Inspiration

See what you can find when you look closely enough...

We were very lucky to attend a talk by wildlife cameraman Doug Allen yesterday evening!  He shared his experiences of filming in the coldest places on earth and showed the most breathtaking footage (some of which has been seen on "Planet Earth" and similar programmes).  What an inspiration!  I am not sure that diving and filming under 12 feet of ice would be my cup of tea :-) but thanks to films and photos captured by people like Doug, those amazing secret worlds are made accessible to the rest of us. We got hold of a copy of his book "Freeze Frame" which can also be ordered on his website - simply stunning!

We have been very priviledged to have some incredible wildlife experiences in South Africa and Tanzania with expert guidance by our friend Marius of Clearly Africa but we have also seen amazing things in our own garden, just by watching the birds, frogs etc. When you truly look at the natural world around us more intently and closely, you will find astonishing things! And when you think about how everything interacts and is connected, you realise that we ourselves are just a part of the big puzzle called nature and you also realise that we have no other option than to protect our planet!  

Old fashioned food - a different perspective

After my post earlier today, I have been thinking a little more about what I wrote and feel I should add something further.  I talked about oxtail as an example of being a somewhat old fashioned cut of meat, not used by many anymore.  I guess this view is very much from a Western European perspective and therefore incomplete - in other countries and especially in less well off places, using every part of the slaughtered animal (if there is one to be slaughtered) is very much a necessity and/or a tradition.  One of the reasons why "odd" cuts of meat or certain fish are no longer eaten as regularly in the UK is the wide choice of food available to most of us at pretty much any given moment. So, what I have labelled old fashioned food may represent something very different in another part of the world.

Old fashioned food

A little while ago I came across a recipe for oxtail whilst watching Rick Stein's Spain on TV and - never having cooked this before - was intrigued by what looked like a delicious slow-cooked meal.  By chance our butcher had some oxtail in at the weekend, so we bought one and prepared it yesterday by oven cooking it over a long time on a low temperature.  It'll go in the freezer today but when we do eat it, I will post a picture.  Judging by the delicious aroma and tasty gravy, I can already say that this is going to be a winner! :-)

I love trying out new things, especially using ingredients that are probably a bit old fashioned.  Often enough they are cheaper than the more popular ones - take fish, for example: cod is probably one of the most popular (and over-fished!) choices but we had whiting the other day, courtesy of our fish monger at Swansea market and it was absolutely lovely and very reasonably priced.  Just dusted the fillets with seasoned flour, dipped in egg and then breadcrumbs and shallow fried these for a couple of minutes on each side...yummy!

Other news: I am pleased to say that I finally got my first ever garlic into the ground yesterday!  It was a beautifully sunny day and I spent some time tidying up the raised bed and then planting the cloves.  I just placed each clove (ten in total), pointy side up approximately 3cm deep into the ground, leaving about 10cm between each to allow for enough space. Fingers crossed they will turn into fat bulbs to be harvested in a few months!

Of spuds and newt scenes

Potatoes chitting...

After yesterday's trip to the garden centre I have now got the King Edward potatoes ready for chitting. They are sitting in their egg boxes on the window ledge and will hopefully develop some nice shoots. Not sure I have enough room to accommodate all of these when it comes to planting time but I'd like to try. We had a lovely crop last year but hadn't planted that many as it was our first time but since it worked so very well, we'll get as many as possible into the ground (or I should say "grow bags").

I will also have to look into the details of when to sow the tomato seeds. I am pretty sure I read in another UK blog that they had already planted theirs into pots, so maybe it's time to get a move on and start these off as well. The variety we bought is a cherry tomato one, good for growing in baskets and pots and therefore ideal for smaller areas. Again, as it is my first time growing these, I will probably begin with just a couple of plants and see how we get on.

I am terribly excited about the new growing season! :-)

And exciting news from the pond! The frogs are not the only ones in the pond meeting up with their mates: last night 8 (!!!) newts were recovered by husband - they had only made it as far as a big puddle instead of the pond. All were rehomed swiftly and hopefully will be producing offspring in due course. They are quite shy creatures and we have only spotted them on a few occasions, so it was lovely to be able to see so many of them at once.

Let the growing begin...

We spent quite a long time in my favourite garden centre (Fforest Mill Swansea) and picked out the things I'd like to grow this year. I got so excited looking at all the seed packets! :-) Luckily, I managed to restrain myself and stuck to the plan: seed potatoes, broad bean and tomato seeds, onion and garlic bulbs...oh, and another grow bag and tomato feed. I still have some lettuce seeds from last season, so I will give those a go again (lambs lettuce seems to be best here as the slugs don't seem to like it) but I think I will stay clear of carrots as I had pretty average results with those. Carrot fly got to it and I think I'll be better off using the space for something else. Maybe I can grow a few more herbs instead or courgettes or... so much for not getting carried away ;-)

I wish I could get out in the garden and sort out the raised bed and grow bags but it is raining quite heavily again and it is also a bit early for some of the seeds to go outside. So I will have to bottle my excitement and just do the planning from indoors. I can get the seeds ready to germinate, the potatoes ready for chitting and do lots of reading to find out what tips other people have.

