Saturday 18 June 2011
Sunday 12 June 2011
Mellow yellow mangetout
Well I certainly didn't have my facts straight last week. There I was saying that mangetout are yellow before they turn green. Well that's not true. There are some varieties of mangetout that are yellow and as it turns out the variety we have are yellow...they won't be turning green. They're called Golden Sweet and if I'd read the seed packet correctly I would have realised that we were in store for some lovely golden yellow mangetouts. We were patiently waiting for them to turn green but as the pods started swelling and they were still a bright yellow, I thought something was a bit odd so I dug out the seed packet and sure enough they're not going to be turning green...at all.
So yesterday before the rain set in I picked up a handful of mangetout and last night we made a delicious mangetout stir fry with some cream and tagliatelle. This recipe will be perfect when our spring onions and peas are ready as we added some shop onions and peas to it so some fresh Cowick Garden peas and spring onions will make it extra tasty. I found the recipe on the Cooks United website but tweaked it a little to incorporate the peas and onions.
Mangetout tagliatelle stir-fry
Ingredients
100g mangetout
150g peas
3 spring onions, sliced
2 tbsp olive oil
2 garlic cloves, crushed
5 tbsp single cream
250g tagliatelle
Parmesan cheese, grated
Method
1. Cook the tagliatelle in a pot of boiling water. Use fresh tagliatelle, if possible.
2. Steam the peas.
3. While the pasta and peas are cooking, stir fry the mangetout in the olive oil with the garlic, onions and cream until the mangetout are soft.
4. Add the peas and then the pasta and toss well.
5. Sprinkle with the parmesan cheeese and tuck in!
So yesterday before the rain set in I picked up a handful of mangetout and last night we made a delicious mangetout stir fry with some cream and tagliatelle. This recipe will be perfect when our spring onions and peas are ready as we added some shop onions and peas to it so some fresh Cowick Garden peas and spring onions will make it extra tasty. I found the recipe on the Cooks United website but tweaked it a little to incorporate the peas and onions.
Mangetout tagliatelle stir-fry
Ingredients
100g mangetout
150g peas
3 spring onions, sliced
2 tbsp olive oil
2 garlic cloves, crushed
5 tbsp single cream
250g tagliatelle
Parmesan cheese, grated
Method
1. Cook the tagliatelle in a pot of boiling water. Use fresh tagliatelle, if possible.
2. Steam the peas.
3. While the pasta and peas are cooking, stir fry the mangetout in the olive oil with the garlic, onions and cream until the mangetout are soft.
4. Add the peas and then the pasta and toss well.
5. Sprinkle with the parmesan cheeese and tuck in!
Sunday 5 June 2011
When the going gets tough...
Trying to write this post while watching the French men's single final and I'm not doing a very good job of multi-tasking. Nadal is precariously close to losing the first set and being a big supporter of the tall tanned Spaniard I'm biting my nails and burying my head in my hands rather than tapping away at the keyboard. Right, I'm turning away from the TV now and focussing on a battle of a different kind. Ohh...break point for Nadal, err I'll be right back.
And he's done it! He's broken Federer's serve. He may, just may, win the first set after all. As the old saying goes - 'When the going gets tough, the tough get going!' And the plants in Cowick Garden are toughing up and going for it. It hasn't been very easy for them with all the dry weather, the strong winds and all the different assortments of bugs and beasties attacking them, but they've hung in there and they're pulling through.
The first photo on the left is of one of the little chilli plants growing in a pot in the greenhouse. We had a few of them growing together in a large pot on the deck but they were a bit too crowded in there and jostling each other for space. So I separated them out and gave a few of them their own pots and they seem to be enjoying the space and the chance to spread their little roots out.
And he's won the set! Incredible. And now it looks like Federer has completely given in as he's lost six consecutive games. What a turnaround.Well I hope our plants have done a Nadal on all the bugs out there. We haven't seen many greenfly for a while now and the lovely ladybirds have been munching away greedily at all the aphids on the apple tree. There still seem to be a few slugs hanging about like stragglers around the beetroot though hopefully they'll soon realise that they're not very welcome and find another party to crash in someone else's garden.
The second photo on the left shows the parsnips rearing to go. In between the parsnips we planted some fennel which is growing very tall. Down the left hand side the marigolds have spread out in their bright orange and yellow glory. Being the unexperienced garderner that I am, I didn't realise they would spread out as much so looks like there is going to be some competition and some bullying between them and the parsnips.And along the back and side of the vegetable patch are the sweet peas. Looking forward to seeing those in bloom soon.
The peas are growing well as you can see from the third photo and we should be able to harvest a few pea pods soon. The mangetout which are growing just outside the greenhouse have beautiful purple and pink flowers and quite a few yellow mangetout pods are now appearing. I had no idea that mangetout were intially yellow. We are going to have to come up with a few intereresting recipes for mangetout because it looks like we are going to have a lot of them!
