Blessington baked beans

This is how baked beans really, the original American style.
On occasion, a tin of baked beans is alright, but it cannot be confused with the real McCoy - those are just a facsimile of this American classic.

It is very adaptable, chilli can spice it up - chorizo or other dried spicy sausage can be worked in - but this is just a simple, straight forward variant that is great with a dash of Tabasco after serving.

You are using a very economical cut of meat, a few bits and pieces from the cupboard and a jar of beans - hopefully ones you've grown and dried yourself. Most people grow beans as a part of crop rotation in their kitchen gardens.
A dutch oven or heavy casserole pot are ideal for making this dish - it would have been cooked out of a chuck wagon or over a camp fire back in the day.
Potatoes have become the Irish staple in a meal, but the cultivation of beans and the curing of pork predate the spuds introduction to Ireland, so this is really looking back in a way.

There was a poem the - Chisholm Trail - from a Time life book about cowboys that I loved as a kid from which I've always remembered a few lines, about bacon and beans.

I'm up in the momin' afore daylight
And afore I sleep the moon shines bright. 

No chaps and no slicker, and it's pouring down rain,
And I swear, by God, that I'll never night-herd again. 

 

Oh, it's bacon and beans most every day
I'd as soon be a-eatin' prairie hay. 

I went to the boss to draw my roll,
He had it figured out I was nine dollars in the hole.

I'll sell my horse and I'll sell my saddle;
You can go to hell with your longhhorn cattle.

This recipe is based on one best known as Boston Baked Beans - but this is a time reduced version I threw together in Blessington - easily feeds 4 hungry hearty lads.

The Boston classic uses belly of pork - I went for a mild cure bacon.

If you are using bacon don't add salt,more than enough will come off the meat and infuse into the beans.

The meal is salt and sweet - you could almost call it an American style cassoulet -beans and pork from an oven

INGREDIENTS

450 grams dried white haricot beans, dried.

1.7 litres water

Cannellini and other dried white beans are also excellent in this.

Teaspoon Mustard powder 

2 tablespoons honey or treackle

2 tablespoons dark brown sugar

2 tablespoons tomato puree

2 cloves garlic, crushed

2 large onions, peeled and sliced

1 bay leaf

teaspoon ground Allspice

Lump of mild cure Irish bacon - like McGeoughs Coburger ham - pork belly is also great.

Pour the water into a heavy based saucepan - oven suitable if you have one.

Add the beans and bring to the boil for about 5 minutes

Remove the heat to a simmer and stir in the bay leaf, honey, tomato puree, mustard powder, garlic and onions

Put the bacon or ham into the pot and ensure it is near the bottom - covered with the beans.

Leave at a steady simmer for 45 minutes or until beans are fairly soft and bursting from their skin

After 45 minutes to an hour the liquid should be well reduced.

Lift the meat out of the pot and cut slashes into the rind. 

Smear on the brown sugar, the wetness of the rind should make it melt a fair bit - smear it well.

Sprinkle over the allspice at this stage.

Return the meat to the pot or oven dish buried into the beans but with the rind just clear of the liquid.

There should be enough liquid to just cover the beans - top up with a little water if needed.

Transfer the covered pot or oven dish to a pre-heated oven  on a moderate heat, about 120 degrees centigrade for 50 minutes.

Uncover the pot after 50 minutes and leave the dish in the oven for around another 20.

Serve very hot with a good larger, hotsauce and some crusty bread - and enjoy.

Beans and cured pork were staples in the wild west - as shown in a notorious scene in Blazing Saddles, a movie made in the worst possible taste - and one of my favorites. 

Carna cake - Caraway and Sugar Kelp

Uploaded from 58 degrees North and 1 degree East - aint technology great!!
A lovely recipe based on one in Dr. Prannie Rhattigans great book The Irish Seaweed Kitchen. 
It is a very simple cake, using dried seaweed.
If you don't collect your own seaweed I would recommend an Irish companies products - Spanish Point Sea Veg - you can buy it online.

This recipe is kind of a Madeira cake, and the combination of sugar kelp and caraway works very well.

Dr. Rhattigan uses vanilla extract, I use a bit of lemon zest, other than that the recipe is the same.

