Sorting the harvest

Onions and Potatoes

After working so hard to grow your produce you would think that it would be a great pleasure to sit down and prepare it for storage.

Unfortunately, I think this is my least favourite part of the whole process, as it is rather time-consuming. However, it is very important to review and sort your produce, or you could end up losing loads of it, which would be a shame.

Onions

After lifting your onions they need to be dried out, either by leaving them on top of the soil at your plot, or by bringing them home to dry. Because I am a drive away from my allotment I tend to bring mine home in some very useful stackable plastic crates and then leave them out to dry, as a single layer, on a plastic sheet. If it rains then I can just nip outside and cover them, or pop them back into the crates.

Then comes the sorting. I tidy the onions up a bit so I can check them over. They then go into the use first, use second or use last crate:

• Use first – any with bad bruising, or with thick green necks and stems – as these won’t keep. 
• Use second – any with small holes or blemishes
• Use last – these should really be perfect as they need to store for the longest time.

If you put them all in together the damaged ones will rot and make the good ones do the same.

I also pull out the small ones and put them aside to make pickled onions.

How you store them depends on your own preference and available time, but they keep best in low humidity with a temperature range of 2 – 4^oC/ 36 – 39^oF. This year I have decided to try hanging them in labelled nets, suspended from hooks in the outdoor storage area. I have also separated the red and white onions – this is just for ease of use rather than having storage benefits!

If you have a bit more free time, or just prefer the effect, then you can try making an onion rope. There are illustrated guides and videos on the internet which will help you. Basically it involves a length of string and threading the onions in, which certainly creates an attractive way of storing onions.

Onions can also be stored on slatted shelves

Potatoes

As with onions, they need to be thoroughly dried before you sort them. You should then brush off the soil, taking care not to damage the skin.

Again I classify into use first, second and last. With potatoes I check for bruising and holes. You also don’t want to be eating green potatoes.

I store mine in Hessian sacks and these have worked very well over the last few years. You can also use jute or double-thickness paper sacks; but not plastic or polythene bags, as these make the potatoes sweat and rot.

The ideal temperature range for potatoes is 5 – 10^oC/ 39^oF. If it drops below this in your storage area then it is a good idea to cover the sacks with quilts/blankets or newspaper, as long exposure to cold weather will cause them to develop an unpleasant sweetness.

I also check my sacks of potatoes on a monthly basis to pull out any that have gone rotten to prevent them infecting the rest and to remove any shoots.

Of course ideally – once I get my lovely B&B with smallholding and a big farmhouse kitchen, the harvest sort can be done in there, with some friends/family members to help and maybe a bottle or two of homemade wine…

A Blackberry picking we will go…

One of the best parts of Autumn!

There are over a hundred wild varieties of blackberry in Great Britain and it is believed that we have around 400 microspieces!

On one plant the earliest fruit to be ready is at the tip of the stalk and this tends to be the fattest and the sweetest, then a few weeks later the other berries near the end develop and by October the smallest berries tend to ripen, which are harder and slightly bitter.

It is therefore little wonder that you can end up with such a variety of sizes and flavour of fruit, even from one hedgerow.

There are also the cultivated varieties stocked by the supermarkets, which to my mind have very little flavour.

We have had a long-standing relationship with the blackberry – its seeds were found in the stomach of a Neolithic man dug out of the clay in Essex and there are many myths and legends surrounding this prickly shrub.

When Lucifer was thrown out of heaven he is said to have landed in a pile of brambles on Old St Michael’s day (Michaelmas). When I was out picking at the end of last September a lady told me that I should avoid picking blackberries after the 29^th September – Michaelmas - as the Devil is said to spit on them on that day.

I did a bit of research and whilst she was right about the myth, she was wrong about the date, as the original date, before the government changed the calendar in 1752, was the 10^th October, so we have a few days to go!

Whether you believe the myth or not, it is true that a number of insects feed on brambles and their saliva does digest the fruit from the outside, making them mushy and you are unlikely to find many tasty blackberries after mid-October.

The Romans used the berries for hair dye – I now have the image of purple-haired people walking around Rome in their togas! However, you can also use the berries or the bramble roots to dye cloth.

Interestingly the saying ‘dragged through a hedge backwards’ comes from the belief that if you pull a person backwards through a bramble bush it will cure them of many ailments. It seems rather more likely that said person claimed to be cured so they didn’t have to go through such an unpleasant experience for a second time!

Whilst this medicinal use has not continued, there are more successful ones, including curing sore throats by boiling some bramble leaves in water and gargling with them, or rubbing this around your mouth if you have sore gums. Infusions from the leaves are often used as an alternative treatment for diarrhoea and you can make a lovely tonic from blackberry and raspberry juice, which is said to be good for people recovering from shingles.  However, you need to be careful taking this tonic if you are pregnant, as raspberries have been linked to promoting contractions of the uterus.

