A Nod In The Direction Of Chelsea

No visitor to my blog can doubt that my main interest is vegetables.  I used to be a paid up member of the "if you can't eat it don't grow it" school.  The thin end of the wedge was the flowering alliums.  I mean, they are onions aren't they? Last autumn I was buying some for planting up in troughs when these "black" tulips caught my attention on the same shelf at the garden centre. Given that they like the same conditions it would be easy enough to plant them up too. Well they've stolen a march on the alliums and flowered before Chelsea!

It has been a bit of a job protecting the long stalks from the high winds!

The alliums aren't so far behind:

While on the subject of eating I'm including my latest bread experiment: soft pretzels:

Pretzel or Peace 

 And just in case you think that was a one off here's the rest of the batch:

Pretzel Motley Crew

The characteristic crust colour of pretzels comes from dipping in an alkaline solution called "lye",  but  as this is an industrial strength solution unobtainable to home consumers I've used a bicarbonate of soda solution instead. The results aren't quite as satisfactory. Even so they they were very popular and soon disappeared.

Carrot Temple

Carrot Net

I've just been rained off the allotment so I thought I would take the opportunity to share my latest acquisition: a whacking great carrot net.  The supporting frame is made up from cannibalised "Malk In Greenhouse" parts.  (Although the zips break,  plastic sheeting rips and the design is unstable, the metal rods and plastic corner joints are good Meccano material).  Bricks, once again, prove to be the gardeners flexible friend!  Organic carrots are our most frequent grocery purchase, so I am determined to grow more of them as home grown organic is another step up again.

In the foreground you might just be able to see tiny parsnip plants.  These have been grown in cardboard tubes (yes, toilet rolls) at home to allow enough depth and seem happy to be planted out, hopefully before the roots noticed that they ran out of space and decided to fork in protest.  We shall see.  But they look happy a week on.  The autumn planted alliums are in the background and are putting on  a spring spurt.

Now if only it would stop raining...

Chelsea Result

Today I achieved one of my baking ambitions:

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 I baked Chelsea Buns for the first time.  The recipe was from Dan Lepard. He is good with sweet things - and these are sweet and lemony.

One reason for trying this was a recent acquisition: a Scottish Scraper.Perfect for slicing up rolled up dough:

As you cans see from the following there was a good rise:

Another thing a Scottish Scraper is good for is slicing off strips of dough to be stretched and rolled in seeds to make breadsticks.  These have proved very popular.

On reflection the new piece of kit will be called a "chibber".

Brown is a Colour Too!

Here's the current state of play at the allotment:

The view from the end

Reverse view of potato patch

Alliums,  Other Roots and Brassica patches at the ready

Legumes/Others with Fruit Cage Beyond

Fruit Cage - reverse view.  Black is a colour too - now that's stretching it!

Dear reader, you may be a little underwhelmed by this post as the pictures consist almost entirely of  swathes(?) of earth with little of interest (aside from a busy allium patch and some emerging clumps of rhubarb).  The reason for this public display of monotonous cultivation is down to the fact that allotment tenants of City of Edinburgh Council are experiencing unprecedented scrutiny by way of inspection - at two weekly intervals.  Reference has been made to a tendentious 70% cultivation rule, third strike and you are out rule,  and photographic evidence too!  In the light of this worrisome state of affairs imposed by our betters (that’s our local allotment association FEDAGA in collusion with City of Edinburgh Council) it’s time for me to produce some photographic evidence of my own. You never know when you might need it. I currently meet the fastidious standards, and I thought I better record this fact!  My rent is  up to date – but this is no longer enough for the landlord -  horticultural excellence is now a contractual requirement if you want to rent an Edinburgh Allotment!   I don’t know of any other group in society subject to such overbearing strictures from their landlords. 

If you are a member of an allotment association make sure they look after your interest, not that of the Council.

Six of the Best - Schoolboy Errors

This year the growing season has been delayed but already I have a catalogue of schoolboy errors:

1. Forgetting that I had planted jerusalem artechokes in early March I dug several of them up in mid April while preparing the ground for the other roots. I only remembered where I had planted them when I spotted one and thought: "That's a funny stone!"  I should have left clear markers when I planted them.



2.Sowing autumn sowings and then changing the rotational planting scheme - I now have a tent of turnip rooted chervil where I want to grow potatoes.  My expanded soft fruit cage has pushed my rotation further on than I had anticipated. I might just dig them over as despite meeting the requirement to sow the seeds before winter frosts,  they haven't appeared yet and they require netting to keep the root fly off. Sometimes it dawns on me that some crops are not popular on allotments for a reason.

Marooned chervil net

3. Sowing sweetcorn in modules - they need root space. Instead of  a slow delayed germination they took off like rockets in no time.

Sweetcorn

4.Sowing sweetcorn indoors too early - they need warmth  - and open ground. Maybe it will warm up soon.

5.Digging manure into the planned carrot patch - no excuse, it would fork the roots so I will have to  sow them elsewhere. I did remember mid way through, so will be able to adjust my planting scheme without upsetting the rotation.

6.Expecting the cutworm to leave the broad bean shoots alone - how dumb is that! I guess I will just have to plant three times as many as I need to allow for the decimation. That's unless you know of an approved organic way of eradicating them. Today I have sown direct to plug the gaps.

Spot the broad bean!

