Getting ideas for Christmas

 

I always start December with lots of ideas for making fantastic Christmas decorations, but sadly usually run out of time and energy. Our Christmas visit to RHS Harlow Carr always gives us lots of ideas for decorating our home at Christmas. Last year we thought we could easily do the twiggy Christmas trees. We saw them again on our visit  this year and thought how lovely they were.  I think we need to plan well ahead to make these.

One of the reasons for our visit to Harlow Carr this December was to see again how they do Christmas  In the greenhouse at the kitchen gardens there is always a lovely display of natural decorations. As we entered we were greeted by an amazing array of greenery, dried flower heads, oranges, pine cones, crab apples, cranberries, chillies, pumpkins and squash and some fairy lights too. It was wonderful.

I returned home bubbling with ideas for decorating my home this Christmas. I may run out of time and energy though.

Macaroon mince pies

I'd not baked for ages until last week.  There was a Mothers Union coffee morning after church, so I decided to bake some things for the cake stall. It was good to do some baking and it got me into the right frame of mind for making things for Christmas.  I made a chocolate cake and some macaroon mince pies.  These are good if you don't like too much pastry.


Macaroon Mince Pies 

Stamp 18 pastry rounds and place in 18 hole bun tin.
Mix 175gr/6oz golden caster sugar, 175gr/6oz ground almonds and 25gr/1oz flaked almonds
Stir in 3 stiffly beaten egg whites and half a teaspoon of almond essence.
Put 1 teaspoon mincemeat in each pie, top with 1 teaspoon macaroon mixture, finish with 50gr/2oz flaked almonds.
Bake in a preheated oven 180c/gas 6 for 12 to 15 minutes.

Harlow Carr--the Christmas visit

It's becoming a tradition  that we visit RHS Harlow Carr in December. We like to visit several times during the year to see the seasonal changes in the gardens. In December I like to go for several reasons, one being the peace and quiet during such a busy time of year.

The last time we went  we took the grandchildren during the  school holidays. It was very busy. This time there were  very few people there.  We enjoyed the peace and quiet.

There was a magnificent Christmas tree just outside the reception area decorated with red baubles, dried oranges, pine cones and ribbons. I loved it. Outside some trees with white bark possibly silver birch, had silver baubles hanging from their branches.

The gardening staff were very busy tidying up the borders. The gardens were still very colourful even though most flowering plants have died back now. There was plenty of green from the evergreen foliage,  golden and bronze from the dead seed heads and grasses which were still providing interest in the borders. The red and yellow stemmed dogwoods were really colourful.  I have often thought I would like a dogwood in my garden but I would only have room for one plant and when I see them at Harlow Carr, a whole border full, they are so effective that I think maybe it wouldn't work in my garden. In another part of the gardens we saw the purple berried callicarpa. I have seen this in garden centres and thought the purple was too gaudy and unnatural looking, but here it looked great, so I am considering it as an addition to my garden for autumn colour.

In the woodland area perhaps because it was winter and there was no distraction from other plants (and children) we were more aware of interesting bark colour and twisty tree trunks.  There were also the occasional Christmassy touches like some twiggy balls decorated with coloured ribbon and a big tree with huge coloured baubles hanging from its branches.

I'm wondering now whether to decorate my garden with baubles.

Ways with leeks

This year our allotment grown leeks on plot 10b have done fantastically well. We have never before been harvesting our leeks before Christmas and they are huge too! We also have more of them growing on plot 8, we should be pulling those up in the new year. I don't know why they have done so well, maybe an earlier sowing, better soil now we have a new allotment, a good source of manure, but whatever the reasons, we are really enjoying our leeks.

Leeks are one of my favourite vegetables, there are so many ways to cook and enjoy them. Sliced thinly and stir fried they go well with fish or chicken dishes. Leeks are also a good addition to vegetable soups, leek and potato soup is especially great at this time of year.

One of my favourite leek recipes is leeks and bacon in a cheese sauce:

Fry some streaky bacon pieces until crisp, then cut the leeks into chunks and fry gently until softened. Put the leeks and bacon in an ovenproof dish, add cheese sauce and top with grated cheese. Cook in the oven at gas mark 7/425F/220C until the cheese topping is bubbling and golden.

This week I made a cheese and leek flan using an old Cranks recipe. If you're as old as me you may remember the Cranks vegetarian restaurants. I have a couple of their recipe books.

