Broccoli and Stilton Soup

I was in my local supermarket earlier and I picked up 2 heads of organic broccoli reduced to only £0.03 each!!  …. you know what it’s like, your head starts going through possible yummy recipes… my head was telling me soup! 😉    I nipped round to the cheese counter and picked up a bit of stilton.

|This recipe should serve six.

Ingredients:

• 50g / 2oz butter
• 1 Onion, finely chopped
• 1 Garlic Clove, crushed
• 2 large heads of Broccoli
• 2-3 oz of Stilton Cheese or adjust depending on your preference
• Freshly ground black pepper and sea salt
• 1-1.5 litres boiling water and a stock cube

Method :

• Heat the Butter in a large pan, add the onion and garlic and leave to cook on a low-med heat for 8 mins until they become soft and clear
• Whilst the onion and garlic are softening, chop the broccoli as finely as possible.   Add the chopped broccoli to the onions and pour in 1 litre of boiling water an a stock cube and bring back to the boil, reduce the heat and simmer for 20 minutes.
• When the broccoli is tender, add the stilton cheese.   Whizz the soup well in a liquidiser to give it a really smooth texture.
• Check and adjust the seasoning and reheat if necessary.

Tomatoes and the HUGE Potato

Well… I decided to clear out the greenhouse at the weekend and give it a good old scrub out.

We picked the last of the tomatoes, including the green ones…. they look fab in the dish together, the colours are so vibrant.. I would really like to make some tomato and chilli relish, so if anyone out their has a tried and tested recipe that they would like to share, i’d love toi hear from you

Next I dug some potatoes from the 3rd bed for our dinner… and look what I dug up…. the organic Lady Balfour variety that I got reduced to 50p at the local garden centre turned up trumps…. with this whopper

I took it into my workshop to measure it … it was a whopping 6inches long and weighed in at 1lb 12.1 oz!!!

The Edible Garden..

I have spent a fair bit of time out in the garden today, mowing, strimming harvesting, hanging out numerous loads of washing, taking loads of pictures and generally just keeping busy and the garden tidy.

Here are some of the pictures taken from around the garden today : –

First of all we have the rogue sunflower, this beautiful big flower is the result of a seed falling out of the bird feeder and managing to land in a big flower pot, survive all winter and then germinate to produce this : -)

Next up is the final harvest of Peas for this year, we had these with our tea tonight, nothing went to waste as the chickens and rabbits got the remainder of the plants that I cleared from the garden…. theyre all stuffed full with pea leaves and stalks now 😉

Then I harvested some broad beans, this is the first year I have grown them and I love them, they will be back on the planting agenda for next year!   Still have one more harvest left then I will clear the area.

I found 1 solitary onion that had been left in from last year, I actually thought it was garlic, that was until I lifted it out of the ground, I accidentally pierced it a wee bit, so i’ll use it this week… Once I washed all the muck off it I hung it up to dry on the washing line 🙂

Can you spy the springer spaniels tail in the picture lol…. he managed to get in the act all the time!

Finally we dug up some potatoes… some of them were absolutely HUGE… and a couple of them were stinking and rotten for some reason, so we will be lifting the rest of them this week and having spuds for tea all week 🙂

Peas and Broad Beans

Picked some more broad beans and peas from the garden for this evenings dinner.. I reckon there will probably be enough left in the garden for another two more harvests.

This is the first year I have grown broad beans and i’ll definately plant more next year.

Picked our first tomatoes today

I have no idea what type these tomatoes are, I got the plants from my mother in law, and I think she mentioned that they were Sungold, but they came out a different shape from what I was expecting, I grew sungold last year and they were round lol.

Tomatoes & Peppers

Just a small update from the greenhouse this afternoon…

The tomatoes are looking really really good and wont be too long before they are ripe and ready to be harvested.

The peppers are looking fantastic too… plenty of flowers and a few fruits forming, I have another 5 plants just like this one so we’re going to have loads of peppers 🙂

Potatoes are Flowering

Wandering around the garden this afternoon I noticed that out potato plants are flowering…

Arn’t they just the the most delicate and pretty white flowers?

Homemade treats for dogs and cats

Homemade treats for dogs and cats 

Taken from the book “The Natural Way for Dogs and Cats” by Midi Fairgrieve – isbn 0-85207-344-5 

2 tablespoons bran/bran flakes (eh wheat, oat or rye) 
2 cups wholemeal flour (eg wheat, rice, rye etc) 
1 heaped tablespoon brewer’s yeast (if no yeast allergy), or crushed vitamin B complex tablets 
1 cup wheat germ 
2 teaspoons blackstrap molasses (1 teaspoon for cats) 
1 tablespoon vegetable oil 
30g butter (cats) 
1 teaspoon fish-liver oil (cats) 
water 

Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl and add enough water to make a firm dough.   Shape the dough into small, flat biscuit shapes and bake in a moderate oven for about half a hour until dry and hard. 

The biscuits will keep for at least a week if stored in a cool, dry, airtight container.   All of the above ingredients can be bought in health food stores.   (Substitute wheat bran and wheat flour for an alternative grain if you suspect an allergy to wheat). 

These make a really healthy biscuit and are also a fun treat for children to make for their pets.

International Kidney (Salad)

A superb very waxy, new/salad variety introduced in 1879 and one of the oldest varieties still in commercial production, particularly in the channel islands. Smooth skinned, with creamy white, waxy flesh and superb flavour. The most important crop on Jersey produced and sold as the world famous ‘Jersey Royal’.

Plant : April/May

Harvest : July/August

Cost : £0.50 for 12 Tubers (at reduced counter in local garden centre)

Planted : Sunday 26th April 2009

Vale’s Everest Potato (Maincrop)

A new part coloured potato from Scotland, Vales Everest has a highish dry matter content and makes excellent chips and bakes well too. As a maincrop it’s ready from Setpember and stores well into the winter. Gives excellent crops of large oval tubers. A Maincrop variety. Skin Colour – White. Flesh Colour – Cream. Uses – steam, mash, chips, saute, baked and roast.

Tuber characteristics Smoothness of skin   Smooth Shape of tuber   Short – oval Depth of eyes   Shallow – medium Colour of skin   Red parti-coloured Colour of flesh   Cream

Botanical description Maturity   Maincrop Height of plants   Tall Frequency of berries   Few Colour of flower   White Colour of base of lightsprout   Pink

 

Plant : April / May

Harvest : August/September

Cost : £0.50 for 12 Tubers (at reduced counter in local garden centre)

Planted Sunday 26th April 2009