As my school reports invariably said: "Could do better"

Spring Blows In

Any recent reader could be forgiven for thinking I had abandoned the allotment but I can assure you I have not. It's just that everything has been in suspended animation this spring.  Until yesterday when these appeared:

and these:

Blame the weather, and it's bad habit of being non co-operative at weekends. Now the weather seems to have turned... and at a weekend! We've gone from cold to warm, wet and windy.  Last night my sleep was disturbed by the arrival of gusts of wind, each seemingly stronger than the previous. Empty pots rolled around outside the window and half full compost sacks crackled.  Also crackling was the plastic cover on the "growhouse".  Had I anchored down it down well enough???  I am still scarred by the occasion, a few years ago now, when the wind toppled the whole thing over and I lost the lot.



As you will gather I have been sowing things in recent weeks.  The problem has been the available indoor space has been exhausted and this problem escalates when seedlings are potted on. It becomes a question of what is to be risked by moving pots outdoors where the night time temperatures, up until very recently, have been hardly above zero. I haven't lost anything yet, but it's 'early days'.

Tomatoes, Parsley and Basil

Taking stock, I've sown the following at home:

Basil
Parsley
Broad Beans
Celeriac
Onions seed
Onions sets
Sweetcorn
Cucumber
Courgette
Leeks X2
Artechoke
Lettuce mixed
Brassicas - a wide variety in a raise bed with fleece
Carrot Early Nante - raised bed and protection.

And at the plot:

Jerusalem Artechoke
Early potatoes
Broad Beans (transplanted from modules)

on top of autumn sowings of Turnip Rooted Chervil, Garlic, Onion sets, Shallots.  I've added to the perenial soft fruit by planting out raspberries and Marshmello strawberries to add to the rhubarb and blueberries.

It's been a long time coming but maybe spring is here!

Growhouse still standing

Rhubarb emerging

Hooray for Hollywood

I've been waiting for the episode devoted to sourdough before making any comments about Paul Hollywood's Bread TV programme (currently available on iPlayer).

Sourdough a la Hollywood

  Riders first of all - I've been a bread nut for many years and already have bread heroes in Joe Ortiz (The Village Baker) and Floss Dworkin (Bake Your Own Bread - And Feel Healthier) so Hollywood doesn't have to convert me - but I hope he is going to spearhead a new wave of enthusiasm in the UK for home baked bread.

Crumb Shot

Seeing last Monday night's programme for a second time on iPlayer I found the treatment just a little over the top for my taste, but maybe that's what is required to grab the attention of the reticent potential home bread baker.  Pumping music, slow motion kneading, the addition of whole extraneous buffets for me detract from the information value of the programme -  Someone labelled the new glossy bread books "bread porn" -  it seems the idea wasn't wasted on the producers of this programme!    The two handed boule kneading and the manual mixing verged on the obscene. Aside from this subliminal distraction I was a little disappointed that some essential details - like the quantity of water required for the first basic sourdough recipe were missing. In fact you need to adjust this to suit your kitchen but a rough idea of the starting point would help the enthusiastic novice get off the ground.

Risen Dough in Banneton

 The strongest aspects were first of all the sheer enthusiasm, secondly the exploration of the bread repertoire, and thirdly the visits to specialist bakers like the one in Hackney, and the Lithuanian one too. I scan for those tips and shortcuts, and suggestions. Twiddling the bagels to expand them and adding bicarb to the water they are boiled in are both techniques I will experiment with next time I make bagels.

Ready to Bake

I've got most the pieces of apparatus he uses - bannetons, a  lame, baking stone - but the dough docker roller was a novelty - one that has since sold out on Amazon.

Dough turned out

As you can see from the photos, I went back to basics and made a straight white sourdough for the first time in ages. PH does tend to stick to white flour in his recipes - a bit of a shame in my book. Rye and wholemeal flours nearly always feature in my breads.  I used to run a white sourdough starter and a rye one, but ditched the white one.  (One result of this is that my white sourdough was made with a white refreshed rye starter).

But away from any hint of carping PH is best when he visits other traditions. It seems he has spent some time living in Cyprus and the Greek and Turkish influences are fascinating. Now I think about it this might have been in the the Great British Bake Off Masterclass programme, but his Cypriot Easter bread Tsoureki was a revelation. Very similar to Challah he advised that for Cypriot authenticity you need to add some 'mahaleb' and some 'mastic' to the dough. So far I've only found the former, but boy what a fantastic addition it is (its made of ground cherry stones) and a small amount adds a magic quality to bread. The mastic turns out to be the resinous beads that weep from the Schinos tree Pistacia lentiscus  on the Greek island of Chios. Hence the product name 'Tears of Chios'.  Historically the penalty for stealing it was death, so I guess you could call   it an early enforced PDO! It's not cheap but you won't be surprised if I tell you I've ordered some over the net!

Another Middle Eastern treat from an earlier episode is Maneesh. A flatbread covered with Zataar spice/seed mix. Note that, although not mentioned by PH, bitter 'sumac' is an essential element of any Zataar (along with cumin oregano sesame seeds and thyme). My copycat effort turned out really well and was soon demolished.

Maneesh after Hollywood

Getting to the final credits, I laugh when I read  "Original Music by ..."  The tunes are poor derivatives of sixties classics.  Green Onions/ Cherie Babe/ Hold On.  All that's missing is Wild Thing!  The sountrack drives me crazy!

So all in all Hollywood gets 8/10 from me.