Monthly Archives: October 2011

Communities – are they the key to our survival?

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We’re all familiar with the term ‘Community’. Those of us who are regular users of social media are part of a global community. The Oxford dictionary definition is [mass noun] the condition of sharing or having certain attitudes and interests in common.*


We like to share, educate, chat, help and support each other. We get a buzz when people take the time to comment on our blog posts, like our facebook pages, view our youtube clips or retweet our links. It makes us feel that we are listened to, respected or just happy that we’ve found like-minded individuals to chat and chuckle with. But how can that sense of community transfer into the real world as opposed to a virtual one and help us to survive the challenging times we find ourselves in? 


As an intricately social species we receive immense pleasure from being part of a group, and studies on teenagers have shown that adolescents actively seek peer groups as investments in their future survival**. 


Aristotle once said “Without friends no one would choose to live, though he had all other goods.” 


It strikes me that in the last couple of decades many people have been so busy collecting ‘goods’ they’ve forgotten about the importance of friends – or community.  


This week Cultivate  launched a video that explains the term ‘community resilience‘ in a friendly, jargon free manner. The video encourages us to look beyond ourselves and shows us that by working together we can change our way of thinking and ultimately steer our lives so that we can survive the climatic and economic challenges that we find ourselves in.



During the past 18 months I’ve been fortunate enough to be able to work with six community gardens in the surrounding area. In two weeks time a group of us will be meeting in Dublin to establish an All Ireland Community Garden Network with the aim of linking and supporting all the gardens on the island of Ireland. Many of us have realised that with hard work, passion and commitment as individuals we can make a difference, but as a group we can do so much more.


I’ve written about the many benefits of Community gardening in previous posts – from the basic life skills of learning how to provide and preserve food through to friendships made and sense of achievement gained. However, community gardens can also be the catalyst that enables those same communities to look within themselves and begin to acknowledge that the only way to their survival is by working together. From gardening to supporting local business, to sharing knowledge, educating each other and listening to our elders, once we reach within our community we can flourish.


Communities with common goals can find considerable energy if they so desire – just look at the fundraising efforts and commitment expended when creating new sports facilities. Now imagine that same energy transferred into making a community more resilient – providing land that could be used to grow food in community supported agriculture or installing wind or solar power that could be used to run the homes and businesses within those communities.  


This change in attitude takes time and as we  are discovering, time that our planet may not give us the luxury to take.  If we don’t wake up and shake up our communities soon and figure out how we are to survive the more difficult years ahead of us, we may just find we’ve left it too late.


*Oxford Dictionary
**Source: National Geographic Magazine 2011


                                       
                                                                               Reproduced with kind permission of Ciltivate)


What’s growing in the Greenside Up garden mid October 2011?

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Perpetual spinach, rosemary, tarragon, chives and carrots

I’ve been asked a few times this week “what’re you harvesting/growing now in your veggie garden”, so on this misty, rainy late October morning out in the polytunnel having a quick tidy up, I took a few pics…


It mightn’t look like it but we are eating the spinach!  The caterpillars had a good old munch this year but once the worst of the leaves were removed, the not so holey ones have been added to stir fries, curries and accompanying stews and roasts.

Still producing courgettes!

If you’ve been following Greenside Up on Twitter or Facebook  you’ll know that our two indoor and one outdoor courgette plants have been prolific this year! Of the two plants in the polytunnel, one now has a bad dose of powdery mildew but this one is hanging on in there. There are a few recipes using courgettes on the tab above that we’ve enjoyed, the most recent being the courgette, pistachio and chocolate cake.

Strawberries and grapevine

These few strawberry plants that were moved into the tunnel during the early spring produced the sweetest berries. Sadly the magpies ate ALL the grapes!

Chilli peppers

Looking a bit holey now, we’ve had our best crop of chilli’s this year from the couple of plants grown. On advice from a community gardener once harvested they were placed on a tray and individually frozen before bagging up ~ worked a treat!

Great carrot crop!

The carrots were thinned after the picture was taken but this early crop planted a couple of months ago love to grow in the polytunnel where the soil tends to be drier. Beyond them are the winter lettuce and pak choi that were planted today. The big leaf at the front is a globe artichoke that if it survives the winter, I may regret planting inside!

Grown from a saved seed – variety ‘anyonesguessia’

Yet to grow a successful crop of squashes in the Greenside Up garden, but not one to give up this is the best to date. Next year I’m planning to grow smaller varieties.

Gardening’s not for the faint hearted – have learnt to avoid but love and admire these little critters.

Confession here in that outside has been a little neglected of late. Not that I’m a fair weather gardener, more that heading outside in the cold, rain when I’ve a couple of free hours hasn’t especially inspired me. Dry day or not, am going to have to make a date with my garden soon as a couple of beds still need clearing, manuring and covering before the winter months.