Again, it introduces seaweed into your diet, which is full of minerals, vitamins and iodine.
The only thing you need to do with the dried seaweed is soak it in warm water before chopping.
The sea veg used is sugar kelp or kombu kelp.

INGREDIENTS
2 heaped teaspoons, kelp - finely chopped (sugar kelp or kombu kelp soaked in warm water till soft)
225 grams butter - I always try to use Cuinneog butter
115 grams castor sugar
4 large eggs
340 grams plain flour, sifted
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons caraway seeds
Zest of half a lemon

METHOD
Pre-heat the oven to 180 deg C - 350 deg F or gas mark 4

Grease the sides of a 9 inch tin with a little butter and line the base with grease proof paper.

Place the butter and sugar in a bowl and cream until light and fluffy

Add the eggs one at a time and beat in well.
If the mixture shows signs of curdling, add a little flour

Stir in the baking soda, sugar kelp, caraway seeds and lemon zest
Add the flour  and mix well.

If the mix is a bit dry you can add a tablespoon or two of milk.

Put the mixture into the tin and bake for 50 minutes
After 50 minutes check the cake with a wooden skewer, you put it through the centre of the cake - it should come out clean and dry. If it does not, give it another 10 minutes in the oven.

It is gorgeous to have with black tea and lemon

Nettle and Nori Omelet

This very quick, tasty and nutritious meal is a very good way of introducing seaweed products into a diet.
The flavour is distinctive but not overly strong.
It is very easy, if you can cook an omelet, you can cook this simple but impressive meal.

If you don't have access to or want to use nettles you can substitute spinach or chard leaf.

Nori is probably the most well known Japanese seaweed, famously used to wrap sushi rolls.
Nori is made by a shredding and rack-drying process that resembles Japanese paper making.
It is the same seaweed that we would call Sleabhac in Irish  - of which we have a long tradition of eating.
Laver in Wales is the same thing - one of Wales national dishes.

Nori sheets are easily available in most health stores.

Cooking this meal could not be easier. The Japanese have special square omelet plans but you just trim to size from a normal European pan.

INGREDIENTS

• 2 eggs

• 100ml milk

• Couple of handfuls of greens 

I normally use a mix of perpetual chard leaf, spinach (beet spinach) and nettles - whatever is at hand really, pak choi leaf would be suitable.

If you are using nettles, blanch them quickly, press in a cloth or strainer to remove excess water and leave aside and keep warm, with spinach just steam or put in boiling water to cook quickly, drain, leave aside and keep warm.

• Salt and pepper to taste 

One special item that is very useful for this meal is a sushi mat, very cheap and generally available from most health stores and Asian supermarkets.

Beat the eggs with the milk and fry an omelet as normal.
Lay over a sheet of Nori - no special preparation is needed for the nori sheet - it is super simple.

Lay the greens over the sheet and spread - to about the same thickness as your omelet - and trim off excess omelet from around the Nori sheet - this really is a square meal :-)
Then using the rolling / sushi mat or a clean dishcloth roll the omelet.
Slice the roll carefully with a sharp knife and serve as a starter or a side dish.

Served with a Smoked Coley Brioche/Escabeche type recipe I'm working

 I love using flowers in cooking so chive flowers are used here.

Using nettles and seaweed, this simple dish is packed with iron, minerals and vitamins, tastes great, uses unusual ingredients and is just plain fun to make.

Sea coriander I find works brilliantly with this recipe - as an ingredient it really compliments nettles,
I also use it in nettle soup

If you are interested in cooking with seaweed I cannot recommend Dr Prannie Rhattigans book - Irish Seaweed Kitchen - which is available online, a great read - not just a great cook book. 
If you buy 2 shipping is the same as just one, and it makes a wonderful present.

I hope you try it, enjoy it and share it, if you do like the recipe please let others know about it and the blog -
Comments and critique as always welcome and appreciated please take the time to do so.

Mushroom Magic

Mushrooms are pretty essential in a lot of cooking, great with steak or stir fries, the simple mushroom omelet or a creamy pasta sauce are some of the quickest, tastiest meals one can do.
There are so many varieties now it can be a little confusing.
If you are into types other than white button there can also be the question of availability.
Mushrooms can be grown throughout the year – under cover as I do or in a cellar, cupboard, garage etc.

