Monthly Archives: August 2010

Late Summer ….. Elderberry Syrup Recipe

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Elderberries
(photo taken on a very sunny 31st August)

Over on the Greensideupveg facebook page Valerie asked if I had any recipes for Elderberries.

(www.facebook.com/greensideupveg)

I’ve used the flowers (to make cordial (which the children are still enjoying) and as a flavouring and setting agent in gooseberry jam), but have never used the berries so it was with interest that I started researching their use.

I was surprised to learn that the Elder tree has a very spooky reputation.  Folklore says that if you approach it after dusk you will place yourself in the mercy of witches (we’re in trouble then as there’s a tree at the entrance to our chicken run and one of the family passes it twice every evening to close the coop.).   It’s known as the witch tree, devil’s tree or Judas tree (it seems that Judas Iscariot hanged himself on one).

Folklore aside, I think it’s a very pretty tree and to me signifies that summer’s on it’s way.

So, for recipes using the berries…..

Firstly I put the question out on Twitter (www.twitter.com/Greensideupveg) and was rewarded with a few replies (thanks you)…. @pierrerigothier suggested they should be infused in milk and made into an ice cream or a creme brule or infused in cream for a pannacotta. @fenifur suggested sorbet, jelly or jam or perhaps a cake and @mykidstime thought that Dick on Masterchef made a cream dessert.  Great ideas as the only recipe that had sprung up in my head was for Elderberry Wine (eh, hem).

Next I turned to my favourite recipe book for preserving ideas - Food From Your Garden from The Reader’s Digest Association Ltd  (published 1977). 

Valerie has requested the Elderberry Syrup recipe, so taken from that book:

6lb (3kg) ripe elderberries
Sugar
1/2pt (300ml) water
6 cloves and a piece of root ginger or 2oz (50g) cinnamon and 1 level teaspoon allspice

  • Strip the elderberries from the stalks, wash them and discard any that are shrivelled.

  • Put the water and berries together in a large earthenware bowl and break up the fruits. (Do this by mashing the fruit in a bowl then heating over a pan of water until the juice runs, then mashing again.)  Strain the pulp through muslin or a jelly bag (coffee filters work too) and to each pint (600ml) of juice add 3/4lb (375g) sugar.

  • Put the sweetened mixture into a pan and simmer for 10 minutes.  During this period add either the cloves and ginger or the cinnamon and allspice.  Pour into sterilised warmed bottles and seal. 

However, I’m tempted by the Elderberry ‘Port’ but this needs specialist wine making equipment and ingredients such as pectin destroying enzyme, campden tablet and port yeast so I’ll be checking out an online brewing equipment website first for the ingredients http://www.the-online-homebrew-company.co.uk/?biy

Happy harvesting…..

Courgette (Zucchini) Fritters Recipe

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(Courgette & French Beans)

Do you have a courgette glut? 

Our giant plant inside the polytunnel is producing, on average, a courgette every two days.  Only Ian and I eat them (unless I chop them up small and add them to a Bolognaise sauce, in which case the whole family unsuspectingly eats them).

I’m therefore always on the lookout to find recipes for this lovely summer vegetable (hence the courgette cake written about in June).

Today I was checking the updates on Twitter and came across this post from www.dinnerdujour.org (@dinnerdujour).

“If you tell kids these zucchini fritters with feta and dill are pancakes instead, they’ll gobble them up”

Courgette at Goresbridge Community Garden

My attention was instantly grabbed so I checked the link and found a recipe full of ingredients that happened to be in my fridge.  I was missing the dill so substituted it for fresh basil instead, et voila, a few minutes later my pan was full of delicious tasting fritters.  It really was that quick.

Sadly my children obviously aren’t as adventurous as the girls from Dinner du Jour, but Philippa, my lunch guest and I loved them and hopefully the few that are left will be enjoyed by Ian when he arrives home this evening.

So thanks girls!  I’ll be adding that recipe to my collection.

I’m only human ….

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This morning I made plans for a day in my veg patch.  I’d spent the last two sunny days tidying up the front garden, composting, mulching and pruning which had cleared my head sufficiently to tackle all the jobs in the veg patch.

The jobs have been mounting up you see, and I’m afraid I’m slightly guilty of doing what many of us do when that happens – going into denial.  I’ll do everything else except what I’m supposed to do (hence this blog and not the tax return).

So yesterday I set up a play date for each of my children with the idea of giving myself ‘a day off’ to catch up today.

As I was mowing the lawn on Saturday I mentally clocked up the jobs:

Mulch runner beans with wilted comfrey leaves

Chop the tops off the runner beans and compost them.
Weed the runner bean bed and mulch with comfrey leaves.
Check all the brassicas for caterpillars & aphids, remove all the browning leaves and mulch.

