Nettles at the bottom of the garden

Nettle Soup

It appears we have nettles in abundance towards the

composting area. I have meddled in nettle tea, as a liquid fertiliser, but i had wanted to try out this foragers recipe for nettle soup.

It tickled my primeval fancy some years back, however, like a lot of things that tickled anything, it didn't come to fruition. Till now.

There are a number of recipes in the ether. The one i followed is simple. it is one of the recipes featured in the Guardian from a book by John Wright of the RiverCottage.net

Ingredients

GLOVES!

Half a carrier bagful of stinging nettle tops, or fresh

-looking larger leaves.

50g butter

1 large onion, finely chopped

1 litre vegetable stock

1 large potato,cut into cubes

1 large carrot, chopped

Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Method

The nettles were sifted through in batches, i was thinking of my wrists and lower arm, despite the rubber

gloves. They were then rinsed.

The butter melted in a pan on a medium heat and the onions softened for 5 mins or so.

All the other ingredients were then added and brought to a boil, then simmered for 15 mins.

The method from John Wright suggested that a "hand-held stick blender" was used create the soup-like

consistency, i used a not-a-hand-held blender. It still came out soup-like.

Result

Tasted good and felt healthy, as it looked green, therefore it looked healthy.

It was a watery soup (more spuds?)

The Test

Even the kids liked it. I do suspect though Sam would've eaten anything having been refused

several biscuit requests.

The missus reported a hint of ‘fizziness’.

We did not add anything else,however,the original recipe went on to say:

"Ladle into warmed bowls and float a teaspoonful of crème fraîche on top.

As this melts, swirl in a few drops of extra-virgin olive oil and Tabasco".

That will be for the next batch.

Two strawberry plants don't make a Wimbledon

It was the annual school gardening day, parents were invited to take part in planting potatoes, titivating borders and clearing up rockeries. All the jobs the grounds people do not do. Those kids whose parents volunteered were allowed to don wellies and join in. In the most the kids charged about, having more room in the outside areas that they were used to.

 As a reward the kids came home with a strawberry plant each. This caused us to shuffle the strawberry patch priority, we wanted to get one up and running to keep the kids engaged in the allotment.

 A section on one of the beds has been earmarked, so we set about clearing and weeding the area and it was weeded again the following day.  The majority of research i had done advised that well  rotted manure is dug into the bed beforehand. As we do not yet have any, we opted to dig a couple of bags of multi-purpose compost into the soil and think about feeding them in the future. Along with three other donated plants we now have the makings of a strawberry patch.

Where to start?

Preamble

We took the allotment on last October and dug, scavenged old carpet from skips and dug some more.
The fantastic weather towards to back end of 2011 gave us the time to dig over the whole site and get our compost system in place.
The winter and snow came and went, a lot of reading was done and plans have been drawn.

Now it's March and “full swing” looms!.

 We have lots of seeds sprouting; onions, cauliflowers, coriander, chillies and thyme, on every windowsill, whilst Bob has sorted out the peas.
Weeding has started in earnest, but as the place was overgrown we don't know the fertility of the soil. Did bed one house brassicas the season before last?. Why was a portable (camping type) loo discovered amidst the waist high weeds on bed four?. It doesn't seem to affected the soils PH. Happily, the 'loo' just held rain water. Therefore we’re going to throw a few bags of compost over all the beds, plant and see what happens.

 The kids have their patch for Lupins and Sunflowers and they will be sowing Marigolds amongst the carrots or they might just carry on with their favourite game, persecuting the worms. There are other activities a-foot to keep them interested throughout the season.

 Fruit. We have been given a damson or it could be a plum tree by our neighbour. The root went down three foot and shot off at a right angle, dam this  northern clay soil. We have a once healthy Blueberry bush in a pot in the front of the house, which, will be cloned!.

 As I have said, a lot of reading and researching has been done and I will keep you posted on the stiirrup hoe, growing onions from discarded bottoms, are the kids bored yet or do we have enough ideas to keep them on the plot, amongst others.