In the autumn/winter mushrooms can even be grown in a greenhouse, as they don't need to have light excluded.


Mushroom seed, or spawn, is fairly easy to source on ebay, particularly the more exotic types.
I picked up a pack of dry spawn for simple white button mushrooms from Dangan nursery centre in Galway.
The type is Agaricus, produced by Suttons and retails at €6.80

Finishing mushrooms can vary, i.e. some require daylight to finish off or get colour but getting any variety of them started is exactly the same across the board.

What you need to think about first is a cellulose rich substrata - or for people like me wood or wood product mixed in with manure to create a subsoil.

I used well rotted farmyard manure, then lots of wood bark and wood bits from under the log pile and straw from last years oats that had been left on top of the asparagus and strawberry plants over winter.

But any woody - papery type substance will do, shredded waste, paper toilet rolls, old books or telephone directories, old cotton clothes, hardwood sawdust or woodchips - whatever else you can think of.

Sweepings from under firewood storage gave me a good supply of materiel. A little gypsum is also good.

Mushroom yield will be highest with a carefully selected mushroom compost made from straw, horse manure. Some people have even been successful growing mushrooms on sawdust and waste paper. Mushrooms can even be grown on the compost heap, although results will be variable. A mixture of horse or poultry manure and straw is preferred by mushroom growers, although most types of manure are suitable.

Anyway, I used some fish boxes to mark out the area I plan to turn into a mushroom patch. It is under an old hedge in some shade so a lot of old woody bits slowly breaking down there already.

Once the area had been marked out for each area I dug in straw, as much wood bark and bits as I could and half a wheelbarrow of well rotted farmyard manure to a depth of about 10"/25cm.

I dug in about half the spawn from a single envelope, my hope is this will give a different cropping time as mushrooms come in flushes.

I compacted the manure as best I could just whacking it down with the back of a spade.

The rest of mushroom spawn was sprinkled over the developed area and pressed in with a rake to a depth of about 3"/5cm.

Then a few sheets of news paper are laid over the area and damped down.

A fishbox is then put over the top to exclude light. These will be painted black to improve light exclusion and increase heat absorption.

A few days after spawning thin white threads - Mycelia - will appear.
After 10-14 days remove the newspaper and put in a 'casing' layer.

That is simply about 3cm or 1.5" of clean moist garden soil or bagged compost over the top.
This is called the casing layer

When the casing layer is established keep it moist but not overly wet.
Mushrooms grow in flushes. To pick gently twist the cap and pull away from the bed gently to avoid damage to developing mushrooms.

Pick regularly, removing old or diseased mushrooms immediately.
Mushrooms can keep producing 3-6 months after spawning.

Ideal temperature is about 15 degrees C, avoid temps if possible below 10 or above 20

That time of the year again!!

Well, just on the way back from East Africa, so will be tearing into the garden during a flying visit.

I'm told the garden will feature on Garrai Glas on TG4 this year so keep an eye out for that if your interested.

Order Super Nemos to start the anti pest program for organic gardens.

Sow most kinds of vegetable seeds, as soon as conditions allow, outdoors, or sow in cell trays if a greenhouse is available.
Space out crops like lettuce so as not to get a glut.

Plan out things like leek and parsnip, get radish as a marker crop for slower growing varieties.

Weed around established herb plants to ensure they are weed-free as new growth begins.

Be sure that the ground is adequately fertile for vegetables - apply some general fertiliser at about 100 grams per square metre.

Or apply plenty of compost to part of the ground each year - but not for the carrots and and parsnip bed

Onion sets and shallots can be put in now too.

Potatoes should be planted as soon as possible, earlies and main.

Apply something like potash to fruit trees or a fruit fertilizer to improve growth and yield - but not rich compost or manure as I'm told this promotes soft growth and diseases.

Pruning of apple and pear trees and blackcurrant bushes should be completed this week because the buds will be already opening.

Free Blog Counter

Christmas Veggies, oca roast

Well, for dinner later today I lifted this years Oca from the tyre pile, and it was a very good yield, good sized tubers which will be roasted later today with the turkey.

