Hard at work

   

   

   

   

A new helper in the garden

  

  

  

  

Rainy days

"More and more I am coming to the conclusion that rain is a far more important consideration to a gardener than sun, and that one of the lesser advantages that a gardener gains in life is his thorough enjoyment of a rainy day." Margaret Waterfield

Though a bit of sun would be nice...

Spring planning

The clocks move forward this weekend which means one less hour in bed but it also means spring is here and it's time to get planting! The long dark gloomy months of winter are over, the garden has had its rest, the blog has had a bit of a snooze and now it's time to get digging, sowing, watering, planting and writing!

So a few of the old favourites are back -

Tomatoes (cherry and plum)
Chillies (we need to make lots and lots of chilli jam! And need to track down that magic recipe from a good friend)
Onions (not spring onions the other variety - normal onions. Nothing wrong with spring onions though)
Garlic (let's hope they grow this year)
Beetroot (an old favourite)
Radishes (something new!)
And sweetcorn (very adventurous!)

Need to think of something to plant near the trellis by the greenhouse. Last year we planted mangetout which worked well. The year before the runner beans looked very proud in that spot. This year I'm thinking perhaps cucumber or broad beans... or perhaps the cherry tomatoes might enjoy it there? We left them in pots on the deck last year but they were difficult to handle and keep stable and upright so hoisting them onto the trellis might be a good idea..

The caterpillars are already out and about. Over the weekend I discovered that our lovely ground cover plant, the periwinkle has been chewed mercilessly by some big fat green caterpillars. The periwinkle was doing so beautifully and had even flowered in January, probably due to the mild winter, and then suddenly it was viciously savaged by a few caterpillars. Might be time for the potent garlic and chilli spray again!

Happy new year!

Another year. They keep whizzing around faster and faster these years. They seemed to go much slower when I was younger. Anyway, the mild winter in the UK continues, the banana trees are still not wrapped up and the garden still looks reasonably green. I wonder if we'll get any snow this winter? At the moment it doesn't look likely...

We've just come back from a lovely holiday in Dorset and looking through our holiday snaps, I thought I'd cheat a little and upload some photos of flowers, insects and animals that we've spotted in other gardens and in the countryside over the past year, not in Cowick Garden. Here are a few...

Long overdue update

Last year September to November were among the busiest months on the blog but this year things took a very different turn and those months were among the quietest, without even a single post in both October and November! And that's not because there was nothing happening in Cowick Garden Cafe, on the contrary, we've been very busy. I must confess I let other commitments get in the way of the blog but hopefully I will make amends over the coming weeks.

There's quite a lot to update you on and quite a lot of recipes to upload too! This year was a very good year for vegetables but not such a good year for fruit. Sadly, we had very few apples this winter, not only did many of them rot on the tree, but there were also far fewer than last year to begin with. That was very disappointing. Although we did make some comforting apple crumble as well as a delicious new recipe by Nigel Slater - caramelised apples with apple ice-cream. Delicious! 

Another bit of disappointing news is that we had to say bye bye to the blackberry bush. It became infected with almost every single pest and disease that has ever visited Cowick Garden. It became the hub of pest life, where they all congregated to discuss their next plan of attack and in the process they ravaged and ransacked the poor blackberry bush. Blackberries are normally hardy plants but it didn't stand a chance against the force of all the pests in town.

We're thinking of replacing that patch where Black Berry used to live with a flowering creeper. It will be good to have some flowers near the vegetable patch to attract more bees and helpful insects. We haven't decided what plant yet but as we'll only plant it in spring there's still time to decide. If anyone knows of a good flowering creeper to plant near vegetables, please let me know.

We hardly had any nectarines this year either and very few strawberries. However, this is the first year that we've planted strawberries and apparently they always produce very little in their first year, so next year should be better.

Anyway, enough of all the bad news. Now for some good news. The tomatoes and chillies were our biggest success. We had so many! We made so many spicy pasta sauces, tomato soups, oven-roasted tomatoes, bruschettas, that at one point we had no place to store everything in our tiny fridge. The beetroots were a success too though the slugs and snails did help themselves to the leaves every night. At least not to the extent where it prevented the root from growing so we had a number of beetroots to enjoy over several weeks. The spring onions did well too and so did our parsnips. 

We only dug the parsnips out of the ground yesterday as they can stay in the soil well into the autumn, up until the first frosts apparently. Interestingly, our parsnips didn't quite resemble the neat-shaped parsnips you find in the shop. On the contrary ours looked like mutant creatures from another galaxy. Didn't stop them from tasting good though. We made some spicy parsnip soup with many of them last night and that's what's for dinner tonight!

More photos and updates coming soon. It's good to be back!

Spicy tomato soup

So we've had spicy tomato sauce and now it's time for spicy tomato soup. Basically what that means is we're not keeping up with all our chillies and tomatoes. We haven't even had time to make our celebratory beetroot and chocolate cake yet because of all the tomatoes. We're not complaining though and enjoyed a very spicy soup in our very windy garden this afternoon.

Serves 4

Ingredients

2 tbsp olive oil
1 spring onion, chopped
3 garlic cloves, crushed
1 red chilli, seeds removed and chopped* (add 2 small chillies if you're feeling brave)
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp ground cumin powder
1 tbsp tomato paste
1,5 kg fresh tomatoes, blanched and chopped
200ml vegetable stock
Basil leaves, to serve

Method

1. Heat the oil in a large saucepan over medium to low heat. Add the onion and stir until it becomes soft.
2. Add the garlic, chilli, coriander, cumin and tomato paste and stir for approximately a minute.
3. Add chopped tomatoes and bring to the boil.
4. Reduce heat to low, partially cover pot with lid and simmer for 20 minutes, stirring occassionally
5. Puree the soup in a blender.
6. Return to the pot and add a little to all of the vegetable stock depending on how thick you want the soup to be. Our tomatoes had a lot of juice in them so I didn't add much of the stock.
7. Stir slowly until hot again and add salt and pepper to taste.
8. Serve into bowls and add basil leaves.
9. Bon appetit!


*Useful tip: Remember to wash hands well after chopping the chillies. You can also rub a bit of olive oil over your hands too as that will get rid of any remaning chilli on your fingers. Don't, like me, absent-mindedly touch your face after chopping the chillies. You'll be crying into your tomato soup!