Blackberry Picking Kit

If you head out in your shorts, T shirts and trainers then you are in for rather a painful afternoon. The bramble does not relinquish its fruit easily – especially not the best ones. My suggested ‘bramble picking kit list’ is below: 

• Trousers, not too thin, as you tend to get nettles growing near brambles
• Long sleeved top
• Pair of gloves – gardening ones with the plastic on the palm side are ideal
• Boots or walking shoes
• A long stick with a hook on the end for bringing the stalks, with the best clusters of berries, down to you
• Containers – take ice-cream tubs, punnets or trugs (do not use plastic bags and the berries get bruised).

Recipes

Blackberries do not really keep for more than a few hours. However, they freeze very well so you can enjoy them right through the year.

They can be used in pies, crumbles, jams, jellies, fruit fools or to make some very yummy alcoholic drinks including wine.

Below are a few of my favourite recipes:

Blackberry and Raspberry Tonic

Boil the fruit with double the amount of water, squashing them with a spoon or potato masher.

Strain and leave to cool and then refrigerate.

Serve with a big spoon of honey.

Blackberry Vodka

Ingredients

• Vodka – 70cl bottle
• Blackberries – will need a few handfuls.
• 110g caster sugar

First off remove one third of the vodka and store for later use.

Now add to the bottle 100g of caster sugar - caster sugar dissolves far quicker than granulated sugar, but can use granulated if that is what you have to hand.

Now fill the bottle with the washed and dried fresh hedgerow blackberries.

Once all the ingredients are in the bottle replace the cap tightly, give it a good shake and place it in the cool dark cupboard occasionally shaking to agitate the fruit and any sugar that has not dissolved.

After several weeks give it a little taste and add more sugar to sweeten and add viscosity if required.

Once you are pleased with the flavour and sweetness of your blackberry vodka, about 10 or so weeks, strain through muslin or jelly bag and decant the filtered brew back into a clean bottle.

The remaining boozy berries make an excellent topping to vanilla ice cream.

Blackberry and Apple Jam
Ingredients

• 500g blackberries
• 500g cooking apples, peeled, cored and chopped
• Juice of 1 small lemon
• 1kg jam sugar

Method
Put the blackberries and apples into a preserving or large pan with the lemon juice and 100ml water.

Place over a medium heat and simmer gently for 10-15 minutes, until tender and reduced.

Pop a couple of saucers into the freezer to chill.

Add the sugar to the pan and cook, stirring to dissolve.

Bring to the boil and boil rapidly for 5 minutes.

Remove from the heat.

Put a teaspoonful of jam onto a chilled saucer for 1 minute. Drag your finger lightly over the jam. If it wrinkles, it has reached setting point; if it doesn’t, boil for a couple more minutes, then turn off the heat and try again with another chilled saucer.

Preheat the oven to its lowest setting. To sterilise the jars and lids, clean and upturn them – lids off – on a baking sheet. Put in the oven for 15 minutes. Stir the jam, then ladle into each jar, seal and label.

Chips, jackets, boiled, roasted, sautéed…

‘It must be potato harvest time’ 

I have just lifted my first row of potatoes, which yielded 2 crates of spuds and I have another 3 rows to harvest, so I am hoping it has been a good year for the potato crop.

I was a little concerned that blight had set in and was ready to immediately chop the stalks right down to the base to prevent the blight from getting into the potatoes themselves.  But after a closer look we established that it was just the leaves looking a bit rough around the edges because it was time to harvest. 

Blight is most common in cool, damp summers – such as the one we had last year, when it hit our whole allotment.  However, because I had been earthing up and then cut down all the foliage at the very first sign of blight, I still managed to get a reasonable harvest, which saw us through most of the winter. 

If you do get blight, then once you have chopped off the foliage (which does not go into your compost) you should wait three weeks before lifting the tubers to allow any spores to die off. 

It is important to follow a good crop rotation plan to help prevent blight, potato eelworm and other pests and diseases.  There are also blight resistant varieties including Sante and Orla.

In general potatoes are an easy crop to grow and are a staple part of most allotment plots.  They provide good ground cover to prevent too many weeds and I have found they are great for breaking up the ground – so a good first crop to put in a newly acquired space, which needs work.

There are dozens of varieties, divided into earlies, second earlies, early main crops, late main crops and these names refer to the amount of time they take to mature.  You can also get salad or new potatoes

• 14 – 16 weeks – earlies
• 16 – 17 weeks – second earlies
• 18 – 20 weeks – main crop

Usually you expect to be planting your earlies in early spring, with the second earlies and main crop going in a bit later.  However, like most things this year I delayed the planting, as I waited for the soil to be at least 6^oC because the tubers are sensitive to frost.  If you have planted your chitted potatoes and are expecting a late frost it is certainly worth protecting them with horticulture fleece or cloches.

