The Greenhouse!

Check out this baby! Yeah, it rocks. Best of all it cost nothing!!!

I am so excited about finally having the greenhouse up. I got it from work at Christmas. It used to be in the plant sales area behind the shop, but when they decided to turn that into the new kid’s play area it had to go. As it was considered quite knackered, the powers that be decided it wasn’t a good idea to find a new home for it in the gardens so I blagged it.

It took ages to get it from work to my house as I had a right struggle finding a van big enough to transport it. Putting it up was, amazingly, not too bad. I was able to go onto the Alton’s web site and find the instructions. It had obviously been moved quite a few times in the past as there was evidence of previous bodging but Sam and I managed to get it up relatively easily.

There are a few broken pains (that was me I’m afraid, transporting it) but they have been filled using polytunnel plastic. I got the polytunnel plastic from International Plastics in Digbeth, which is an experience in itself as you get to drive in right up to the counter!

Sam laid the brick path in the middle with bricks that we have found during the countless occasions when we have doug up the garden. The Erdinger bottles that edge the u shaped bed were scavenged from outside a neighbor house last summer (sadly not consumed at ours). I spotted them one night before glass recycling, thinking that I would use them to bottle some nettle beer but as I never got round to it they had just been sat in the back of the garden. I am well chuffed with how they look.

I have got far to excited about the new growing possibilities that we now have. Rather typically I have planted far too many seeds! This year I will be growing my tomatoes in there, so hopefully avoiding the heart break of blight. I’m also giving violet tomatillos a shot, as well as cucumbers, melon, sweat peppers, yellow peppers, chilli’s and whatever else I can lay my hands on from the Heritage Seed Library. I am going to have to have a serious chat with myself to remind myself that it’s not the size of the Albert Hall!!!!

Free Food!

God, I get so excited at this time of year. Spring has well and truly sprung and there is loads of good stuff ready to be foraged. I have a couple of favorite spots for picking wild garlic and sorrel, which are absolutely teaming with the stuff at the moment. Even better than that, I have come across some of both in the park at the end of my road too. This is great as the other spots are a good drive away, so I now have a local spot for fresh stuff too.

Both the garlic and the sorrel are great in salads, but don’t use too much of the sorrel as it has a very sharp lemony flavor and can over power the other leaves. I also love tearing fresh sorrel leaves onto pasta that has been tossed in olive oil. For something so simple to do it tastes like you have been slaving over elaborate wine sauces for hours. The garlic also makes a dead nice addition to risotto.

What I tend to do with both wild garlic and sorrel is make pesto’s as this allows me to keep a supply going throughout the year. I like to stock up on pesto made of each on their own and then some of them mixed together. The pesto can be used in lots of different ways; a particulate favourite of my dad’s is wild flat bread, which is dead easy.

Pesto – this is very simple and down to your own taste really but I blend the leaves with good olive oil and pine nuts (but you can use walnuts or almonds depending on what takes your fancy), if I am just doing wild garlic pesto I usually add some lemon juice. My other half is vegan so I don’t normally add Parmesan cheese and vegan Parmesan tastes like toe jam (not that I know what that tastes like, I’m guessing obviously) but if it takes your fancy you can. Blend it until it’s at a pleasing consistency and add a good slug of good salt and pepper, jar it in sterilised jars and it will keep well until opened. Once you open a jar treat it like a jar of shop bought pesto and keep it refrigerated.

Wild Bread – make a basic bread doe (brown or white whatever floats your boat) after you have let it rise twice, pull a ball of and pull flat, almost as if you are making an odd shaped pizza base. Let it stand and rise for 15 minutes more, or until risen to about an inch, then dimple all over with your thumb. Spoon, brush or spread lashings of your wild pesto over the bread and then bake in a hot oven for about 10 – 15 minutes (depending on how good your oven is, my oven is on its last legs so this has been known to take up to 25 minutes so you will need to play it by ear, just watch out that the bottom doesn’t burn)