April in the vegetable garden, optimism and a flurry of birds

We have glorious weather in the garden today. It's so warm that seeds I thought I was optimistic to sow in my unheated greenhouse might actually germinate. I'm generally quite an optimistic gardener. I'm optimistic each year that I will keep up with the weeding and that some plants will survive onslaught by snails (actually, my optimism there is much more limited, and I've started googling the names of the plant with slugs before I buy anything for the front garden. If it can't survive slugs, it can't survive our garden). I also optimistically sowed other seeds that were out of date or close to it or for which I'd lost the label. These have been a bit of a mixed bag. Some have done better than others. My sunflowers (below), which are mainly in the greenhouse to give them a fighting chance to get big enough to withstand the snails when they go outside, are growing away very happily. Other pots remain resolutely empty (some of them labelled, some of them not - remembering to label is not my forte).

My yard-long beans have sprouted, and based on watching Alan Titchmarsh, I'm going to keep them in the greenhouse for as long as possible, as his more or less stopped growing when he planted them out. I'm hoping London's warmer weather will be a help, but I'm going to give them maximum greenhouse time first. I might even keep a couple in the greenhouse to see if that works, as my peppers and chilis have all failed to germinate this year, so I don't have as many plants for the greenhouse as I'd like. Most of the seeds were admittedly a couple of years old or self-collected.

My rhubarb's going from strength to strength. I still haven't dared to pick any yet, but I'm increasingly confident of getting at least one pie out of it. I love how it looks next to the pond. That was the perfect place to put it, and it seems not to be too bothered by the fact that it's living in partial shade.

This being April, it was time to finish getting the garden ready for the growing season. And when I got weeding and digging, quite a few birds showed up to take advantage of the creepy crawlies I'd exposed. The robins were particularly brave, swooping in to within less than a metre of me while I was working. I'm not sure how many we have, as I can't recognise individual robins other than the skinny robin (and there may be more than one of those), but I've seen two of them fighting it out in an aerial battle over the garden, so I think there may well be more than one. Our garden is also frequented by a mini-flock of about a dozen sparrows. They're not quite as brave as the robins, as humans walking about tends to send them scurrying for the bushes, but they will happily ignore us and carry on about their business on the ground if we're sitting in chairs. Maybe the sparrows have realised that beyond a certain age, humans just can't get up out of chairs at any decent speed, and the sparrows can be in flight before we can take even half a step towards them. This still doesn't explain the fearlessness of the robins. But then, maybe the robins have realised that they're not big enough to make a decent meal for us, so aren't worth chasing. Or maybe they've simply seen our Christmas cards and have realised how much we like them. Sparrow hobbies in the garden include taking dirt baths, eating the creepy crawlies, stealing string, flying about loudly – I never previously realised just how much noise sparrow wings make – sitting in next door's lilac tree watching our garden, chirping at each other or to the world in general, some noisy project in the eaves of our house (quite possibly raising young) and generally hanging out. They are a joy to watch, and I'm so glad they visit.

German baked cheesecake recipe

This recipe is based on the Dr Oetker recipe in German, adapted for products available in the UK:

For the springform pan (diameter of 26 cm):

a little extra butter/margarine for greasing 

Shortcrust pastry:

150 g plain flour

½ tsp baking powder 

80 g vanilla sugar*

1 pinch salt

1 egg (medium)

75 g soft butter or margarine

Filling:

2 egg whites (from medium eggs)

200 g cold whipped cream

500 g quark (low fat)

100 g sugar

2 tbsp lemon juice

35 g cornflour

2 egg yolks (from medium eggs)

1. Grease the base of the springform pan. Preheat the oven about 200 °C/fan 180 °C

2. Mix the flour with the baking powder in a mixing bowl. Add the remaining ingredients for the dough and mix everything together with a mixer (dough hook), first briefly on the lowest, then on the highest speed, then form into a roll. (If your butter or margarine isn't already very soft, you can rub it into the dry ingredients with your fingers before adding the egg).

3. Roll out a good 2/3 of the dough on the base of the springform pan and place the springform pan rim around it. Prick the base of the pastry several times with a fork. Keep the remaining 1/3 of the dough to one side (do not do anything with it yet). Place the tin on a rack in the bottom third of the oven and pre-bake the base for 10 minutes.