Potatoes are also a good crop to store – though most earlies are not suitable for long-term storage.  Cut the top growth off at ground level about two weeks before you are planning to harvest to toughen up the skins, making them less prone to damage from lifting and easier to store.

After harvesting the potatoes I leave them out to dry thoroughly, then brush off the dirt.  I think it is worth checking your potatoes and dividing them into ‘use immediately’ (e.g. ones you have managed to stab with the fork when lifting them!), ‘use second’ (some signs of damage such as small holes) or ‘use last’ (no signs of holes, bruising or other damage). 

I store my potatoes in hessian sacks in our garage (which is cool and dark).  You can also use paper sacks, but do not store them in plastic bags.

Check them regular and remove any that are damaged.

This year I grew:

• Orlas (second earlies)
• Robintas (late main crop)

One of my favourite potato recipes, which came from a BBC website, is:

Potato wedges with rosemary 

Potato wedges are the ultimate easy side dish - just slam them in the oven and forget about them until hunger strikes.

Ingredients

• 1kg/2lb potatoes
• 1 tbsp olive oil  
• Coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper 
• Rosemary, chopped, to taste
• Crushed garlic, to taste

Method

Preheat the oven to 200C/400F/Gas 6.

Wash and dry the potatoes, but don't peel them. Cut the potatoes into large wedges and place into a bowl.

Add the remaining ingredients to the bowl and mix well. Tip the potatoes onto a baking tray.

Transfer the potatoes to the oven and bake until golden-brown and cooked all the way through (about 30 minutes).

Serve the potatoes hot from the oven.

Salad Days

Why it is better to grow your own…

Summer is here and I am thoroughly enjoying my home-grown salad leaves and rocket.

In the supermarket you can expect to pay a pound or more for a small bag of rocket and anything up to £2 for a lettuce – and just to let you into a little secret, I think the home-grown salad tastes much better. I also know that it has not been sprayed with any chemicals, so it feels much better for me as well.

Growing your own food is an excellent way to save money. A packet of seeds costs anything from 99p to £1.99 and you get a lot of salad from one packet! This year I inherited a lot of seeds from family, so it has worked out even cheaper.

Salads have a long season. I usually start sowing my summer leaves in trays in early spring and putting them in my little plastic greenhouse, so they are ready to plant out when the soil is warm enough - this year, I waited a while!

I then keep sowing them either in trays or direct into the ground every couple of weeks, to ensure a constant supply.

In August/September I sow some Winter Crop lettuce and protect them through the winter under cloches. They are ready to harvest in March/April and it is very rewarding to have something to pick at that time of year.

A couple of years ago I grew some wild rocket. This lasted two years (which was a bit of a surprise) and I only had to pull it up at the end of last year, as it had flea beetle and I also wanted to move the beds around.

Of course salads are also a favourite crop of the slugs and snails. I try to protect mine with a combination of used filter coffee granules - which I dry and then sprinkle around the plants - sage and organic slug pellets. Regular checks of your plants are also a good idea.

I have seen my fellow allotmenteers try all kinds of contraptions, including planting lettuces in a long plastic pot on metal poles with the copper strips wound around the top of them. The only way the slugs and snails are getting to his lettuces is if they can parachute in!

I mentioned flea beetle earlier, which is a pest that can attack your rocket and brassicas. This year I have planted catnip with them, as this is a companion plant that is supposed to deter this pest and so far it has been very successful.

Radishes, beans and carrots are also good companion plants for lettuces, but they do not like to be grown with celery, cabbage, cress or parsley.

In this hot weather salad is the perfect dish – easy to prepare and eat. I have been adding in my little carrots as I thin them, which have a delicious sweet flavour.

You can make all kinds of dressings to go with you salad; here is a recipe for one of my favourites:

Garlic & Herb Dressing

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup cider vinegar
• 1-2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
• 3 garlic cloves, crushed
• Pinch of sea salt and black pepper
• 2 tablespoons fresh herbs or 2 teaspoons dried herbs (e.g. basil, oregano or thyme)
• About 1.5 cups extra virgin olive oil

Method

Combine all ingredients except olive oil in a jar. Stir well with a fork.

Add olive oil, cover tightly, and shake well until combined. You can also use a blender and drizzle the oil in slowly while it is running.

Serve (this will also last in the fridge for at least a week or so)

Getting Busy With the Fizzy

‘Elderflower Champagne, Cordial and Jam are great!’

