another one, we carried on with our walk.

2015-11-09 08.43.55I wasn’t going to be defeated however, and as we returned I decided to have one final look for the ball. I looked down the slope, but couldn’t see it. It’s surprising sometimes how something bright orange doesn’t show up against the autumn leaf fall.

I decided one last ditch attempt was in order and sent Wilson in. “Find the ball!” I told him. He went down the bank exactly to the spot where I’d fallen, and started casting around searching. Then his tail started to wag. Soon it was going like a helicopter rotor. He was on to something. Of course this could just be something good to eat, but on the other hand I was expectant that we might find the missing ball.

Whatever he’d found it seemed to be under the tree trunk, that I had so unceremoniously managed to fell earlier, but he couldn’t quite reach it. He tried one side and then hopped over and tried the other, but whatever it was he couldn’t reach it. Eventually he tried the old commando technique of getting right down on his belly and crawling underneath, and out he came with the missing ball in his mouth!

Queue loads of praise from me, and dog biscuits for Wilson and Ruby. We went home triumphant.

So some days you loose a ball and sometimes you find one (or even one that you lost some weeks ago)!

Allotment Update 7th November 2015

On By TontowilliamsIn Garden / Allotment2 Comments

2015-11-07 08.13.52The weather this week has been pretty mild, but with it has come rain. Pretty much non-stop rain most of the week.

I was hoping it was going to clear up by the weekend, but alas it was still raining hard when I took the dogs out for their morning walk. I decided to walk down the plot to check everything was okay, but it didn’t look as though I was going to get much done there.

In a way I don’t mind. I’m ahead of where I want to be at the moment, particularly as I got the fruit bed weeded last weekend, so having a weekend off isn’t going to do me much harm or the plot.

IMG_20151107_081247198Both the broad beans and (finally) the sprouts look like their coming good. The latter might mean that we have some in time for Christmas! I’ve had my doubts that the sprouts were ever going to come good, but it looks like we might get some, although they are still looking rather small. I don’t recall them being a small variety although the description on the suppliers website says:

“The small, tight buttons are a lovely dark green with good flavour.”

So maybe they’re not going to get much bigger. I have a bit of a love / hate relationship with growing sprouts, as they are something that I can’t seem to grow consistently (either well or badly) and so don’t always bother.

I think a harvest might be in order to check out that flavour!

I do need to also check out the celeriac plants next to them too, to see if there is any improvement with them.

IMG_20151107_081129929The broad beans are an overwintering variety (Aquadulce Claudia), which I sowed several weeks ago. If the mild weather keeps up they will continue to grow, but ideally I’d like them to stop around about now. They big enough to get through the winter, but if they get too big, and then it gets very cold, they might suffer. We’ll see.

I note that something has had a peck or a nibble on some of the leaves though, so I’ll need to keep an eye on that, I’ve never had to cover them before, but maybe I might need to.

If the weather clears, I’ll be down on the plot later in the week. I have everything I need now to do the repairs / upgrade to the timber frame cloche, so I want to get cracking with that as the materials are taking up room and getting in the way a bit. I’m aiming to try and video that if I can.

Of Wonky Veg

On By TontowilliamsIn Fork To Fork, Garden / Allotment, Uncategorized

As I was peeling parsnips for dinner last night I was reminded of watching “Hugh’s War on Waste” that was on BBC TV earlier in the week.

CS9lF5jXIAAnYWtThe programme highlighted the statistic that as a nation on average we throw away the equivalent of a days food per week per household. Quite a shocking statistic, and one that I am determined won’t apply in this house. I feel that we are already pretty good in terms of making sure we don’t throw away anything that is still good to eat, but there is always room for improvement and I’ve therefore signed the pledge at http://wastenotuk.com, I encourage you to do the same.

I think what shocked me more though was the further statistic that supermarkets reject over 40% of produce grown by farmers each year for being the wrong shape or colour. Parsnips were the example used in the show, and the shocking story of one struggling farm that has 20 tonnes of parsnips rejected by Morrisons every week because they don’t fit the supermarkets exacting standards. (Here’s what Morrisons had to say)

Cosmetically, this is the supermodel of parsnips, but it has no flavour
Cosmetically, this is the supermodel of parsnips, but it has no flavour
Now I mostly grow my own veg, at the moment I have a gap in my parsnip supply due to poorly timed seed sowing on my part.

My first sowing have all be harvested and although I have plenty of parsnips growing, but they’re not yet ready to harvest, so I had to buy some this week.

They are cosmetically very pretty – unlike the ones I normally grow, which tend to be a bit misshapen and odd looking, however they have absolutely no taste to them. My first harvest of parsnips this year from the allotment were sweet and very tasty, despite their outward appearance, the ones that I bought from the supermarket to supplement the allotment supply are not.

Now I know that won’t come as a surprise to many other allotment holders or those that grow their own veg, and I’m sure that it is as much to do with the time from harvest to plate that is as important, as well as the growing conditions, than how the parsnip looks, but for heavens sake why does cosmetic appearance matter? It’s taste that counts.

I’m for wonky, tasty veg.

EDIT: Incorrect hyperlink updated