4. After pre-baking, place the springform pan on a cake rack and leave the base to cool. Reduce the oven temperature to about 160 °C/fan 140 °C

5. Form the remaining dough into a long roll. Place the roll as a rim on the base of the dough and press it against the tin to form a rim about 3 cm high.

6. To prepare the filling, separate the eggs, then beat the egg whites until stiff. Set aside in a bowl.

7. Beat the whipping cream until stiff. Set aside in a bowl (optionally the same one as the whipped egg whites).

8. Mix the quark with the sugar, lemon juice, cornflour and egg yolks until well blended.

9. Fold the beaten egg whites and whippec cream into the quark mixture. Spread the mixture evenly on the pre-baked base. Put the dish back into the lower third of the oven Bake for about 70 min.

10. Turn the oven off and slightly open the oven door. Leave the cake in the turned off oven for 15 minutes.

11. Take the cake out of the oven and place on a cooling rack still in its tin. Leave to cool.

* You can make vanilla sugar by keeping a vanilla pod in your sugar. Over time, it flavours your sugar with vanilla

The second year of rhubarb

This is the second year of me having rhubarb, and I'm looking forward to being able to harvest some for the first time this year. You don't get to harvest any in the first year, but in the second year, you can harvest it between April and June once the stalks reach 30 cm and the leaves are fully unfurled. The important thing is not to take too many stalks – only a few stems at a time and never more than half the plant so that it stays vigorous. Mine is nowhere near big enough to eat yet, but I'm hoping to get at least a pie worth out of it by the end of June. I'm not sure how big the plant is going to get, but if I end up with too much (more a hope than an expectation at this stage), I can always freeze it.

You can freeze rhubarb raw, blanched or cooked. I've only tried it raw and chopped into chunks in the past, which is what I've done for pies or crumbles. It becomes more watery when you freeze it, but this doesn't seem much of a problem for pies and crumbles. However, fancier items, such a muffins or cakes, don't do work with frozen. The BBC, which gives a full list of handy instructions for freezing rhubarb, says that later in the season when it's tougher, it's better to cook rhubarb before you freeze it, so I'll give that a go if I have spare in June.

My rhubarb is the Rosenhagen variety, which I chose because it's an old variety and contains less oxalic acid, which means it's supposedly sweeter than normal rhubarb, so I'm hoping to need less sugar.

The garden's doing surprisingly well for how little time I've had to work in it. I started growing broad beans late last year. I bought Super Aquadulce, which you can plant earlier than a lot of other broad beans (from as early as October), so they're now flowering already. I started them off in pots, as my slugs and snails have a history of devouring the tender new shoots of broad beans when planted straight in the ground and killing the plants. My broad beans also have a history of catching rust and getting covered in black fly later in the season, and I'm hoping that by giving them an early start, I'll get a decent amount of beans before the rust and black fly hit.

I've also made a good amount of fairly well composted compost this year. It does contain more uncomposted shredded paper than ideal – possibly because the paper slipped down from where I added it at the top into the well composted part. Generally it looks better than it has in the past. I always more or less follow the general rules of composting. I'm not great at turning the compost frequently enough, but I do usually put a mixture of both "greens" and "browns" in – partly because that's what my garden tends to produce. What I think I've down differently this year is that I've added more vegetable peelings and banana skins from the kitchen and I've maybe chopped some of the woodier stalks up more than in the past. If I were making the compost bin again, I think I'd make it a little bit bigger so that it gets hotter in the middle, as then I wouldn't need to chop things up as much. Apparently 1 cubic metre is the smallest you can get away with for that, and I suspect that bigger produces results more easily. At any rate, I managed to make quite a lot of good compost this year, which I'm pleased with. Doubly so, as my local garden centre has changed ownership and no longer sells the composted stable manure I like to spread over my garden, so I may have to make do with my onw compost.

I've also remembered to use my greenhouse to start some plants off early in pots. Those are peas. I've got growing in there. I probably ought to be bringing more plants on it, but I haven't got much time on my hands at the moment, so I'm just pleased I even managed to start the peas off there.