Summer was rather late arriving this year, which meant the elderflowers were also delayed. However, once they did start to flower, they did so in earnest and it has been a bumper year – or at least it has in East Anglia.

The Elder is referred to as a tree, but is a member of the Honeysuckle family, so it is actually a fast-growing, tall shrub. It is not very prepossessing in the winter months and you may not even notice it. However, when it comes to flower in early summer, the lovely haze of white flowers should catch your attention. Elder can be found in hedgerows, on waste ground, farms, alongside paths and roads.

The Elder has had rather a mixed press through history. On the positive side, it is said to possess magical properties with fairies making their instruments from branches. Whilst some of you may raise your eyebrow quizzically at this suggestion, the branches are certainly easily bored out to make top notch pea shooters, and whistles etc and this has earned the elder its alternative names of the ‘pipe tree’ or ‘bore tree’. The flowers are very good in skin and eye treatments and the leaves can be used in bunches around the home and livestock – e.g. attached to horses’ bridles - to keep flies away.

However, the elder has also been seen as nature’s bad boy. The leaves and berries (if eaten raw) are poisonous, but the root – pardon the pun – of this evil reputation is from the belief that Judas hanged himself from the elder after betraying Christ. It was also widely believed that if you burnt elder on the fire that you would see the devil, which is likely to be have been caused by the slight issue that Elder releases cyanide when it is burning – a problem which may have killed a number of Dark Age peasants in their homes!

But to me the elder is all about the wonderful things I can make from its flowers in early summer and its berries in the autumn. Usually you expect to be foraging for elderflowers from early June through to July (though I start to keep an eye out for them from late May if it has been a mild winter).

Ideally you want to pick them when they are milky white, as this is when the flavour is at its best, rather than when they are a darker cream colour and smelling more strongly (with a slight hint of cats pee – not a great flavouring!)

This year I am celebrating the fact that after two years of bad batches, I have finally produced a rather delectable Elderflower champagne!

I took a good look at my method for making elderflower champagne to see what the possible problems were. First of all, as a jam maker, I naturally reached for the preserving pan.  However, metal is probably not the material to use in this process. I am now using enormous two litre glass jars, but a sterilised plastic bucket is suggested in many recipes. When I made my first batch it was suggested that the ideal yeast to use would be champagne yeast – makes sense when making champagne! However, my brother has made several batches of very nice elderflower champagne using ordinary yeast, so I went with that.

There are a number of recipes around, but I tend to use the River Cottage one, though I have also found a ‘knocks your socks off version’ which I might have to try.

Whichever recipe you try, you need to shake the elderflower heads gently to remove any bugs; don’t wash them as this removes the rather wonderful fragrance and flavour. As with all foraging, be careful where you pick.  You don’t want to be collecting from trees along the roadside or other potential contaminates. Also, please don’t pick all the flowers, as obviously the flowers will become the berries and we will need these later in the year!

A final word of warning about elderflower champagne is that it can be rather volatile. I use fizzy drinks plastic bottles (washed and sterilised), I don’t fill them to the top and I release the pressure slightly every couple of days by twisting the lid.

You can also make a rather lovely elderflower cordial – a favourite of my Mum and Dad. Obviously you can use this to make a squash, but personally I like to use it as syrup and pour it over vanilla ice cream.

It is worth making a lot of the cordial, but you will need to freeze it as it only lasts about six weeks. I make a large batch so that I can then use it in making gooseberry and elderflower jam, gooseberry and elderflower ice cream, or just to ensure that the folks have a good supply of it, to keep me in their good books.

You can also try making elderflower fritters, though not sure if these are genuinely nice, or if it is a case of anything tastes good wrapped in batter. Anyway here is a recipe for you to try:

Elderflower Fritters

• 4 tbsps flour
• 1 egg
• 1.5 cups of water
• Elderflower heads (retain short stalks for dipping)
• Oil
• Fresh mint
• Sugar for dusting
• 1 lemon

1.  Make the batter using the flour, egg and water

2.  Hold the flower head by the stalk and dip into the batter

3.  Shake of any excess batter, then plunge into hot oil and deep-fry until golden brown.

4.  Trim off the excess stalk and serve with some sugar, mint and lemon

Good luck with all your elderflower creations – let me know how you get on!

The Courgette Conundrum

 ‘Oh god, what do we do with all these courgettes…’

I was up at the allotment last weekend when a couple, who started renting an allotment this year, turned up with ten little courgette plants for their half plot – they would have been in for quite a surprise, as we have all learnt that one courgette plant takes up A LOT of room and is very likely to give you A LOT of courgettes!

