When I was first offered a fish cock in Kuopio, the capital of the eastern Finnish province of Savo, I did not know how to respond. One does not wish to be rude and impolite to the natives, but the prospect did not sound too promising. The look on my face must have betrayed myContinue reading “Blackberry cock – An Irish twist of an east Finnish classic”
Category Archives: food
Foraged Food Indian Style – Creamy Buttered Nettle Panir
When I mention foraging to people, one of the first remarks made is often in relation to nettle soup… It seems that it is probably the best known foraged food, and while nettle soup can be tasty and delicious, it is a pity to limit the experience of harvesting wild food to the same oldContinue reading “Foraged Food Indian Style – Creamy Buttered Nettle Panir”
Back in Blog… still foraging, still cooking, still gardening…
Oh how time has flown… it has been quite a while since I last posted a blog on this site. Its not that I have lost interest in gardening, foraging and cooking, I still vey much have a passion for blooms and food. Over the last months I have been taking my foraging activities toContinue reading “Back in Blog… still foraging, still cooking, still gardening…”
Winter beauty smells so good – Winter Flowering Shrubs
Sweetness and spice… inhale! Ah yes… sniffing the delicious scent of witch hazel flowers is good for the soul. The fuzzy yellow flowers, or orange or red, depending on the cultivar, are borne with delicacy along barren stems as the darkest days start to stretch towards a brighter spring.The sweet spicy scent of Hamamelis xContinue reading “Winter beauty smells so good – Winter Flowering Shrubs”
Gotcha Oca! Oxalis tuberosa – A new root crop with a future?
I first grew Oxalis tuberosa about fifteen years ago. I received the seed from a seed list, it was listed as an alpine plant from South America. I grew it in a well drained compost, lean, without much fertilizer and it eventually produced an attractive yellow flower. It was quite nice. Last year I wasContinue reading “Gotcha Oca! Oxalis tuberosa – A new root crop with a future?”
The First Weeds Are The First Harvest- Chickweed Soup Recipe
Happy New Year! the weather here in the west of Ireland has been unusually mild, which is great in some respects; I can look forward to inhaling the sweet fragrance of Daphne bholua flowers in the next few days, the gorse bushes are about to flower and I can soon enjoy some sweet gorse flowerContinue reading “The First Weeds Are The First Harvest- Chickweed Soup Recipe”
Deck the halls with boughs of Holly – Christmas Wreath Workshop
Not just holly! Laurel, redwood, ferns, hawthorn, spruce, cotton lavender, ivy, heather, artichokes, alder, willow, spruce and many, many more. Take a sprig of laurel, no ordinary laurel, Otto Luyken’s low growing one. Add a spray of a bronze leaved conifer wearing its winter clothes, darkened from summer green, Microbiota decussata from Vladivostok. A spruceContinue reading “Deck the halls with boughs of Holly – Christmas Wreath Workshop”
Ciaran The Gardener 