I've also added a photo of the beetroot. A few of them are growing proud but you can see some smaller ones which had most of their leaves chewed off by the nightly slug escapades. We also have some fennel growing in between the rows of beetroot. The spring onion are behind the fennel but not so easy to spot in the photo.
The next photos are of the tomato plants in the greenhouse. They have been doing well. I think they're enjoying the sumptuous soil we added in for them. We removed a lot of the soil from last year and replaced it with a whole bag of multipurpose compost mixed with soil improver, which they seem to be loving. They are growing very tall and there are even some tiny green tomato fruits on one of the plants. When the flowers start appearing that's when you need to start feeding the tomato plants fertiliser, such as Tomorite, once a week. Apparently it's not a good idea to give them the Tomorite before because then the plants focus on producing more leaves instead of flowers and fruit. We've also been picking out the side shoots so that more of the plant's energy is directed towards fruiting. Saying that, I've just spotted a side shoot in the second last photo...oops, looks like we haven't been doing such a good job.
Remember the tiny green shoots that we had poking out of the potato grow bags? Well the last photo shows how much they've shot up since the last post!
Federer is now fighting back and could possibly take the second set. Just goes to show you can't let your guard down. Just because there aren't too many beasts out there at the moment, doesn't mean they're not going to be coming back in full force, guns blazing, so just like in tennis, you have to stay focussed.
Break point now for Federer...
And he's done it! He's broken Federer's serve. He may, just may, win the first set after all. As the old saying goes - 'When the going gets tough, the tough get going!' And the plants in Cowick Garden are toughing up and going for it. It hasn't been very easy for them with all the dry weather, the strong winds and all the different assortments of bugs and beasties attacking them, but they've hung in there and they're pulling through.
The first photo on the left is of one of the little chilli plants growing in a pot in the greenhouse. We had a few of them growing together in a large pot on the deck but they were a bit too crowded in there and jostling each other for space. So I separated them out and gave a few of them their own pots and they seem to be enjoying the space and the chance to spread their little roots out.
And he's won the set! Incredible. And now it looks like Federer has completely given in as he's lost six consecutive games. What a turnaround.Well I hope our plants have done a Nadal on all the bugs out there. We haven't seen many greenfly for a while now and the lovely ladybirds have been munching away greedily at all the aphids on the apple tree. There still seem to be a few slugs hanging about like stragglers around the beetroot though hopefully they'll soon realise that they're not very welcome and find another party to crash in someone else's garden.
The second photo on the left shows the parsnips rearing to go. In between the parsnips we planted some fennel which is growing very tall. Down the left hand side the marigolds have spread out in their bright orange and yellow glory. Being the unexperienced garderner that I am, I didn't realise they would spread out as much so looks like there is going to be some competition and some bullying between them and the parsnips.And along the back and side of the vegetable patch are the sweet peas. Looking forward to seeing those in bloom soon.
The peas are growing well as you can see from the third photo and we should be able to harvest a few pea pods soon. The mangetout which are growing just outside the greenhouse have beautiful purple and pink flowers and quite a few yellow mangetout pods are now appearing. I had no idea that mangetout were intially yellow. We are going to have to come up with a few intereresting recipes for mangetout because it looks like we are going to have a lot of them!
I've also added a photo of the beetroot. A few of them are growing proud but you can see some smaller ones which had most of their leaves chewed off by the nightly slug escapades. We also have some fennel growing in between the rows of beetroot. The spring onion are behind the fennel but not so easy to spot in the photo.
The next photos are of the tomato plants in the greenhouse. They have been doing well. I think they're enjoying the sumptuous soil we added in for them. We removed a lot of the soil from last year and replaced it with a whole bag of multipurpose compost mixed with soil improver, which they seem to be loving. They are growing very tall and there are even some tiny green tomato fruits on one of the plants. When the flowers start appearing that's when you need to start feeding the tomato plants fertiliser, such as Tomorite, once a week. Apparently it's not a good idea to give them the Tomorite before because then the plants focus on producing more leaves instead of flowers and fruit. We've also been picking out the side shoots so that more of the plant's energy is directed towards fruiting. Saying that, I've just spotted a side shoot in the second last photo...oops, looks like we haven't been doing such a good job.
Remember the tiny green shoots that we had poking out of the potato grow bags? Well the last photo shows how much they've shot up since the last post!
Federer is now fighting back and could possibly take the second set. Just goes to show you can't let your guard down. Just because there aren't too many beasts out there at the moment, doesn't mean they're not going to be coming back in full force, guns blazing, so just like in tennis, you have to stay focussed.
Break point now for Federer...
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