Leek and cheese flan
Serves 4--6

10oz/300gr wholemeal shortcrust pastry
2 large leeks
1oz /25gr butter
large pinch cayenne 
large pinch ground nutmeg
3 eggs
3floz/75ml milk
3floz/75ml soured cream
large pinch salt
6oz/175gr cheddar cheese

Line a 9"/23cm flan tin with the pastry.
Clean and thinly slice the leeks.
Saute the leeks in melted butter until tender. Season with cayenne and nutmeg. Leave to cool.
Whisk the eggs, milk, soured cream and salt together.
Sprinkle half the cheese over the base of the flan.
Spread the leeks on top and sprinkle with the remaining cheese.
Pour the egg custard over the flan.
Bake in the oven at 200C/400F/gas mark 6 for about 30 to 40 minutes until risen and golden.

Wholemeal pastry may not be to everyone's taste, it is a bit heavy, but I'm sure that this recipe works just  as well with normal shortcrust pastry.
I used normal double cream and Lancashire cheese because that's all I had.

Do you have any good recipes for using leeks?

A cold day at the allotment

We managed a visit to the allotment at the weekend. It seems ages since we last went and I was desperate to get some tidying up done. It was a cold sunny day so we wrapped up well and took a flask of hot water to make drinks with.

 Richard went over to plot 8 to put taps on the  water butts which are connected  to the shed, whilst I worked on plot 10b. I cleared the peppers out of the polytunnel and emptied the growbag onto the soil. All the annual flowers had gone over so they got pulled up and thrown on the compost heap.

The chard just keeps on going no matter how much I cut it back. We realise now that we planted far too much even for our two families. I cut back some which looked like it was going to seed and cleared away some of the tatty leaves at the base of the stems. The stems are a deep red which makes a lovely splash of colour at this time of year.

The rhubarb has died back now so I cleared away the dead leaves and weeded the bed. It now needs a good mulch of manure.

The massive sycamore tree which hangs over the plot has shed most of its leaves now. Every time I go to the allotment I sweep up about two wheelbarrow loads of leaves. They don't go to waste though, they go in the leaf bin on plot 8.

Looking around the plot there were plenty of vegetables still doing well, brussels sprouts, purple sprouting broccoli, kale, swede, chard, fennel, parsnips, beetroot and leeks. Before we left I picked kale and purple sprouting broccoli.

There is still lots of  clearing up work to be done on plot 8, but that will have to wait for another day.

Plans and things

 At this time of year I start to ease up on the gardening and allotment work, move indoors and get busy preparing for Christmas. That means lots of cleaning, cooking, baking and shopping.  For the last two weeks we have been decorating our breakfast room--a job which is taking a lot longer to complete than we anticipated.  But with a house as old as ours you never know what will happen when you start peeling wallpaper off the walls.  And what happened was that a lot of plaster came away with it, so that meant lots of holes to fill.  But we are now nearly finished (I think, I hope).

I have been longing to get down to the allotments to do some work, because there is still much to be done before I can feel happy that all is cleared up and beds manured for the winter. And I really miss not being there.  When I pop down briefly to feed the cat or dig up some leeks I look around, making a mental note of what needs to be done. The place looks very lonely, damp and dreary--"I'll be back soon",  I promise.

Back at home I have made the Christmas cake; I have blackberry, raspberry and rhubarb gins and vodkas maturing in a dark place; in the shed there are pots of white hyacinths  waiting  to be brought out nearer to Christmas and all sorts of twigs and seed heads drying out for my wreaths and flower arrangements. I can't wait to get started on making some twiggy wreaths, I have lots of ideas bubbling away in my head.

This all sounds very organised, but it isn't. I do have plans, lots of them, whether they will happen is another matter.

Cheap shed, chic shed

For the past few weeks Richard has been building a shed on plot 8.  There were two sheds when we took the plot on. Both were very ramshackle and the first thing we did was pull them down.  At first we thought we wouldn't need a shed on the plot as we already had two on plot 10b which is only two plots away.  But as time went on we changed our minds. It became a bit tiresome to keep going backwards and forwards to our other plot to get tools or bring brew making stuff over.  I thought we could look out for a cheap secondhand shed, but my husband had other ideas. He said he could build one with some of the good wood remaining from our old shed and other wood we had around on plot 10b. He thought it would be much more substantial than a cheap bought shed.