Misty and slightly neglected veg patch

I did say squashes don’t grow well here – despite lots of manuring they never reach a good size outside!

This is supposed to be a pumpkin!

The courgette plant’s the same although it did produce lots of very regular sized, healthy fruit…

Courgette and borage

I’m never disappointed by a failure in the veg garden as more can be learnt from observing it than any book can teach you. Aware that I’d planted the runner beans out too late this year (last week in June), they never really took off and most succumbed to the usual mildews before they got to a reasonable size.

Runner beans with sweet peas grown at the end of the poles to
encourage pollinating insects

Bumper crop of swedes these year the size of small footballs. Love these mashed with carrots … yum.

Swede

Still with me?? There’s more….. Note to self – sow more leeks next year! Never have enough of this lovely crop.

Leeks with dill gone to seed

We lost last year’s celery to the winter snow, another note to self ~ pick it!! Our favourite & quickest way to eat the colourful rainbow chard is to steam it and serve it as an accompanying veg.

Parsley, celery and rainbow chard

A veg patch wouldn’t be complete without the odd cabbage or two….

Cabbage plant

Okay, even I’m tiring of this now so the last picture will be of our trusty old kale. Have another bed with kale, cauliflower and cabbage and yet another full of the green manure grazing rye (sorry Mr G, can see already it’s going to be a back breaking job digging that over!).

Green and Scarlet Curly Kale

So, how’ve you got on this year in your veg patch ~ successes, failure, must do next year? Would love to hear how you’re doing.

Pumpkin Rice & Pumpkin Soup Recipes

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It’s that time of year when we’re all scooping out the flesh of our juicy pumpkins and wondering what to do with them. When supermarkets are selling large ones for just 65c we owe it to the farmers who’ve spent months growing them to at least use the flesh.


Here’s are two recipes that our family enjoyed last year taken from two favourite cook books …..




Available from Amazon

Pumpkin Rice from Caribbean Food Made Easy by Levi Roots.  We make lots of recipes from this highly recommended cookbook but this is the recipe as written by Levi….

Pumpkin Rice (serves 8-9)

550ml (just under a pint) water
400g (14oz) pumpkin flesh, deseeded and cut into small chunks
2-3 sprigs of thyme
1 tsp salt
450g (1lb) basmati rice
15g (1/2oz) butter

1. Put the water, pumpkin, 2 sprigs of thyme and salt in a saucepan.  Put on a lid.  Bring to the boil, turn down the heat and simmer, covered, for 10 minutes or until soft.  Remove the thyme and very roughly mash the pumpkin into the liquid with a potato masher.  You’re not after a smooth puree, more a rough mix.

2. Wash the rice twice to remove some of the starch, swishing it round a bowl and running cold water over it until the water is almost clear, and add it to the pumpkin mix in the saucepan.  You want the liquid to cover the rice by about 2 1/2cm (1in).  Add a little more water if necessary (or pour off some if there’s too much).  Add the butter and stir it in as it melts.  Put the lid back on the pan.  Bring to the boil and turn down to a simmer immediately.

3.  Leave to simmer gently for around 20 mins.  Do not uncover the pan to take a peek as you want to keep in the heat.  The bottom of the rice will brown a little; this is how it is meant to be.  Just make sure it is on the lowest heat.  Turn off the heat and leave for a few more minutes, or until you’re ready to eat.  Add the remaining spring of thyme and, if you want to serve it with lots of style, pack into a lightly oiled dish and turn it out in a neat mound on to a serving plate.

Available from Amazon

The second recipe we use for the flesh is a lovely Pumpkin Soup from The New Covent Garden Food Co Book of Soups

Pumpkin Soup (serves 6)

25g (1oz) butter
1 medium onion, finely chopped
200g (7oz) potatoes, peeled and chopped
900g (2lb) pumpkin, diced
250g (9oz) carrots, diced
1.2ltrs (2pints) vegetable stock
150ml (1/4pint) milk
demerara sugar to taste
finely grated nutmeg to taste
salt and freshly ground black pepper

Melt the butter and cook the onion gently for 5 minutes in a covered saucepan, without colouring.  Add the potato, 700g of the pumpkin, the carrots and the vegetable stock.  Cover, bring to the boil and simmer gently for about 20 mins until the vegetables are tender.  Cool a little, then puree in a liquidiser.  Return to a clean saucepan and stir in the milk.

Meanwhile, add the remaining pumpkin to a saucepan of boiled salted water and cook for 2 minutes.  Drain and add to the pureed soup.  Add the sugar, nutmeg and seasoning to taste.  Reheat gently.