 I'll try to get moe pics up later. Quite tired, it was a long trip home.
Also out of the ground today were carrots and parsnips.
Obviously the brussel sprouts were picked today, not a great haul having been neglected - but the plant tops also make a nice addition to the xmass greens, with some hardy kales to bulk it out.

Spuds are Mr Littles Yetholm Gypsys - the colours on the skin make them wonderful for baking.

Clifden Pony Show 2011

Got home to Connemara just in time for one of the best days of the year. The weather was fantastic and there was a great turn out this year.
For us here in Connemara, show day is a great time to catch up with people, even though you need to be careful where you step for horse manure and political candidates - equally hazardous on occasion.
Being such a widespread community its nice to be able to see so many old acquaintances who one might not have seen in a while. It's the end of the summer so everyone is more relaxed, its a great time of year.

My cousin Morgan with his entry, Morgans Pride the second.

It draws people from all over the world - and the horses are the major part of it, for the breeders and the association it is the major annual event.
The horses are the reason the show exists, and the amount of work that goes into preparing the ponies for show is immense. I got to the show early as one relative had an entry and did well, and with all the work that goes into it some year I hope he will win the overall prize.

The serious business of judging

But for me there is another highlight, the competition for crafts, home grown produce and home cooking and preserves.
The crafts section is really for kids, and in such a show with all the grown up horse trading.
Its great that this less serious but I feel equally important part of the show is there to include all ages and interests in our community.

Home grown foods prize table

I was very disappointed not to be able to enter this year as I could not find an application form online for the baking, preserves and homegrown section, and hope this can be arranged for next year.
No offence to the winner, but I really think my Tipperary Turnips could have won a red ribbon - I could have been a contender, the turnip king of Connemara.

3 table turnips, looked like Milan Purple Tops

I spoke with the chief steward and she will look into it. If the application form for 2012 goes online or is emailed to me I will make it available here by download or by link.

The home crafts section had been in decline for a few years, and there has been talk of moving out of the showground to make way for more commercial ventures - but this year with I think 80 entries, it's on the up again.
It has always been a great favorite of mine, my Grandmother who was great at knitting and crochet would meet friends and relatives there like Mrs Gibbons (who generally won) - it was a part of growing up.

To lose this part of the show would be a real loss to the ethos, the fun of the show. And of course kids would have less interest and involvement.
The show is one of the major social community events of the year, it is vital in my opinion to maintain and even expand the home crafts and produce competition - after all, not everyone owns or has an interest in horses.

In attendance was Mr. John O'Hara, President of the Irish Shows Association and a neighbour of our county in Co. Mayo who quite rightly said that to have variety in a show that is so focused is a great thing.

5 veg basket winner

There were several entries for the 5 veg selection, and this would probably be the hardest to win. There was a wide range of veg. Cabbage and beets featured in most. Great cauliflowers were there as well - and a few fennel. With the advent of pollytunnels it is obviously now easier to produce very good examples of what I would call borderlines crops like cauli's and fennel, those plants that have a tendency to bolt outdoors.

Potato winner - could have had a chance at this

I felt the potato section was a bit disappointing this year, one would like to see more notes on variety presented etc. and I think my Mr.Littles would have been an unusual and eye catching entry.
Unless I am corrected, I think I am the only person on this Island that grows them. I opened up the ridge a few days ago and the results look really promising.
Roosters, Orla, Records and Nicola also did well. Because of the late planting, the Kerr pinks still remain to be seen.

There was a great selection of onions at the show this year, all perfectly presented and tops tied off French style with twine - that's probably the trickiest entry to win in Clifden.

Jams and preserves

Then there is the jams and preserves section, this years winner was blackcurrant. There is also a section for home made marmalade, and I feel the Mrs Beetons carrot marmalade would be a nice entry for next year - and I'm posting it here so if someone beats me with one of my own recipes I can point it out ;-)

Sponge contest winners

There is also a section for home cooked sweets, cakes, apple pie, soda bread and sponges. I would not even attempt to compete against the matriarchs of Connemara when it comes to soda bread, but maybe next year I might give some of the others a go.
One thing that was a bit of a downer on the day was chickens. I have always liked chickens, and there were some for sale. But being away so much it is pointless to even consider them, even though there was poultry for sale on the day. I loitered so much looking at them I started to worry I might be told to move on by the Gardai!!
My neighbour, whose chickens get all the kitchen scraps in return for eggs, generally wins a rosette for her eggs. I wonder if it is possible to rent chickens?