Growing courgettes is pretty easy, but germinating them can be a little tricky. I have found the best way is to take each seed (I tend to try to germinate about five) and very loosely wrap it in a damp double layer of kitchen paper towel, then put them all in a labelled container, which goes into the airing cupboard. Make sure you keep the paper damp and watch out for the seeds sprouting. 

The great advantage to this method is that you then see which way up to sow the seed. I am pretty new to the growing your own veg thing and found that many sets of instructions told me to sow the seed on its side in the compost, which begged the question – which side?

Once the seeds have germinated, I transfer them to pots of peat-free compost, stand them on a window sill and keep well-watered. After a week or two they go out to my little plastic green house and then it is just a question of working with the weather to decide when they go outside during the day; but make sure they are not out overnight until all risk of frost has gone - so that’ll be August this year then!

Everything is running late this year, but I usually plant out my courgettes from late May to June. I planted mine up on the allotment last weekend.

Courgettes love manure, you can put some well-rotted manure or compost in the hole before you plant them and then I put a ring of it around the plants as well (though not touching the leaves).  Make sure that there is a metre between plants and don’t plant too many of them. I tend to plant three on my allotment, which is plenty for me, my parents and a number of friends.

Some good companion plants for courgettes are tansy (repels harmful insects), catnip (protects against flea beetle and attracts bees) and radishes (again repels flea beetle and other harmful insects).

Courgettes need a lot of watering and rather than just showering them from a watering can, it is a good idea to stick a plastic bottle, or sink a 15cm (6in) pot alongside the plants when planting out.  Water into the vessel to ensure it goes straight to the roots.

The courgettes are ready to harvest when they are about 10cm (4in) in length and the more you pick, the more will grow.  In fact you can be harvesting three-times a week.  However, I have often ended up with marrow-sized courgetters, which are lovely with a mince stuffing.

 

My favourite courgette recipes:

COURGETTE CAKE – yes, really

Serves:  10

Can be frozen (un-iced). – which is a perfect way to benefit from your courgettes for months and months

Ingredients

• 350g self-raising flour
• 50g cocoa powder
• 1 tsp mixed spice
• 175ml extra virgin olive oil 
• 375g golden caster sugar
• 3 eggs 
• 2 tsp vanilla extract 
• 500ml grated courgettes (measure by volume in a measuring jug, but it's about 2 medium courgettes; if using 1 overgrown one, peel first and take out seeds)
• 140g toasted hazelnuts, roughly chopped

 Icing

• 200g dark chocolate , chopped
• 100ml double cream

Method

Heat the oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4.

In a large bowl, combine the flour, cocoa powder, mixed spice and 1 tsp salt.

In another bowl, combine the olive oil, sugar, eggs, vanilla essence and grated courgette.

Mix the dry and wet mixture until just combined, then fold in the toasted hazelnuts.

Line a 24cm cake tin with greaseproof paper, then pour in your mixture.

Bake for about 40-50 mins, or until a knife inserted into the middle comes out clean.

Cool in the tin for 10 mins, then turn out onto a wire rack and leave to cool.

To make the icing, place the chocolate in a bowl and bring cream to the boil in a saucepan.

Pour the hot cream over the chocolate and stir until completely smooth and melted.

Leave the icing to cool slightly and thicken, then spread it over the cake so it's covered and the icing starts to drip down the sides.

Baking with courgettes

Courgettes can hold quite a lot of water, which can affect the finished texture of your cake. If your grated courgettes seem watery, place them into a clean cloth and wring out some of the liquid into a bowl. Then add the courgettes to the cake mixture as normal.

The timing for cakes containing courgette can depend on the water content of your courgettes, so return the cake to the oven for another 10 mins if it needs it. Simply test with a skewer and make sure it comes out clean

STIR FRIED COURGETTES

I just stir fry sliced courgettes, red onions, mushrooms with crushed garlic and Thai dipping sauce – yummy!

RIVER COTTAGE (www.rivercottage.net) STUFFED COURGETTE FLOWERS

Serves:  4

Ingredients

• 10 courgette flowers, washed to remove and dirt or bugs
• 2-3 litres sunflower oil

Filling 1

• 200g ricotta
• 3-4tbs grated Parmesan
• 1tbs Basil, finely chopped
• 1 tbs Chives, finely snipped
• 1 tbs Mint, finely chopped
• Salt & Pepper

Filling 2

• Sliced buffalo mozzarella
• Basil leaves 

Batter

• 4 heaped tbs plain flour
• 1 rounded tbs corn flour
• ½ tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp sea salt
• 200ml ice-cold sparkling mineral water

Method

Heat the oil to about 180C or until a cube of bread turns brown in 45-60 seconds.

To prepare the ricotta filling: chop herbs finely and snip chives with scissors into small pieces. Add herbs to the ricotta and stir in the parmesan, season with pepper and taste before adding salt.

