Month: September 2020

What I did today: Opened my arms to Autumn.

It has been really cold here in the north of England in the last few days and the silver birch, always the first tree in our garden to lose its summer green, is now displaying yellow and copper coloured leaves.

So how to welcome in Autumn? Well I noticed that, with the prospects of tighter lockdown restrictions, our local supermarket has run out of yeast and is showing shortages of bread flour and loo roll. I can’t really do much about the loo roll issue but I can make sure that we have a few loaves of bread in the freezer.

No yeast? No problem. I made a sourdough starter using just flour and water. Within a few days it will be ready for a first batch of sourdough bread and can be used over and over again. providing it is looked after.

Sourdough bread starter

Sourdough bread is quite rustic and great for making hot, open sandwiches and dipping in soup.

I also baked the first ham of the season. I made a glaze from fresh orange juice, sugar and cloves. I am not a meat eater but my husband and the cats all said it was delicious.

Ham. Glazed and ready for baking.

What to serve with the ham? I did some research online and found a recipe for a very old dish called pease pudding. I soaked some yellow split peas overnight and boiled them with onions, thyme and a bay leaf. Once they were soft I blended them into a rough purée and seasoned quite heavily. Some recipes I looked at suggested adding a beaten egg and boiling the pudding in a cloth until it reaches a cutting consistency. I am guessing this is what turns the purée into a traditional pudding but I really didn’t like the sound of this so I left the pudding in its puréed state.

It was really tasty and filling. I have frozen the leftover pudding as I am thinking that if I thin it down with some stock and add some vegetables it will make a tasty soup.

Ham, pease pudding, boiled potatoes, cabbage and mustard cream sauce. A hearty Autumn dish.

Using a bay leaf reminded me that I want to make some more herbal incense for Christmas so I have hung up some bay leaves to dry which will take a month or so I guess.

Fresh bay leaves hung up to dry.

As the evening drew in the cats came back into the house bringing cold, night air with them and we lit our stove for the first time at this end of the year.

Autumn’s officially here!!!

What I did today: Made the most of free gifts

It feels cold today. Almost like winter is paying an early visit. In order to make the most of the last of summer I have been busy harvesting and using the free gifts my garden has given me.

I have a tub full of rose geraniums. They haven’t flowered this year maybe because we have had a lot of rain. They have, however, produced loads of leaves which actually are more fragrant than the flowers.
Rose geraniums oil is used in skin care preparations as it is very soothing and helps prevent breakouts. So I steeped some of the leaves in hot water and, when cool, removed them and decanted the water into a little spray bottle.
This is great if you have to wear a mask at any time. I take my spray bottle with me whenever I go out and when I remove my mask I give my face a quick spritz.

Rose Geraniums Facial Spritz

I also dried some nettle leaves. These could be used for nettle tea but I made a hair rinse with them. A small amount of this massaged into the scalp and combed through before washing encourages hair to grow and leaves it soft, healthy and shiny. It has done wonders for my lockdown hair.
I let the dried leaves soak in boiling water and then strained and bottled the rinse. You could add a few drops of essential oil if you are not keen on the very grassy smell of nettles.


Nettle Hair Rinse

Remember the blackberry bush that had made its way into the garden? Well I picked the berries as they ripened and kept them in the freezer until I had about 600 grams.

Half the blackberries

With half the yield I made some blackberry vinegar by adding cider vinegar and leaving them to soak for about a week. Apples and blackberries are a tried and tested combination but if there is such a thing as pear vinegar I bet this would also work really well. After a week I boiled the vinegar up with about 200g of sugar and it was ready to bottle. I have used it in a salad dressing with feta and apples but it would also be fantastic drizzled over vanilla ice cream.

Blackberry Vinegar

I used the rest of the blackberries to make blackberry vodka. I soaked the berries in plain vodka for four days with a tablespoon of sugar then strained and bottled. Blackberry vodka can be drunk neat as a liqueur but it also makes a really refreshing long drink with a good quality Indian tonic water and lots of ice.
It has just occurred to me that vanilla flavoured vodka would be an interesting base spirit for this recipe. There are no more blackberries left so I guess that is one to try next year.

Blackberry Vodka

Blackberry Vodka and Tonic

I have so enjoyed this opportunity to find creative ways to use the free gifts my garden has given me. Nothing I have made has cost more than a few pence and taken up very little time. I am already looking around to see what else I can use. The hazel tree is covered in green nuts. They should ripen in time for Christmas. I just have to keep up my running battle with the squirrels for them.
I have dried some lavender flowers and the winter jasmine is just coming into bud. The two flowers together should make a wonderful herbal incense.

My next big project is one which my brother has asked me to help him with. My dad has two apple trees that are loaded with hard, bitter little apples. As soon as these are ready for picking we will be attempting our first cider brewing. I couldn’t be more excited !