The challenge was to spend as little money as possible on materials. It was amazing really how once he started working on the new shed we seemed to acquire things to help build it. Like the wood and exterior door from a local building company's skip--who gave him permission to take anything he wanted. Then there was the double glazed window which was just the right size, it's quite big so gives us plenty of light and a lovely view of the plot.  The interior doors which one of our allotment neighbours gave him became the sides of the shed  The front  is covered in cladding to hide these doors using wood from the old shed.

Some money still had to be spent on a small amount of wood and nails--about £50.  Other expenses were guttering for the water butts and paint for the exterior cladding, but these would have been extras if we had bought a shed.  So we consider our shed to have cost in the region of £50 and is probably a lot sturdier than any other cheap shed. How many other sheds have a double glazed window and a fire door?

The inside of the shed is a dream.  Richard built a bench along one side, again using free wood. Our hairdresser gave us an old desk which Richard adapted and made into another bench. It looks a bit strange inside with the walls made from those interior doors--doors which lead to nowhere.  But when I walk inside I am in shed heaven. It is so lovely and I have already started to arrange tools, seed trays and of course somewhere to make a brew.

Autumn clear up

Autumn is well and truly here with misty mornings, falling leaves and lots of dead looking plants.  Clearing up in the garden is a constant job as more and more plants turn into a soggy mess of dead leaves or dried up sticks. There's something about Autumn which always makes me want to have a good tidy up and it's not just the beds and  borders, but the sheds too. So the garden and allotment sheds have both been emptied, swept, cleaned and reorganised.  They now smell of Jeyes Fluid and woe betide anyone who messes them up.

At the allotment there is lots to be done.  We are gradually clearing the beds as produce comes to an end.  The broad beans and runner beans have now been cleared away, leaving the roots there as they will set nitrogen into the soil for next year's brassica crop.

In the brassica beds the cabbages have all been harvested weeks ago and I wasn't forward thinking enough to sow seeds for winter cabbage, but there are brussels sprouts, kale and purple sprouting broccoli which will keep going over the winter. There are also some swede in another bed which have done well.  This is the first time we have grown swede and I am quite pleased with them.

We had some massive bags of leaves left outside our plot for us to help ourselves to and so Richard set to work barrowing them to the new leaf bin on plot 8. There were also plenty of leaves to sweep up from the tree which overhangs plot 10b.  The leaf bin is now full to the top but will soon drop down and we will be able to keep topping it up as the leaves continue to fall. This should provide us with plenty of leaf mould next year.

This week I have harvested leeks, fennel, chard, swede, beetroot, peppers and purple sprouting broccoli. The leeks are super and there are also others which were planted later which should be ready for digging up in the new year.

Richard has top dressed the old pea and bean beds with a good layer of manure. Our next jobs are to clear other beds over on plot 8 and to manure those. Lots to keep us busy over the winter.

A clean and tidy shed

Allotment picnic

Sometimes when we have lots to do at the allotment we like to stay all day.   So we take food with us to keep us going. When our daughter and the grandchildren are there too we have a sort of bring and share lunch. Helen often brings a flask of her home made soup, usually made with allotment veg.  Last week it was spicy parsnip, another time it was pea.  I brought crusty bread, cheese and salad stuff.  I like to make a cake to munch on, a  fruit cake is good.  I have a recipe that I call allotment cake only because it's not too messy, and very wholesome. Other times I have called at the pie shop on the way or our son-in-law has bought fish and chips. Not very healthy I know but very welcome when we've been working hard.

We have  plenty of chairs to sit on and a table to spread our offerings on, even a tablecloth. And with tea or coffee to drink we have a lovely feast.

What do you take to eat at your allotment?

Gluts

This year has been fantastic for growing vegetables, everything has done so well on our two allotments.  But some things we've had just a bit too much of.  First it was the lettuce—lollo rosso and little gem. We’d planted too many thinking some would get eaten by slugs or just not survive.  But they grew and grew, we ate what we wanted, gave some away and when they went to seed we threw them on the compost heap. At least they will rot down to make something good.

Then there was the rhubarb.  We’d moved it from our old plot last autumn and it had been a fairly new plant then, so we hadn’t expected great things from it. People told us not to pull much from it the first couple of years, but there was so much, so we just took what we wanted. They also say don’t pick any after July, but it was still growing like mad during August.  So I picked even more.  I froze most of it.  It freezes well, just wash it, trim the stems, cut into short pieces and bag up. We’ve had one or two rhubarb and ginger crumbles and in the next few weeks I shall be making rhubarb and gingervodka in time for Christmas.  It’s really easy to make and is delicious, it doesn’t last long in our house.