To assemble flowers: fill with 3 teaspoons of ricotta or risotto, twist the tips of the petals to secure the filling.  To make the mozzarella cut a thick slice of mozzarella and place in a courgette flower with basil leaves either side, twist petals to seal.

Make the batter by putting the flower, corn flower, baking powder and salt in a large bowl, give it a whisk to remove any lumps. 

Slowly add sparkling water whisking as you pour to achieve a batter with the consistency of single cream.

Carefully place 3-4 filled courgette flowers into the hot oil, gently turn to ensure they cook evenly. 

When golden, remove and place on kitchen paper to drain.  Repeat with remaining flowers. 

Serve immediately.

And of course the couple with the 10 courgette plants were given a heads up about how prolific they can be, as we all learn from those around us, from experience, or from Monty!

Dandelions – hear this super food roar

‘A great year for dandelions’

Well, the conditions have certainly been right for dandelions this year – or they have in this area. They are lining the allotment paths and there is a carpet of them on any patches of grass that haven’t been destroyed by weed killers.

Please don’t kill your dandelions, they give a wonderful splash of colour from February right through to November, but especially at this time of year and bees love them. However, I know that many gardeners hate them because they are so tenacious, but if you harvest the flowers then you avoid the point when they turn to seeds anyway.

Dandelions are a key item on the foragers’ menu, as the roots, leaves and flowers can all be utilised, whether it be to make wine, coffee, ale, in salads and soups, or even making use of the florets as a ‘poor man’s saffron’ to colour rice etc.

The dandelion leaves are best picked young and once thoroughly washed can be used raw in salads, fried with bacon and some wild garlic or marinated in vinegar. They do get a more bitter taste as they get older, but blanching them takes the bitterness away and they can be used in recipes as an alternative to spinach.

In Italy they combine these blanched leaves with anchovies, garlic, capers, olives and pine kernels to make pizza di scarola – also known as peasant’s pie.

The leaves are also a key ingredient in Dandelion and Burdock ale. I have yet to try making this and apparently the smell can be pretty bad, which doesn’t sound promising.

The other alcoholic beverage the dandelion provides is wine:

Midday Dandelion Wine

·      2 qts dandelion flowers (prepared by removing as much of the green material from the flower heads as you can)

·      2 lbs 11 ozs granulated sugar

·      4 oranges

·      1 gallon water

·      Yeast and yeast nutrient

As the name suggests you need to pick the flowers at midday, so that they are fully open.

Boil your gallon of water, pour it over the flowers, cover with a cloth and leave to seep for just two days.

Pour this mixture back into your pot and bring to the boil.

Add the peelings from the 4 oranges (no white pith) and boil for 10 minutes.

Put the sugar into a pail (or jam making pot) and strain the liquid through a muslin cloth onto it.  Stir the sugar to dissolve.

Once cool add the juice of the oranges, the yeast and yeast nutrient.

Pour the mixture into a secondary fermentation vessel, fit the fermentation trap and allow it to ferment completely.

Once the wine clears rack and bottle it.

Now comes the hard bit, leave it for at least 6 months in the bottle before tasting. If you can manage it, then leave it for a year, as the taste is even better.

The golden flowers can also be used to make fritters

Come the autumn when the roots are at their fattest, they can be harvested and roasted to make dandelion coffee, which is one alternative to decaf coffee. However, as a lover of very strong, black, caffeinated, coffee, I’m afraid I cannot recommend it. Some foragers add hot chocolate to it to make it more palatable, or even mix it with some decaff coffee, but it is not the drink for me.

Dandelions are rich in vitamins A, B, C, and D, as well as containing iron, potassium and zinc. They are said to boost the immune system, fight anemia, and help prevent the development of type II diabetes. They have been used in traditional medicine to treat liver and kidney problems as well as digestive disorders. You can even use the milky liquid that comes out of the stem to treat bee stings.

One word of caution – the dandelion also has the nickname ‘Piss-a-bed’, which comes from its distinct diuretic properties…

These blogs are just intended to give you a feel for foraging, growing and making your own produce and to share my journey as I try various things.  As you know from previous blogs there are some very dangerous plants in our countryside, so please be careful out there.  There are plenty of foraging courses and you should probably do one before you go charging round the countryside with your basket picking leaves!

A Busy time for planting and sowing

Spring looks like it has finally arrived

but more importantly for us growers, the soil temperature has reached a reasonable level and we are now playing catch up to get vegetables, fruit, herbs and flowers sown or planted.

However, I am just going to sound a word of caution here. Don’t go mad and throw all your seeds into the ground, as there are still some reports of frosts coming later this week. I recommend making good use of window sills, greenhouses etc to protect seeds and seedlings; or if you prefer to sow straight into the ground, then you may want to wait a while.

