INDOORS 38

As you can see, the garlic was still drying on the kitchen floor when i took this photo. Thankfully, it is finally cleared and my kitchen floor is now basically free of crops, as I write my post! Below, is the shot of how I began to start plaiting the garlic, ready to hang.

As you can see, I am a novice and it is a total mess - not at all neat like it is supposed to be - BUT - it does the same job!

Next, an update on my geraniums. As you can see, the two cuttings I took that my late father threw to the ground saying they were useless are thriving - and these are after 2-3 cuttings have been removed from them! Below, my latest two cuttings, after transplanting some more 'pieces' into the garden.

Yes, the first batch of garlic was plaited and hung...on the hook I usually use to hang a wet coat on - so it drips on gloss/tile rather than matt/carpet while drying. It really does look a messy braid, but...

This is the rest of it - alas, just as untidy. This hangs over the kitchen worktable, where an empty pot plant holding basket -also in shot - formerly hung. If you think that is messy - take a look at my windowsill, though.

I now have onions, shallots, and broad beans drying there. Little pieces of onion stalk fly into the kitchen, but I have to open the windows when I am at home for fresh air is something I adore.

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Here are the garlic after 1-2 days drying. It is going to take around 1-2 weeks for the greenness to disappear, even though I bent the stems. Meanwhile, the goose berry and ginger jam was hopefully ready, so poured into 3 jars and lidded.

I made the labels ready, in the hope that it would actually become jam. I let it cool, then placed the jars in the fridge - as it didn't set. I will use it for pie fill or in milk shakes instead!

In the meantime, I hauled home another batch of crops - strawberries, raspberries and two types of gooseberry.

Regular readers may wonder how the fence down the yard in front of the kitchen window is going - I have been slowly turning it from broken old fence to bird-friendly hedge. Some of the roses have taken well, as have a few of the plants my friend Liz gave me, along with a yew or two, box-privet, jasmine...

Here you can see one of the roses has flowered, as have some of the nasturtiums. There is a hawthorn seedling under the yellowy-colored shrub and the lychnis behind the nasturtiums...

...sigh, and more crops! Rhubarb, gooseberries, raspberries, one radish and strawberries, this time. This is what they look like after they have been prepared - 2 bowls of fresh fruit, one crumble, rhubarb for the freezer and a radish for lunch. Although some of the strawberries may not look fully ripe, when grown by yourself, unlike the shop varieties that are grown for color, the almost ready ones taste as good as ripe and are less squishy.

INDOORS 37 including recipe

I recently tidied out my fridge, ready for cropping season to get underway. It is already beginning to stock my own produce rather than shop stuff, somewhat - spinach, chives, gooseberries, broad beans - all mine! Regular readers will not be amazed to see my pantry has yet again been tidied and reorganized...a favored chore.

Next, I will share a recipe made predominantly with crops from the allotment. I called it 'Cauliflower-potato 'lunch'' and here is how to make it, if you fancy some.

The first or second head of cauliflower was selected along with the first dug up potato plant of the year and once home, I had about

5 small potatoes and one medium - I chopped the latter. I also had a small-medium head of cauliflower and added a medium sized diced onion. I then added water and boiled, then simmered the vegetables. 

Meanwhile, I mixed a generous serve of ground chili and a tablespoon of dairy-free cheese sauce with a little rice milk and stirred it into a sloppy paste in a mug. I added the sauce mix to the simmering veggies after approximately 15 minutes simmering and stirred til the sauce thickened. The result: an easy, quick, healthy and tasty lunch from currently-cropping plot veg!

Next, a treat for my kitchen and hands - a new oven glove - along with evidence of why I needed it in the form of the old glove!

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Well, it is still a crop - but not one of my usual ones. This year was the first time I have grown cauliflowers - which are apparently difficult to grow. I have been successful, with only 2 problems occurring. The first being that ONE head got eaten into by some sort of bug and the other than some of my heads grew too fast, and grew beyond a nice shape before I harvested them. As you can see, it is sort of distorted - should have been picked 1-2 days before.

This was called a 'bag of weeds' by my best friend when she first saw it - and I suppose that might be what it looks like. However as you can see in my next shot - it is a bag of crops! Garlic, spinach, gooseberries, strawberries, raspberries and nasturtiums.

The above shot shows what became of the garlic. I lined it up to dry on the kitchen floor on top of tea towels. This was a successful method of garlic drying and as soon as the stems go brown, I can plait them together then harvest the second haul. I had rather a lot of gooseberries and decided to make gooseberry jam with some - so tossed a heap in a pan once rinsed and de-strigged.

I covered them in water and began to simmer them, adding what I hoped was enough sugar to the mix...

...and let them simmer away for a few hours. I then added ginger and continued for another couple of hours.