The beetroot has gone mad too. It’s lovely in salads cooked or raw. Helen has made some beetroot chutney and we have also pickled some of it. I haven’t yet tried roasted beetroot which I’m told is really good.

The biggest glut of all on our allotments this year is runner and French beans.  Much as I love this type of bean, I may get fed up with them soon and we’re running out of freezer space.  I have given plenty away to neighbours. The runner bean variety is Czar and the seed packet says any beans not picked can be left on the plant to dry and use as butter beans.  That seems a good idea, we like butter beans in soups and casseroles. French beans can also be used in soups if they get a bit too old to pick for boiling. I made a broad bean and runner bean risotto which was really good

I have also been making soups  full of allotment vegetables, turnips, carrot, kale, cabbage, broad beans, French beans and leeks.  It’s getting to that time of year when a big hearty soup is very comforting.

What gluts have you had on your plot this year?

The horticultural show

We have a horticultural show in our town every year. You know the sort of thing, people exhibit things in a variety of classes, like fruit, veg and flowers. I'm ashamed to say that although we have lived in the town for 29 years we have never visited this show before.  My daughter decided that this was the year to go.  She wanted to enter some of our allotment vegetables, but we weren't sure what sort of standards were expected.  So we looked at the list of classes to enter and decided to just enter our chutneys this year and see what might be expected in the veg and fruit stuff so we can prepare ourselves for next year.  Mine was apple and cranberry and hers was beetroot.  I did wonder if my chutney was a bit old as I'd made it last November, but it was still tasting good, in fact I thought it had improved with keeping.  I had one jar left.

We arrived early in the morning to leave our chutneys before the judging took place.  There were two other chutneys there, we wondered if any more would arrive.  We went back in the afternoon after the judging to see how we had done. Sadly neither of our chutneys got placed, but we didn't mind, we wandered round looking at the other exhibits.  There were cakes and biscuits, we thought we could do that next year. I think my shortbread is worthy enough to be entered.  There were a lot of handicrafts on display, but we thought we would have liked to see more fruit and vegetable classes.

We admired this wonderful cabbage and onions.

There were some important people there too.

Now we know how it all works we'll be well prepared for next year's show.

Mellow

I tend to wake up quite early in the morning these days, my aching joints won't allow me to lie in bed for long. I have to get up and start moving about. I enjoy these light early mornings when I sit at the dining room window with a cup of tea and look out at the garden.

There's a lovely mellow look to the borders now which is especially so early in the morning. For a while during August  the borders seemed to lack colour--it's that gap when the early summer flowers have faded and the late summer ones haven't yet come into flower. But looking around the garden now I can see that colour seems to have come back to the garden. It's a lovely  mix  of dark pinks, yellow, bronze which combined with the faded seed heads of the earlier flowers gives the garden that autumnal look.

There's a clump of pink/lilac phlox in the top border with a white one behind called 'David'. The scent is lovely and does remind me of summer.  I rarely remember the names of plants but my son-in-law and my brother are both called David.  Last year I gave these plants a 'Chelsea chop' in May and they didn't do at all well, so I didn't bother this year and I'm pleased with the results. The sedums are in flower too now, adding to the pink theme.

In another border the rudbekias and heleniums are looking good but I think the star of the garden at the moment is the lovely bright yellow grass--Hakonechloa Aureola (I had to look that up, that's a name I definitely can't remember).

Building work in the den

Back from our holiday and the allotment was in need of some work.  We took the grandchildren, so of course I didn't get any allotment work done.  Instead we built a den and a bug house, well it was good fun.
We started the woodland den a few weeks ago and the children have some great plans for it.  The 9 year old had sorted herself out early on with her own little space.

But the seven year old needed some help so we gathered together some long twiggy branches and built a tepee under his climbing tree which Granddad has made easier to climb by fixing some wooden blocks onto the trunk.

Next we put the finishing touches to the bug hotel which we started a few weeks ago, it may need some refurbishment from time to time.

My new chalk marker pen proved a great success with the children and after selecting a few pieces of slate from our store of many things we had found on the plot, they set to work making some signs. There was the 'welcome to our den' , the health and safety notice, 'beware of the tree you cud fall out', and the invitation for insects to stay awhile in the newly built 'bug hotel, the place to bee'

Allotment flowers

We've been doing our bit for the bees at the allotment. Earlier this year my two granddaughters sowed some flowers seeds in front of the polytunnel. It was a flower mix to attract bees and butterflies.  I think we overdid the sowing or we should have thinned the seedlings out, but they grew, fighting for space. There's a lot of yellow and blue and it looks really good.  We sowed nasturtium along the edge of the rhubarb bed, calendula next to the comfrey and sunflowers along the fence.