Swedes need thinning

Thin the swedes as they’re starting to crowd as they grow.
Pot up some of the strawberry runners into compost ready for the new patch.
Sow a leguminous green manure in the empty potato beds.
Lift the onions, shallots and garlic slightly with a fork to ‘harden off’ prior to harvesting them.
Thin the carrots and weed the last outdoor bed.
Sow some seeds – summer cabbages, red russian kale, winter lettuces.

….. and that was just the outside, I’m not even going to think about the polytunnel until those have been tackled.

However, I hadn’t reckoned on the massive washing pile that seemed to appear overnight and had to be sorted and put away, or the three loads waiting to go back into the machine, so of course they took priority.

Then playdates had to be rearranged as there had been cancellations (and subsequent tears). Then I was asked to play cards (you can’t keep saying no, can you). Then the five children all wanted lunch…..

So at half past one I finally went outside and …..it was raining….. and the garden was/is covered in flying ants……..(where did they all come from)………. nooooooooooooo.

I can cope with the rain, I can put up with the ants if I have to, but a house full of unsupervised children who’ve all decamped back indoors, out of earshot, I can’t cope with.

So that’s why I’m sat back in front of the PC and none of my veg garden jobs have been started.  I’ve gone from total denial to chomping at the bit and it looks like I’ll be putting off my outdoor jobs ‘until tomorrow’.  And to cap it all the children are squabbling.  Joy.

So when my hubby comes home this evening and asks me why I didn’t do any of the jobs in the garden, I may not be responsible for my actions.

Community Gardening….. a sight to behold

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I haven’t blogged about the Community garden I’ve been working with as I’ve been posting pictures onto my facebook page (www.facebook.com/greensideupveg) and have loaded a .pdf file onto the Greenside Up web page (http://www.greensideup.ie/) for anybody interested in how we started the community garden in Goresbridge, Co Kilkenny.  James, one of the earlier gardeners also uploaded photos into Flikr of the garden in progress (also accessible from the web page).

However…….. I was there again this morning and am astounded by the lush growth of all of the fruit and veg.  I’m aware that the first year of growth can be very productive but the garden really is a sight to behold.

It’s in a sheltered spot in the middle of the village which helps, but the size and quantity of produce must be down to the quality of the ‘Hoolihan Muck’ (apologies if I’ve mis-spelt it) donated and added to the majority of the beds at the beginning of the growing season.

Our tomatoes went from this…………….

……to this in just a couple of months.  Finnusa, Valerie & Liam spent some time today thinning out and defoliating as the trusses were so heavy they were starting to snap the stems, and the fruit were in danger of not ripening.
The runner bean and nasturtium bed is lush with growth too. 
To achieve this we dug a trench about a spade deep and wide and filled it in with the ‘Hoolihan Muck’.
Runner beans are a greedy plant so planting them in a trench really helps with growth.   We’d planted the seeds into modules in the polytunnel and a week or so before they were due to go outside, prepared the trench.
Valerie harvesting runner beans 11 August
This was the result today.  This was also the first time Colette and her family had ever eaten runner beans (as you don’t tend to see them for sale in supermarkets), and they went down a treat!
We have had more success in the polytunnel too………….. the cucumbers, courgettes and peppers are producing like mad!
And the newly built herb bed was impressive too:

Picking off the leaves on the beetroot that had been infested with the Beet Leaf Miner (see previous blog) seems to have done the trick and the bed of thyme is flourishing.  We even have a bud starting to appear on the globe artichoke (which looked touch and go when it was planted).

Everything grown in this small garden has been sown from seed this year by the gardeners since March.  It went from a gardening group to a FETAC accredited course and from a group of strangers to a group of friends that have been a joy to work with.

The Rural Development Office in Goresbridge is open every morning from Monday to Friday and anyone interested can drop in to have a look during this time.

Beet Leaf Miner

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Another pesky pest, this beet leaf miner was found on the beetroot at the Community Garden a couple of weeks ago.




This is one occasion where vigilance really is the only cure as there are no home made remedies (or no approved insecticides) that will work on these little maggots.

Yes …. maggots. These little white grubs will turn into the pupae of flies. They wriggle about (or mine, as their name suggests) between the internal tissues of the leaves and if left unchecked may have two life cycles in one summer.

They are attracted to beetroot, spinach and Swiss chard so crops will be ruined once infected (yuk, who wants to eat maggots with their dinner?).

So what can you do?


If you spot the Beet Leaf Miner early on you can remove the leaves of the infected plants and destroy them. If not I’m afraid your crop will be ruined.