Anyway, it was a great day out and if ever readers get a chance to visit, you should really try to make it down to this part of the world on this special day.

Range of jam sponge cake

Thanks for taking the time to read the blog and please feel free to comment, I appreciate the feedback - and its reassuring to know that someone reads this blog on occasion.

Super Simple Sephardic Orange Cake

I think, apart from shortbread, this may have been the first cake I ever baked. I first saw the recipe in the UK's Times back in 2005 by Jill Dupleix. I still have the cutting from the paper.

There has been a gap since my last posting, a very dear friend of mine passed away.
When I came home from the funeral, I guess I just wanted some comfort food - so this very simple and easy to follow recipe was just the ticket.
Regardless of age difference she was a great mate, and her Granddaughter is planning to become a baker.

Maeve was a great gardener, far better than I, with flowers and fruit trees in particular. I would send her tulip bulbs every year from Holland when I was living or working there.
Something that makes me both happy and sad is that on her last trip home from Hospital a few bulbs from two years ago decided to put on a show for her, and her favorites - a deep dark purple type - were in full flower, and this posting is dedicated to the fond memory of a woman who meant a great deal to a great many people.

I think she would have loved Seville where the streets are lined with beautiful pruned orange trees.
The Spanish don't really like this type of orange, Seville oranges are thick-skinned and bitter; good for marmalade-making.
The other orange, the navel, is the one eaten, sliced into salads of onions and olives or pressed into juice.
But they do use the Seville orange to make this flourless cake, suitable for those with issues with gluten.
This is one of two flourless cakes I bake, the other - Fataipanni, I will write up soon.

The cakes origins are in the Sephardic tradition. These were the Jewish diaspora in Iberia before their expulsion in the late 15th century.

This light and delicious half cake-half sponge is very easy to do and can be prepped in two simple ways.
I kind of plan to enter in in the Clifden Pony Show this year so wish me luck.

Ingredients
3 medium oranges
6 eggs, separated
200g sugar
200g ground almonds
1tsp baking powder

Method
 Place the clean, whole and unpeeled fruit in water to cover, and bring to the boil. Simmer for 1½ hours or until soft, adding more water when necessary.
Drain the oranges, cut into quarters, discard any major pips, and whiz the rest, including peel, in the food-processor, then cool.
Heat the oven to 180C/Gas 4.
Beat the egg yolks and sugar together in a large bowl until pale.
Beat in the oranges, almonds, and baking powder.
Beat the egg whites until softly peaky and fold gently into the mixture.

Pour into a 23cm /9" spring form cake tin and bake for an hour, until firm to the touch (cover with a loose sheet of foil if over-browning). Cool in the tin and dust with icing sugar to serve.

In this case I did the cake mix in two tins and filled with lime flavoured whipped cream, served with my own homegrown strawberries

Sometimes, as I did in this case, I divide the mixture into two tins and bake for about 35 minutes- that way with a whipped cream filling the cake can be served up more as a sponge cake.

Super Simple Shellfish Soups - Bisque and/or Moule Mariner.

There are a few very simple dishes that always work well.
Bisque and Moule mariner are two, and by making and freezing shellfish stock, you always have this at hand - it's simple, tasty and straight forward.

Making the shellfish stock is easy, and also gives you more value for money - and another helpful addition to the garden.

Whenever I have finished with the shells, I put them in the ash grate of a fire.
This way they toast or bake dry. I then break them up coarsely and spread them on the garden pathways. I hope that like egg shells the sharp, broken shell helps in the struggle against slugs and snails, besides, it's a form of recycling and can't do any harm.

The shellfish stock serves as a basis for two fish soups I like to do. The first is the simplest, and a classic Belgian staple - also very popular in the Zeeuws region of the Netherlands, served on the street every year outside De Mug - one of my favorite pubs in one of my favorite towns in the world.

There are several variations on Moule Mariner, but this one works for me and is pretty true to its Belgian origins but might be better described as a Mussel Bisque with more depth, using shellfish stock.
Quite often the soup in Belgium has additional kick added to it by adding a dash of Pernod, but I just add fennel bulb for that same aniseed flavour.