Last year, I kept a garden diary but I think this year I will use the blog to keep track of any progress. It will be great to post photos and keep a visual diary of what is going on in the garden at the different times of the year. Here's to a year of vegetable & fruit growing success!

Chicken soup on a rainy day

More rain today which is more than can be said for other areas in the UK which are now officially in drought. Let's hope the situation eases up a bit as it really doesn't look good for crops and drinking water levels. So, we definitely mustn't grumble about the additional rainfall in these parts and instead warm our bellies with chicken-noodle soup after walking the dog. After Sunday's roast chicken dinner I made stock out of the bones etc to be used as the base of our soup. From Saturday's lasagne (also homemade) we had some pasta left which hubby cut into strips and dried - these strips were added to the soup a couple of minutes before serving. I don't know what it is about chicken soup but it is just so comforting and nourishing!

Talking of comforting & nourishing...I am thinking of what to plant in the vegetable patch this year. It's only our second season, so it's all very much an experiment. I was thinking potatoes, carrots, lettuce, onions, garlic (if it's not too late to get this in the ground), tomatoes and possibly broad beans...we'll see! It's not a big patch, so I need to plan how to use the space properly, although the potatoes will not be in the raised bed but in grow bags since we had very good results with these last year. There'll also be the blueberry bushes which will hopefully carry lots of fruit this year. I can't wait to get out there and get everything ready, the first seeds planted and to watch everything come to life.

Of frogs and scones

After a mild and sunny day yesterday, the rain returned this morning and created a huge puddle by the garden wall. The frogs seem to look at this as a perfect pond extension and are happily going about their froggy business in both.

More and more are arriving every day now - a couple had just been sitting on the edge of the pond but I was too slow with my camera and just saw them jump in. :-) The sun is coming out a bit now and several frog faces are visible.


Our afternoon treat is likely to involve homemade scones :-) It's the first time I have attempted making these and we are very happy with the result (having sampled a couple already).

Scones...

The recipe is from the brilliant Paul Hollywood, found on the BBC food website and I can definitely recommend it! I have included the link above if anyone is interested. We didn't have clotted cream to recreate a "proper" cream tea but butter & strawberry jam did nicely instead. I guess that these should be good to freeze as well, although none of this batch will make it to the freezer...

Romance is in the air...

Pear & Ginger loaf cake...

Yes, it is a day after Valentine's Day but never too late to write about romance of some kind. The frogs in our pond have been enjoying the sunshine and it looks like they are getting romantically involved. Last year we had over 30 of them meeting in our pond, so we are hoping a lot of them will be back again this year. You could hear their frog choir from the upstairs window! And I am sure a lot of baby frogs were the result. :-)

To be honest, I don't like Valentine's Day at all - it is just so commercial and feels as if it just fills the "shopping gap" between Christmas and Easter. Luckily, husband and I feel the same way about it! Should it take a special day in the year to be nice to your loved one?

On the baking front, I have been trying a new recipe - Pear & Ginger Loaf cake. Very nice, although you can't taste the pear that much.

Learning lessons...

So, after my last post I had to revisit my own observations regarding palm oil. I realised that the stuff is in many more products than I had initially thought, so I have definitely learned something.
For example, some margarine I was going to buy for baking... on the front of the package it said "contains vegetable fat" but a large proportion of that is palm oil! How are consumers supposed to make ethical choices based on that? Yes, palm oil is vegetable fat but not the kind I necessarily want in my cakes, given its environmental impact. In the end I opted for buying butter - more expensive but at least I know what's in it...for the most part, that is. It just goes to show that we sometimes have to dig even deeper to get to the information we need, the "real stuff".

The end result of my baking session was a apple & raisin crumble cake (or in German "Apfelstreuselkuchen") :-) - flour, baking powder, butter, egg, sugar, apples, raisins, cinnamon...that's pretty much it if I recall the ingredients correctly. There's a whole tray's worth of it and I have frozen a big chunk to have another day. YUM!

Real food or "Does palm oil belong in biscuits?"

Coffee walnut cake

It's still freezing here! To warm us up we have been having steaming mugs of tea and homemade coffee & walnut cake... any excuse ;-) The walnuts came from one of my mum's friends who has a nut tree in her garden and the recipe from River Cottage. It's the first time I made it and it definitely gets the thumbs up!