Mushroom log

We now have a brand new mushroom log. It was an early Christmas present. It was meant to be a normally timed Christmas present, but when my husband opened the package to check the instructions, it said we had to plant it out as soon as possible, so here it is. When I say plant it out, I actually mean bury it 15-20 cm deep in the ground so that it stands upright. The main purpose of this is for it to have the appropriate temperature and light levels. The mushrooms use the log rather than the soil to grow. The log's supposed to go in dappled shade, so I put it just behind my apple tree. It should take at least a year for any mushrooms to grow, but I'm looking forward to what they're going to look like as much as eating them. I think it makes a fine addition to my fernery.

I got the log from rusticmushrooms.co.uk. It's already been inoculated with mushroom spawn – in our case of oyster mushrooms. It was a nice simple way to grow mushrooms on a log, as it means we didn't have to source a log separately. But in case that's easy for you or you can't get hold of a pre-inoculated log, you can also buy spawn plugs and inoculate a log with them yourself. Here's some information on how to do that and what sort of logs work best.

I've left as many plants and seed-heads in the garden as possible this year, so that it doesn't just look bare over winter. Also, our local wildlife really appreciated the seed heads of my sunflowers. The birds peck at them, and we even watched a squirrel nibble through a stalk then run off with an entire head. 

You've got to catch the beauty of the colder months where you can. And a little earlier in autumn, I was delighted to see some spiders had made their own rather lovely, albeit temporary addition to our bonsai trees:

Quick three-veg macaroni cheese

 This macaroni cheese is healthier than most because of the three types of veg in it. You can leave the spam out for a vegetarian version, but, sadly, it doesn't taste as good. You can also put fried bacon lardons or fried chopped bacon in instead of the spam. That tastes just as good, but the spam is a much easier option and surprisingly tasty. It's worth adding an extra 30 ml of milk if planning to serve it on more than one day, as it does dry out a bit when it cools. It will make it looser than ideal on the first day, but just as delicious, and a better consistency for the later days. We find it lasts 2 days in the fridge (it might actually last longer, but we've never tried).

Serves 6, takes about 30 minutes

400 g macaroni

400 g broccoli florets (frozen)

2 tbsp olive oil

2 onions, finely chopped

340 g spam, chopped into small cubes (about 0.5 to1 cm) (optional)

2 tbsp plain flour

250 g soft cheese (e.g. Philadelphia - you can get away with just a 200 g tub of Lactofree soft cheese)

350 ml milk 

340-400 g tinned sweet corn, drained

50 g cheddar, grated (we use extra mature)

40 g breadcrumbs 

1 tbsp of chopped parsley (optionally frozen)

salt and pepper

1. Preheat the grill to high. Cook the macaroni following pack instructions. Add in the broccoli for the last 5 minutes. Drain when done.

2. Meanwhile, heat the oil in a (very) large frying pan. Peel and finely chop the onions, then cook the onion for 5-10 minutes.

3. While the onions are cooking, chop the spam into cubes of about 0.5 to 1 cm across and add to the onions.

4. Also while the onions are booking, once you have drained the macaroni and broccoli, pick any big pieces of cooked broccoli out of it and chop it into bite-sized pieces.

5. Once the onions are soft, stir in the flour, then add the soft cheese, milk, sweet corn, cooked macaroni and cooked (and now bite-sized) broccoli.

6. Season with salt and pepper and stir gently for about three minutes.

7. Pour the macaroni cheese mixture into a large lasagne dish.

8. Sprinkle the breadcrumbs and parsley evenly over the top. Grate the cheddar and sprinkle that over too.

9. Cook under the grill for five minutes until golden and bubbling. Optionally serve with lettuce and tomatoes for even more veg.

Sautéed apples and pork with mustard sauce

 

This serves four and takes about 30-40 minutes to make. It's good with mash. I recommend peeling the potatoes and peeling/chopping any veg you're having with it before you start, as once you do start, there's not a lot of spare time. I particularly recommend green beans or cabbage. Carrots are also nice with this.