If you have sown seeds in trays or pots then don’t forget to water them. It sounds obvious, but it is easy to forget and can dry out pretty quickly, especially if they are just in the little pots – I have put a reminder on my phone!

My sweet peas and marigolds are doing brilliantly. I am now putting them out during the day (if it is warm), but being sure to bring them in at night. Marigolds are fantastic companion plants and I will be planting these alongside my potatoes and squash as well as in my flower bed.

In fact when it comes to companion planting, marigolds definitely rock! They keep the soil free of bad nematodes and have rather a strong aroma which discourages harmful insects, including whitefly. You can also use the leaves to make a spray.

Take some leaves and crushed stems and add to a bucket of water, leave to stand and just stir every so often. After seven days, sieve the liquid to get rid of the plant material. I dilute the liquid with the same amount of water, mixed with some soft soap and use this to spray on my potatoes and tomatoes to try to prevent blight. There are different varieties of marigolds and the Mexican ones are not happy bed fellows for beans and brassicas.

Speaking of brassicas, most of mine were sown a couple of weeks ago and are settling in well in the new greenhouse. I open the front of this up, if is a warm day, but am sure to zip it up at night to keep them snug.

 This weekend was a very exciting one, as I managed to plant my spuds! Touch wood, that since having an allotment for the last couple of years, I have had some really good crops of potatoes that have lasted right through the winter.

My seed potatoes are from the organic gardening catalogue and I have found the Robinta, Orla and Desiree varieties to be a nice combination. I haven’t tried planting new potatoes and would welcome any feedback/suggestions on this.

I tend to order my seed potatoes in January and put them in egg boxes on a window sill to chit, before planting them from mid-March or April, depending on the weather. By the way, chitting is the process which encourages the seed potato to sprout before planting. Your seed potatoes will have a blunt end with some ‘eyes’ on it. This end should be stood up in the egg trays and the shoots will take about 6 weeks to develop.

Now digging a potato trench can sound a bit daunting, but don’t worry it does not need to be something from the Somme! You are aiming for it to be about 3 – 5inches deep (or about a spade depth). Leave about 30 cm between each row. Place the seed potatoes gently in the bottom of the trench (with the shoots pointing up), then cover them lightly with soil.  The exact spacings and timings are affected by whether your potatoes are ‘earlies’, ‘mids’ or ‘lates’.

As the shoots appear you need to earth up the soil so that the shoots are just covered and keep doing this. You will end up with a ridge about 15cm high when it comes to harvesting the potatoes. It is important to do this and to keep the potatoes covered. If they are exposed to sunlight then they will turn green and you certainly don’t want to be eating them.

The other key task achieved over the weekend was sowing my parsnips. You really want these to go in situ as they don’t like to be moved. The finer the soil, the better as this means the root can grow unchecked and therefore nice and straight! I had dug the bed a few times and finished it off by raking.

I have to confess that this is not my favourite job, as I find it rather monotonous and it is only when I look at an un-raked bed that I really see any benefit. However, there is no denying that it gives a nice fine tilth to the top which no doubt, the seeds appreciate.

I planted two seeds at around 15cm intervals, about 1.5cm deep in rows that were 30cm apart. Don’t forget to label your rows, as it is very handy for knowing where to water, before the leaves start to appear.

My carrots were sown a while ago, in a bath – but that is a story for another blog…

Second Rule of Foraging

‘Don’t pick lower than a dog’s cocked leg’

This was the mantra that went round and round in my head whilst blackberry picking last autumn. I was even starting to turn it into a song – foraging is great fun, but your mind can start to wander a little bit!

Rule number two – remembering that these are just ones I have put together and aren’t some sort of foraging bible - is really about being aware of the environment that the food you are collecting comes from. For example, if you pick blackberries from beside the road then they are going to have a rather nasty coating of exhaust fumes and roadside waste, which means they won’t taste nice or be very good for you.

Other potential hazards include farmers spraying their crops (and the hedgerows) with fertilizer and pesticides; contaminated ground water; human waste and factory pollution.

It is just about being observant: 

• If you are foraging by water and it is smelly, then you may be near a sewage outlet or industrial pollutant and should move to another area.

• Gardens and allotments are potentially excellent sites for foraging (taking vegetables from somebody’s beloved plot is undeniably stealing, not ‘foraging’) so it should definitely be yours or one belonging to a friend. However, many allotmenteers use herbicides and insecticides and you do not want to be eating food that has been sprayed. The signs to look for are a whitish deposit on the leaves, if the leaves are wilting, or someone walking around with a spray labelled herbicide or insecticide. 