Perfect served with freshly made soda bread

FOR MOULE MARINER

Ingredients:
1 Kilo Mussels
750 ml Shellfish stock*. (See footnote)
3 sticks celery, finely sliced
1 bulb fennel, finely sliced
1 leek, finely sliced.
1 Onion, finely diced.
2 Cloves Garlic finely sliced.
250 ml dry white wine
Parsley to garnish
Cream

Method:
In a heavy based pot, add a knob of butter and heat until foaming.
Add the sliced veg until softened.
Add the wine and mussels, steaming the mussels for 5 minutes - or until open.
Remove the mussels and set aside, add the shellfish stock and bring to the boil.
Return the mussels to the pot and heat up.
Serve in large bowls with a dash of cream and garnish with parsley - serve with soda bread, warm and delicious.

FOR BISQUE

Bisque is just a richer version without the aniseed flavours and contains more meat in the soup.
The mushrooms add richness. Rather than the aniseed flavour of fennel, this gets a kick from cayenne pepper.
Its more a winter/autumn soup than the Moule Mariner.
You can vary it to your own taste of course, one version pictured here was served with lobster shell for decoration and sliced, raw Oca to decorate and to add a citrus style zing to it.

The Oca really works for this recipe, its tart, sharp apple/citrus flavour cuts the richness giving a very nice tang to the meal.
The other photo has cream and lardon croutons.

FOR BISQUE
Knob butter
Handful button mushrooms.
One onion, finely chopped
One leek, finely sliced
Two good stems chopped celery sticks
One chopped carrot
1 litre shellfish stock*. (See footnote)
teaspoon salt
1/2 (half) teaspoon cayenne pepper
120 ml dry white wine
225 g cooked lobster, prawn, crab or other crustacean meat
Cream

1.Melt the butter in a large saucepan over medium-low heat.
Add the mushrooms, onion, celery, and carrot. Cook and stir until tender, about 10 minutes.
Stir in the shellfish stock, and season with salt and cayenne pepper.
Bring to a boil, then simmer for 10 minutes.

2.Pour the vegetable and broth mixture into the container of a blender,
and add half the crustacean meat.
Cover, and process until smooth.

3. Return to the saucepan, and stir in the cream, white wine, and remaining crustacean meat.
Cook over low heat, stirring frequently until thickened, about 30 minutes.

SHELLFISH STOCK

Very simple and straight forward. Take any shellfish remains, crab claws, lobster, prawn etc and break up.
Cover with cold water, add some salt, pepper, bay leaves, a small onion, small carrot and some celery.
Bring to the boil, simmer for an hour and a half. Allow to cool and strain off liquid.
Shells can be put in the ash drawer of a fire, dried out, broken up and spread on garden paths or veg beds to deter snails and slugs as eggshells are.

 

Super Simple Soda bread

Soda bread, about as Irish as it gets. No messing around with yeast or waiting to rise etc.
This is a very simple, easy to follow recipe.

With blackberry jam or curd and a mug of tea, it is the flavour of Connemara.

Ingredients

450g (1lb) plain white flour, or wholemeal if you want a brown loaf.
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baxitartar
1 teaspoon bread soda or bicarbonate of soda (2 if you dont have baxitartar)
400ml (14fl oz) buttermilk

Preheat the oven to 230ºc / Gas Mark 9.

Sift all the dry ingredients into a large, wide bowl, and make a well in the centre.
Pour in the milk and mix using the fingers of one hand, stiff and oustretched like a claw, stir from the centre to the edge of the bowl in circles.
If you dont like using your hands, try a wooden spoon

The dough should be softish, but not too wet and sticky.
When it all comes together, turn out on to a well-floured work surface.

Wash and dry your hands. Pat the dough into a tidy shape and flip over gently, then pat it into a round about 4cm (1 and 1/2 inches) thick.
Gently transfer to a lightly greased and lightly floured baking tray or tin.

You can cut a deep cross into the loaf and prick the centre of each quarter to let the fairies out, or do a deeply pierced cross pattern with a fork as I do, because thats how I saw it done.
The reason that you make a cross in the top of the loaf before you bake it is to allow the heat to get through to the centre of the bread and cook the middle.

