Harvest Monday and a trip to South Yorkshire

This week I thought I'd expand my foraging to include plantain from the allotment. I also picked the last of the PSB (purple sprouting broccoli - the plant which I'd moved recently), a few leeks (three of which had self-sown from plants I'd let seed previously), some corn salad which had started to go to seed, plus I lifted a couple of garlic plants to see how they were getting on.

First the plantain....I'd read it's full of nutrients and that you can boil it. I have it all over the allotment so thought I'd give it a go. Well, unfortunately it was rather grim, even with a bit of added butter! I've since read that broadleaf plantain is better (I had ribwort plantain) and that after boiling, you can sauté it and add other stuff to make it more palatable. This time though, it was far too bitter. Eugh.

My second fail of the week was an attempt at corn salad soup - there's a very basic recipe in a Wild Food book I have (can't remember the author right now). After the fail with the plantain I thought I'd cook it up with some other bits and bobs (chickpeas, onion, potato). Well, it turned out really bitter aswell, oops! I should have suspected this before as I knew that the plants turn bitter when they go to seed, sigh.

But some tasty harvests have been the PSB, which basically was a bonus crop as the plant had been going a couple of years

The garlic was also really good - I chopped it up with scrambled egg and other leftover veggies. Dave used some green garlic last week on his blog (link below) and as I was out of dried garlic I thought I'd try some too. I used the whole length of it except any yellowy bits of leaf. It was interesting to see that the clove shape had completely gone. I harvested alternate plants from the row so that it would give the others more space to grow. (I haven't used the leeks up yet, they're in the fridge).

But the best 'harvest' from the week was the strawberries I defrosted from the freezer. Yum. Before freezing strawbs, I heat them a little in a pan which releases some of the juices. (And I did add milk to my breakfast, I can't imagine dried muesli is very nice on its own).

A trip to South Yorkshire

We're visiting Jan's folks at the moment....how nice of them to arrange the Tour de Yorkshire to pass by whilst we're here. It literally went past a few metres from their house so it would have been daft not to watch.

 

Women's race in the morning

Men's stage 2 in the afternoon. We even managed to get on TV for a fraction of a second (I shan't be signing autographs)

We've been for some lovely walks, dipping into other nearby counties too

 

Down by the river for an evening stroll, where we heard our first yellowhammer of the year in the farmland nearby (their characteristic call of 'a little bit of bread and no cheeeeeese') and saw incredibly cute ducklings on an adjacent dyke. Skylarks trilled away and lapwings peewited.

As is tradition, we went to Clumber Park but tried a new route this time (where we heard our first cuckoo of the year, hurray)

And we visited the village of Laxton, which still has a traditional medieval field system (you can just make out some of the field strips here, which was the view from the top of the site of a motte and baily castle).

It's a nice place to walk around, with three main route options.

It's been very cold at times over the weekend but jan's mum risked putting out her peas and beans (protected by fleece) and they've been ok so far. Apparently it's going to get warmer aswell so I might direct-sow my runner beans when I get back. It does feel like spring though....the bright green leaves are pushing through on the tips of branches, and we've been treated to some beautiful bluebells (pic by Jan).

Back in Norwich, before we came up here, we'd also seen our first swifts of the year (whizzing around over the broad at Whitlingham Country Park on the 28th April, the earliest I've ever seen them I think), along with swallows and house martins, vacuuming up all the little insects to refuel after their long migration. So, yes, I think spring is properly here at last.

 

Thanks for reading this week. I'm linking up with Harvest Monday hosted by Dave at Our Happy Acres

 

 

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Harvest Monday, a trip away and Lego!

Well this week has been quite a contrast to last.....rainy, rainy, rainy with a touch of sun. I love autumn but I definitely like it less when everything's all soggy.

I thought I was only going to have one token Harvest Monday piccie - a tasty noodle soup, using up last week's harvests of chard and courgettes plus some sprouted beans. (We also had a few meals from the butternut squash I roasted last Sunday.)

But today I picked a couple of red sweet peppers from the lean-to, which we added to a homemade and grown herby tom sauce from the freezer.

We've been away this weekend, visiting Jan's folks in South Yorkshire, back today. I always like to nose around what Jan's mum has been growing in her veggie plot and made the most of a bit of sun that broke through on Saturday sfternoon. She's got some nice looking leeks on the go, plus some chard and kale still growing. In the background is some purple sprouting broccoli, which looks like it'll be a spring cropper.

Here's the same part of the veggie plot from the opposite angle, looking good

She's got some lovely pumpkins too, variety Cinderella. I might give these a go next year, as they had a really good flavour (we had a nice soup one day and hotpot another, mmm). Quite often pumpkins are watery but these were good. They're a sort of wide and flat variety rather than a carving pumpkin.

In the garden they have some very nice apple trees, still with lots of fruit on them (apparently they're quite late this year). I'm never one to pass up on free apples, so we picked a carrier bag-ful to bring home to Norwich, despite travelling by train. Yes, my rucksack was a tad heavy! If only I'd known beforehand I could've taken a suitcase ;)

Saturday afternoon we headed out to Clumber Park, which is a National Trust property, just over the border in Notts. It's a go-to for nice walks at any time of the year, with a huge lake to walk round plus woods, marshes, heathy bits, a real mix. And a cafe of course. There's a walled kitchen garden I'd like to check out sometime but maybe a summer visit would be better.

Here's Jan checking out the birdies

The lake is formed by river water held back by a wier. The river was rushing through right under this point (so I gripped the iPad very firmly!). I have become one of those people who takes photos on an iPad, ( just so I can use them in the blog easily.) It's quite heavy to carry round so I won't be taking it on every walk!

Sunday was rainy again so we went to the Harley Gallery on the Welbeck Estate. This was a new place for me.....and the temporary exhibition was on Lego! The main theme was famous buildings made out of Lego - brilliant!

An amazing St Pancras Station

It was huge

Amazing detail

Even Spider-Man made a cameo. Can you spot him? I only did because a little kid noticed him. Children are at the right height to spot all the detail so useful to listen out for hehe.

There were loads more - here's just a few

Gaudi Cathedral in Barcelona - shows you don't need to build 'em big

But here was another big one - London Olympic Stadium

Battersea Power Station, London, and a tiny St Paul's Cathedral in front

After a nice lunch in the cafe (and a peruse around the farm shop - so many tasty treats, including produce from the estate), we drove a short way to Rufford Abbey Country Park for another walk before the rain set in again. This was another new place for me, I liked the woods and abbey ruins best (I didn't get many pics as the light was bad though). It was quite busy but a definite place to return to.

That's me for the week, linking in with Harvest Monday hosted by Dave at Our Happy Acres

 

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