The most effective way to serve is in a hollowed-out pumpkin.  Take a pumpkin, slice off the top quarter, scoop out the seeds, place slices of toasted baguette in the base together with grated Gruyere cheese.  Fill with the soup, put on the lid and serve at the table.










Have you any favourite pumpkin recipes?


Courgette, Pistachio & Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Fudge Topping Recipe

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Chocolate, Pistachio & Courgette Cake

The original recipe for this courgette and chocolate cake came from the BBC Good Food but feeling impatient and not having all the ingredients in the press, it’s been adapted (and worked!).

We have another birthday coming up this weekend and I needed a small second tier (by request) for the cake. We also have a fridge full of courgettes so what better way to make use of them than stick them into another cake (we already have a large pan of soup on the stove that we’re working our way through)!

Today’s cake baking was saved for school home time knowing how much the girls like to help. Today the youngest came running in the door to see what I was up to and immediately put on her apron full of delight at the prospect of helping mum … the delight was short lived and the smile quickly turned into a frown…

She spotted the courgette that was waiting to be fed to the grater in the food processor “ahh no – we’re not putting THAT in a chocolate cake!!” She loves cracking eggs and sieving flour however, so was persuaded to stay and give it a go. A few hours later when her big sister returned home she excitedly dragged her into the kitchen … “you have to try the chocolate cake – it has courgettes in and its DELICIOUS!”

She’s right, it is and here’s the recipe.

Ingredients (my version)

350g self-raising flour
50g cocoa powder
1 tsp mixed spice
175ml olive oil
375g caster sugar
3 free range eggs
a few drops of vanilla extract
1 tsp salt
500g grated courgettes
140g roasted pistachio nuts, roughly chopped

For the Icing

100g dark chocolate 70%
75ml evaporated milk
75g granulated sugar
40g butter
few drops vanilla extract

Method

Heat the oven to 180oC. Grease and line a 24cm deep cake tin.

1. Place the flour, cocoa powder, mixed spice and salt into a large bowl and combine.
2. In another bowl combine the sugar, eggs, olive oil, vanilla extract and grated courgette.
3. Mix the dry and wet mixture until almost combined then add the pistachio nuts.
4. Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and bake for approx 50 min’s (use a skewer to ensure it’s cooked)
5. Cool in the cake tin for 10 min’s before turning out onto a wire rack and cooling.

For the Icing

Put the sugar and evaporated milk into a heavy based saucepan and heat until the sugar has dissolved. Bring to the boil then simmer without stirring for 6 min’s.

Remove from the heat, add the broken up chocolate pieces and once fully incorporated, stir in the butter and vanilla extract, stirring until smooth. Pour into a bowl, cover with clingfilm and once cool place in the fridge to thicken.

Spread the chocolate fudge over the cake and enjoy!

I’ll update this in a couple of days and let you know what the children think of the surprise layer at the party! Have you any tasty sweet recipes that use vegetables?

Coconut Shell Bird Feeders

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Feeding birds in the wintertime not only helps them find food when it’s scarce, but has other benefits too, and what better way to do it than to get down & squelchy making your own bird feeders.
According to *research undertaken by the University of Exeter and Queen’s University Belfast, birds that are provided with extra food during the winter helps to ensure a more successful breeding season the following spring.

It’s also much more economical making your own fat feeders than buying them, and great fun if you don’t mind getting your hands dirty (just wear rubber gloves if you do).

So with that in mind this morning a group of twenty of us made enough feeders to keep our local bird population full for months!
So what do you need?
Lard (at room temperature)
Peanuts
Bird seed
Grated cheese
Raisins
Coconut shells, yogurt pots or small disposable cups
String
Mixing bowl
I deliberately haven’t added quantities here as we made lots (the picture shows a 2kg bag of peanuts).  However, I would estimate that one pack of lard would be enough to fill four half shells, with the other ingredients added until the mixture ‘just looks right’.
What’s next?
A friend donated some empty coconut shells, pre-cut & holes drilled (thanks Pat!) to tie the string to.  We left the coconut inside, just scoring it with a blade to give the mixture something to stick to although I’m not sure that was necessary. Then we added all the ingredients to a bowl and squished and squelched it between our fingers until everything was combined (which caused great amusement & delight!)
The mixture was then packed into the shells. Once we ran out of shells we made holes in the bottom of yogurt pots, poked & tied string through them and filled those. When they were filled we used plastic drink cups!
Once the containers were full they were placed in the fridge for an hour or more which allowed the lard to set. Once set they’re ready to hang outdoors as they are.
Have you ever made your own bird feeders and do you use any other ingredients/method?
* Source: Science Daily