• If there is a lot of evidence of dogs, then my rule is especially relevant. Of course some plants, such as nettles, aren’t higher than a cocked leg. But use your common sense and pick from behind the front row, as it is a brave dog that will go in amongst the nettles…

One of the joys of foraging is being out and about in our beautiful countryside, which means that you are likely to be away from many contaminates. However, I would advise taking time to study your foraging environment, as this is all part of the joy of reconnecting with and getting to know nature and its wildlife.

Don’t forget to always wash your foraged plants, berries, leaves etc

Gardening jobs I would have expected to have done…

… except that it is still snowing

It has been a tough start to the year for gardeners, thanks to a very wet winter and a snowy start to spring making it difficult to get outside and get the beds cleared, dug and prepared.

This late cold snap also means the soil is still very cold. I recently heard that you shouldn’t start your spring sowing/planting until you can sit comfortably (bare cheeked) on your soil. Since hearing this bit of gardening ‘wisdom’ I have been rather traumatised by the image of many of my allotment neighbours sitting on their plots with their trousers round their ankles, which would not be a pretty sight!

Anyway - pushing that image to the back of my mind - by the end of March I would usually expect to have a sown or planted a number of the crops on my allotment and to be enjoying the longer sunny days.

My chitted potatoes would definitely be in the ground, but they are still sitting on the window ledge. I would usually have started to sow carrots, parsnips and various other crops, but these are also delayed.

So what can we be doing? Well, I have covered my beds with some black fabric, not only to keep the weeds at bay, but also to try to absorb any warmth we get into the soil. The clocks have gone forward, so there are more hours of daylight (and hopefully sunshine) even if the wind chill factor is high.

I think the key thing to remember is to sow/plant by what the weather is doing, rather than just following what the seed packets say. Many of the crops that I would have expected to be underway can still be sown/planted in April or May.

However, I did spend the Easter weekend sowing seeds, including leeks, calabrese, Brussels sprouts and lettuces. These have all gone into my new purchase (pictured), as they don’t need to be indoors or in a snug greenhouse. I know that many of you will have fantastic greenhouse real-estate, but I am quite new to all of this and am rather proud of my little shelter. 

I don't sow carrots in pots or trays, as transplanting carrot seedlings wafts the smell around and the carrot flies come running, hopping, or whatever it is they do. Anyway, better to just sow them thinly where you want them.

However, I have sown courgettes, squashes, sweet peas and marigolds in pots and they are settled in on various window ledges and other surfaces around the house. I did have a slight mishap with this task - we all know that it is important to clearly label your pots/ seed trays etc with what you have sown, variety, dates etc. I must have been a little distracted as I ended up with a tray of sweat peas! Just have to hope that they don’t live up to this name…

Selling Jam and Chutneys part 2...

Trading Standards

After a successful meeting with my local Environmental Health Office, the next step in selling my own jams and chutneys was to arrange a meeting with Trading Standards.

Trading Standards cover a number of areas including age restricted products, animal health and warfare, haulage etc.  They are also responsible for food labelling, so it has been rather a busy time for them recently!

I had already done a bit of research about food labelling including looking at the Trading Standards websites, reading European legislation (life’s too short…) and speaking to a couple of people selling their own home made jams at Farmers Markets.  This all resulted in me being rather confused and overwhelmed about the whole thing. 

I think it is usually helpful to speak to someone face-to-face and arranged a meeting with an officer from my local Trading Standards.  At the moment they come out to you for free, but this may change.

I have heard some horror stories about Trading Standards, but I found them helpful, sensible and realistic.  However, this lady did note that you should always talk to your local Trading Standards as they can differ about how prescriptive they can be.

The key pieces of advice I received included:

·      If you are doing direct sales, as I am initially planning to, you need less information on the label than if you are selling via a shop or other distributor

·      If you are selling jams then you will need to show fruit content (grams per kilogram)

·      It is advisory to include a ‘Best Before’ date but it isn’t currently a legal requirement (be aware that regulations do change)

·      You should have a batch number

·      Recommended jam and pickle making kit includes a trade-approved weighing machine to check the jar size and a refractometre, which measures sugar levels including what occurs naturally in fruit.

·      They would frown on your label showing an idyllic country cottage if you live in a housing estate

·      I can put homemade on the label, but if my business takes off and I need to scale up to having an industrial unit then I won’t be able to put this on the label.

·      You need to be aware of allergens, which include nuts (obviously) and celery (who knew!)

As a result of this meeting I have now designed my labels and started working out the fruit contents in jams, jellies and onion content in chutneys (which still makes my brain hurt).

The next step will be to bite the bullet -not literally, as that would definitely count as a ‘foreign body’ in my blackberry jam! - and start selling at a community, country or farmers market.