Bake for 15 minutes, then reduce the heat to 200ºc/Gas Mark 6 and bake for a further 30 minutes or until cooked. If you are in doubt tap the bottom of the bread: it should sound hollow.
Rub the surface with a knob of butter or a few tablespoons of buttermilk while warm - this softens the crust.
Cool on a wire rack.

Soda bread is best eaten on the day it is made.

For a very nice traditional fruity version add to the above recipe:
Reduce the buttermilk to 350ml (12fl oz)
1 tablespoon sugar
100g (4oz) sultanas or raisins
A couple of tablespoons of either molasis, treacle, maple syrup, honey or golden syrup
1 egg

As always, thanks for visiting, and please feel free to leave a comment

 

Expansion and coppice plans

Just watched that new RTE program on Monday - How to Create a garden. Not a patch (pardon the pun) on Garrai Glas that I finally caught up on with their website.
I have to say at least it is a gardening the How to Create a Garden is a gardening show - and fair play to the people who make it, but I found it of little use.
At first I felt was it just me, but the program got pretty badly slated on by others as well on boards.ie as you can read here. 
I think it is well meant, but in fairness it is a re-development of a patch of well cultivated land at Fota house that has been cared for over centuries, hardly typical.

I'm fairly sure the average back garden or small holding has not recieved one tenth the attention before being set over for crop's or a kitchen garden.
The use of roundup was disturbing. Why not show people how to make their own weedkiller or support a small Irish company making organic weedkiller like OWK? I feel that RTE should when possible try to promote Irish companies.
Also, there is one piece of advice I always give people when developing a new garden for veg from grass is use supernemo's - again - an Irish company but vital against cutworms and wireworms - in particular when starting a veg garden on virgin grass land like a lawn. If you don't listen to anything else I say, that's the one thing you should heed - I speak from bitter experience.

Garrai Glas seem's a lot more practical and is certainly better made, presented and interesting.

Today I spent most of my time opening up a new area of the garden. Rather than well tilled and maintained land this is what I faced into.

Thats briar, rush, heavy udergrowth, waterlogged and pine boughs. It is this area that will either be used to grow oats or spuds, depending on how things go with seaweed collection, weather ain't great at the moment.

Today it was back to basics, and it was time to get communist in the garden. With all the rock, water and pine trees a strimmer - even if I could afford one - is not really an option, very much back to basics - the heavy curran or sickle.

Not the easiest job in the world - but effective. The long briars that I pulled from the undergrowth were big, and impressive. They are also a very hardy plant that produce fruit. Because of the boggy ground, the root stock was reasonably easy to lift. This gave me the idea of using them to my benefit - a coppiced hedge over a drain.

Tomorrow I will need to put in a drain to make this new patch productive.
The drain will serve three purposes.
Firstly, obviously, to provide irrigation.
Secondly, it will be a place to grow watercress.
Thirdly, with the drain and overhang of bush I hope it will attract frogs and toads to eat slugs.
The flowers should also attract bee's and make use of otherwise lost space - that integrates into the overall plan for the garden long term.

Finally, it will provide a boundry to the veg patch, backed by the idea of a fruit producing but prickly hedge.
My plan is to put in a coppiced hedge, made up of fuscia and rosa rugosa cuttings with pine branch off-cuts and laced in the briar's I pulled from the undergrowth.

I am lucky that I live in a place with abundant roadside fruit - but as this recession bites that resource may well come under pressure and there is an increase in interest in home produced and wild food.

I am going to try my hand at coppicing them into a hedge to protect the veg patch and provide blackberries closer at hand. Using the hedge as an extra space to produce food or fruit is - in a way - another form of complimentary or companion cropping

I have the base materiels from what I pulled today to make a start. I have a lot of stripped pine branches, those pulled from the undergrowth or trimmed off have been laid on the raised bed paths, and the needles and small twigs stripped off as part of the anti-slug program.
I also intend to try and incorporate other cane type fruits like rasberries or thorny ones like gooseberry in future.

One thing for sure, before any root crops go down on a virgin grassland patch, the site will need to be dosed with supernemo's - which I anxiously await in the post.