Category: Permaculture
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Chickweed recipes: pakora & hot dressed salad
I picked a load of chickweed (stellaria media) after I took all the pictures for this post on the 52 Week Salad Challenge. It’s a very versatile ingredient. When at its peak like this it can be easily eaten raw and is also great cooked. As the plant gets older it can get a bit…
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52 Week Salad Challenge – January pickings
Michelle over at Veg Plotting suggested on twitter the other day a challenge to grow or forage some salad every week of the year. It’s a great idea and so I’m joining in. I thought it would be fun to see what was available at this time of the year. We’ve had a very mild…
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Apple, almond & date cake recipe
This cake is so simple and stunningly satisfying. It has a crunchy top and moist inside. The flavours are pleasingly complex with spicy sweet/tart apples contrasting with rich toffee-like roasted dates. The spelt flour and almonds give the cake a substantial nutty body. It tastes great warm straight from the oven or cool later on.…
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Llyn first frosts
We woke up this morning to some hard frosts after a very clear night. The sunrise over Cardigan Bay was glorious. The red light shone in the trees and they glowed with a warmth absent form the air. Snowdon rises magestically into the clear air.
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Pizzoccheri, buckwheat pasta recipe
I just love pizzoccheri. The dish is robust & earthy in taste & feel: a true peasant meal. It’s made with buckwheat pasta which is very easy to make or you can buy dried from Italian food stockists. It’s a traditional recipe of the Valtellina in Lombardy, Northern Italy. Classically it’s made with the buckwheat…
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The Sloe Trilogy III: How to make sloe wine, vodka, jam
Fridge Jam This is the third part of the Sloe Trilogy where you use the same batch of sloes to make wine, vodka and fridge jam. This jam has the great sloe taste. I was surprised, to be honest, because I thought that the flavour transfer to the wine and vodka would mean it carried…
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The Sloe Trilogy II: How to make sloe wine, vodka, jam
This is the second part of the Sloe Trilogy where you use the same batch of sloes to make wine, vodka and fridge jam. In the first part I showed you how to make the wine, here are the instructions for the vodka. When you have strained the sloes off the wine ‘must‘ you can…
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The Sloe Trilogy I: How to make sloe wine, vodka, jam
I like making the most of a harvest. Especially when the harvest is as hard won as picking sloes. So I wanted to work out a way of getting multiple products from the same batch of produce. I don’t mean dividing the produce and making three different things, I mean using the product sequentially for…
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Fermenting Revolution 2 – Apple cider vinegar
It’s apple harvesting time. You may be wondering what else you can do with nature’s bounty after the pies, chutneys, jellies and the like. While going through Sandor Katz’s book I mentioned in Fermenting Revolution 1 I saw home made vinegars. And I’ve found that making vinegar really is very simple and the result is…