4 tbsp plain flour

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp black pepper

4 lean, boneless pork steaks (the original recipe recommended they be 85 g each, but larger is also fine)

3 tbsp (= 60 g) of butter

2 Golden Delicious or Jonagold apples (don't use red or green apples; it doesn't taste right)

1 small onion (minced)

250 ml apple juice

125 ml dry white wine

125 ml plain yoghurt (optionally low fat)

2 tbsp Dijon mustard

1/4 tsp dried thyme leaves

1. If you are having mash with this, peel the potatoes, chop them, and put them on to boil for 20 minutes (once they are done, drain them and return them to the pan, and put the lid on to keep warm). Also, peel and chop any vegetables you are having with this that need peeling and chopping, but don't cook them yet.

2. Meanwhile, in a pie plate or shallow dish, combine 3 tbsp of the flour with the 1/4 teaspoon of salt and 1/4 teaspoon of pepper. Dredge the pork steaks in the flour mixture to coat all sides lightly.

3. In a large frying pan, heat 2 tbsp (= 40 g) of the butter and the 2 tbsp oil over a medium heat. Add the pork and cook until fully cooked, i.e. brown on both sides and the juices run clear. This should take about 4-8 minutes per side, depending on the size of the steak and the heat.

4. While the steaks are cooking, peel and mince the onion (i.e. chop it really finely). Also, make the yoghurt mixture in a jug or bowl by combining:

• the 125 ml yoghurt
• the 2 tbsp Dijon mustard
• the 1/4 tsp dried thyme
• the remaining tbsp flour
• 1/4 tsp salt

5. Once the pork steaks are cooked, remove them to a plate (ideally a warmed one), then add the remaining tablespoon (20 g) of butter to the frying pan. Peel, core and slice the apples. Add the apple slices and the minced onions to the frying pan and sauté until both are tender (about 5 minutes). Remove to the plate with the pork.

6. Add the apple juice and wine to the frying pan and simmer for 5 minutes. This is a good time to mash your potatoes (put the lid back on afterwards to keep them warm) and boil water ready for your veg. 

7. This is the time to put any vegetables you are serving on to boil or steam for the appropriate length of time. Then stir the yoghurt mixture into the apple juice and wine in the frying pan. Simmer and stir for 4-5 minutes. Return the pork steaks, apple and onion back to the frying pan for a minute or two to make sure they are warm.

8. Once your veg is ready, serve with your mash and veg.

Lunch party in the garden

 

On the Sunday before the August bank holiday, four members of Curry Club (a club named after the first meal it ate together rather than any intention for the content of future meals) met together in my garden for the club's second meeting. Earlier meetings had been planned, but Covid got in the way. Then again, if it weren't for Covid, the meeting would probably have been indoors in the evening and not in the vegetable garden for lunch, and I'm very glad we did have it in the garden.

Did I remember this blog and take photos for it? I absolutely did not. I was far too busy with cooking, refilling glasses, listening to the stories of the other three members who came and telling my own. However, slightly less than a week later, I have taken some photos to capture the joy of the garden when Curry Club met. Like today, it was a largely cloudy day, but fortunately most of the flowers that grew in my garden this year (a mixture of self-seeded and sown by me) were bright oranges and yellows, bursting through the cloudiness of the day. In fact, my snails' choice of demolishing my veg and leaving largely flowers made the garden much prettier than it has been in previous years.

I even managed to serve two things from the garden: tomatoes in bruschetta and runner beans as an accompaniment to the pork steaks I served with sauteed apple and Dijon mustard and yogurt sauce. It is a delicious recipe and I can no longer find it online, so I have written it out in my next post.

I would have included raspberries in the meal as well, but at Curry Club, someone else brings the dessert, so no raspberries this time. I may sneak them into a dessert I bring to someone else's meeting. I'm currently harvesting probably around 100 g or more each day and slowly filling my freezer.

My other half's lockdown hobby came up as a talking point at the lunch. He's been making mosaics for paving stones for the back garden:

They are all based on Roman designs, with a few variations to the original design in colour, size and material (the Romans did not have Winckelmans cermaic tiles).

We drank prosecco and I also served Apfelschorle. Apfelschorle (pronounced ap-fell-shore-luh) is a German name for a drink that is half apple juice and half sparkling water. We don't have a name for it in English, which is a shame, as it means we don't tend to drink it either.

We ate in the middle of the grass, which I left long, as I like it a bit wild and shaggy and curling round your feet. In fact, the whole garden looks a bit wild. But that's exactly how I like it.