Yes, it is the end of the tomatoes, for this year. Cold nights have taken their toll. Limp leaves hang and slowly start to mould, soft under developed fruits drop to the ground and their is an air of melancholic resignation about the plants, their stems twisted around the twines. We plucked the last ofContinue reading “Helsinki Granny’s Green Tomato Pickles”
Category Archives: Vegetables
The New Season Starts Now- 5 things to do in the garden now…
Traditionally autumn is the harvest festival, apples have been picked, the jams made and as the nights get longer and the days cooler, we gardeners may be tempted into hibernation. Yet, there is lots to do in the garden. October is time to start planing and planting for next year’s harvest. Five jobs to doContinue reading “The New Season Starts Now- 5 things to do in the garden now…”
Wild Carrot Seeds- Spice up your life!
Adventure, variety and spice. Black tomatoes, orange tomatoes, red brussels sprouts, red onions, blue french beans, just some of the variety of vegetable that we grew in the garden this year. We let two fruit develop on our white fruiting red strawberry, admired the pink flowers on another variety, it is always nice to tryContinue reading “Wild Carrot Seeds- Spice up your life!”
Kitero’s arrival and the cabbage that was loved
Amelie walked with her dad, or rather she ran ahead and he followed. Fueled by the curiosity and enthusiasm that only a young child can possess, running along the grass path and past the stone-walls she entered the vegetable patch. Calendula flowers made her exclaim, then she saw the heads of cabbage, firm pale green globesContinue reading “Kitero’s arrival and the cabbage that was loved”
I fought the root and the root won…. cooking burdock roots
The story goes, George de Mestral took his dog for a walk and then invented Velcro. The Swiss inventor took his canine for a stroll one day sometime in the 1940s and upon arriving home he noticed that his dog has in this fur the spiky seed heads of Actium minus otherwise known as Burdock.Continue reading “I fought the root and the root won…. cooking burdock roots”
Eating hogweed shoots- Heracleum sphodylium, collecting and cooking.
Hogweed, not the giant one grows in our garden, close to where the spruce trees tower and cast shade over the dwarf rhododendrons, dwarf Podocarpus and assorted conifers in what we refer to as the office garden. My view from the computer desk looks out on to this area, well part of it, the hogweedsContinue reading “Eating hogweed shoots- Heracleum sphodylium, collecting and cooking.”
Growing A Stir-fry part 2 – Chop Suey Greens
Chop suey greens are sometimes called chrysanthemum greens. They have a nice aromatic flavour, the leaves can be eaten raw or cooked. The young stems and leaves are great in a stir fry. Chop suey greens are types of Chrysanthemums, botanists have done a bit of chopping and slicing of the Chrysanthemum genus and theContinue reading “Growing A Stir-fry part 2 – Chop Suey Greens”
Ciaran The Gardener 