Then there are the pots of sweet peas, the trough with osteospurnum, the lavender and the bed behind the polytunnel where I planted hardy geraniums, veronica and borage. The result has been lots of bees, they just love the flowers.  The butterflies are all cabbage white at the moment and we are trying hard to keep them off the cabbages.  They are welcome on the flowers, but not on the brassicas.

Not just green

I love to see rows of leafy green veg at the allotment, but I like to see a bit of contrasting colour too.  So this year we have been growing some different coloured vegetables.

Like purple podded peas

The peas are green inside.

Purple kale

Purple french beans

These go green once cooked.

Red salad leaves

Lollo rosso lettuce

And a splash of red from the chard stems

Are you growing any different coloured vegetables on your vegetable plot?

The great garden adventure

When the school summer holidays are here and we are looking after the grandchildren we start to think of activities which we can all enjoy together and which don't cost too much money. My thoughts always turn to RHS Harlow Carr and when I suggest a visit, the children always say YES! I'm  surprised because to me Harlow Carr is a garden and if I was to suggest going to visit a garden they would probably not want to go. But to them Harlow Carr is fun.  There are always childrens' activities during the school holidays and there are the usual fun things in the woods. Our 7 year old grandson wanted to see the new Log Ness Monster. So with a picnic, our RHS members card and our kids go free vouchers we set off.

The 'Great garden adventure' is the theme for this year's summer activities for kids at Harlow Carr, with lots of garden related activities to keep them interested.  We followed the 'Great garden explorer trail'. We had to go to different points around the garden and find out about things which were important for the planet. As always on our visits here we  went to the woodland area where the children played in the log maze and the tree house.  The giant musical instruments are good fun and we also found some willow teepee structures.  Finally we found the Log Ness Monster. It was quite a friendly monster.

Well  the day wasn't just for the kids, there were things for us to enjoy too. I love the kitchen garden, this is where I like to get ideas for our allotment. We tried to get the children interested although they just enjoyed running around most of the time.  We did manage to find some runner beans with white flowers just like our grandson is growing on the allotment, and we did a bit of squash spotting in the big squash and pumpkin bed.

At this time of year I love the big herbaceous borders, they are just amazing for their drifts of colour and if you're wondering where the country's bee population has disappeared to then I think they were all there on the flowers. The borders were buzzing. The children were impressed with the massive allium seed heads, but what they probably loved most was rolling down the grassy hill.

 

I loved the big containers in the 'gardens through time' area planted up with amaranthus.  The children were fascinated by the huge red tassel like flowers.

 I was also pleased to see quite a lot of areas planted up with annual meadow flowers to attract the bees and butterflies.

Those are some of the highlights of our visit, not forgetting  the warm sunshine, a picnic in a quiet corner of the garden and an ice cream from Betty's tea house.

Fruity

It must be a good year for fruit. I have never seen so much fruit in my garden.  Well I only grow strawberries and raspberries, but there are loads of them.  I keep thinking this will be the last good picking I have of them.  Then a day or two later I go up to the top of the garden and there they are again, waiting to be picked. Then there's the allotment-- gooseberries, blackcurrants and rhubarb.

In the kitchen there are bowls of strawberries in the fridge waiting to be eaten, trays of raspberries and blackcurrants in the freezer, and more fruit already bagged up. I'm considering buying another freezer for allotment produce.  I think though that I really need to get into jam making, that is the answer I'm sure.

Compost bins

It's funny how sometimes things which seem terribly boring to some people can make you feel really happy. This week for me it has been compost bins. Yes really!  My husband who is incredibly good at making things has made some compost bins for our allotment on plot 8.  I'm happy because, I've now got some compost bins, which is something every plot needs and they have been made for very little cost as most of the materials were lying around on both of our allotments. I'm also pleased because it has tidied up the bottom end of our plot and it's another stage in the progress of the allotment.

We now have somewhere to throw our kitchen and garden waste, although we do have bins on plot 10b and in the garden, but it seems to me that once you get into doing compost making you need more and more space for it. So I don't just have compost bins I have manure bins too because we have a supply of manure regularly dumped nearby which we can all help ourselves to. I also now have a  leaf bin and I won't have a problem filling that either.

What simple things are making you feel happy?