Greenside Up Vegetable Blog

Recycled boots (and other things)

2012-02-10T13:50:00.000Z

Wellie Boot Rack

Reuse, recycle - do you?

Recycled doesn't have to mean packing everything into a bin or bag and sending it off to the local centre.

Pallet gate

Recycling, or up cycling, is about thinking differently.

It's about coming up with ideas for reusing items that they weren't originally intended for.

Container vegetables - winter lettuce & edible violas

Pallets are a big favourite of ours - from shelves to compost bins, gates to welly boot racks.

Pallet shelving

Seed containers

We also use carrier bags, boots, old milk churns and anything else we can think of for garden containers.

Old cd's and computer disks are kept and strung around the veggie patch in spring to act as bird scarers.

Toilet roll inserts and food containers are saved ready for seed planting.

(My favourite dark bottomed sausage container & clear chicken container that fitted together perfectly, making a sweet little propagator were accidentally recycled 'for real'... oops)

All cups & crockery are saved for using as 'crocks' in container planting

Surprisingly, once plants are growing in it, or latches are fixed to it, our junk no longer resembles rubbish at all.

Do you have any favourite ways of re-using your 'rubbish'?

Growing vegetables at altitude/colder climates

2012-01-30T22:11:00.000Z

I've often commented that growing vegetables 1,000 feet above sea level can be quite challenging at times.

Apart from having to put on an extra layer when we head outside, we're on average three weeks behind the growing conditions of friends five miles below at the bottom of the hill.

In the summer time we can be as much as 6 or 7 degrees cooler (much to our children's horror when they're at school dreaming of the paddling pool on their return home, only to find it's freezing!)

However, don't despair if you do live in colder climes as there are several things you can do which will still make growing vegetables year round possible.

1. If strong winds are a problem consider using wind break fabric or planting a native hedge to lessen the impact. (If you decide upon a hedge, bear in mind shading and space - what starts as a little spindly stick may be taking up two metres or more of precious space within a few years and you will have to prune it).

2. When reading up on sowing times and you're told you can sow between February to April - always choose April! The earlier month is aimed at people who live in warmer areas.

3. Stock up on horticultural fleece to quickly throw over beds if there's a frost - this could be in springtime or autumn.

4. Choose varieties of vegetables that mature quickly, rather than the much longer to grow maincrops (especially carrots!)

5. Save up and buy a greenhouse or polytunnel. This really is worth considering. Ours transformed the amount and variety of veg we are able to grow. If you haven't got the space or cash, consider using cloches.

6. Start seedlings off indoors, giving them a head start so you can plant them outside as soon as it's warm enough.

7. Make sure you're lashings are tight on any supports as the wind is quite likely to test them.

8. If you're more experienced (and really keen), you can cover beds with clear polythene to warm up the soil, remove it, sow your veg then cover with cloches to protect them (not advised for beginners) though does work.

Do you have any more tips? If so I'd love to hear them...

Quality Time & Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars

2012-01-29T11:37:00.000Z

As a business owning mum, one of my constant struggles is the emotional guilt of not spending enough quality time with my children.

When they were tiny we made the decision that we would forgo holidays, new cars and lovely treats so that I could stay at home and look after our children rather than paying someone else to do it for us. I did that for ten years but when the youngest of our three finally started school aged five, I loosened the apron strings and signed up for the full time horticultural course that set me on the road I'm currently on.

With fantastic support from Mr G I studied and experimented, dreamt and talked plants and just a month after finishing the course threw myself into starting Greenside Up so that I could share all the knowledge I'd learnt about soil, water, polytunnels, biodiversity and plants, thereby helping newbie gardeners to grow their own veg too.

However, as any self employed, business owner knows - this isn't a nine to five job. To make a success of it, and particularly when you're so passionate about what you're trying to achieve, it's a seven day a week, evenings, early mornings and even middle of the night kind of job. I can't deny either that I thoroughly enjoy being 'Dee' again and not just being "someones mum", but as a mum, that's where the emotional struggle begins. How can you have a successful business and be *WORLD'S NO 1 MUM*? (I wonder do men feel this pull, as Mr G certainly doesn't feel the same guilt I do at bathrooms not always being clean and shiny and floors unwashed...?)

The answer, I feel, is that you can't be everything to everyone and that there's no such thing as the perfect mum. We all try and do our best. There were no school lessons teaching us how to do it, we weren't born knowing how to be parents, nobody ever warned us just how difficult it would be, that it doesn't necessarily come naturally to us all. All we have is our own upbringing to guide us and we either try and replicate it if it was a good upbringing, or hopefully improve upon it if it wasn't.

Before she retired to go on to become a full time foster mother, for many years my own mum was a business owner too and I now fully understand and appreciate all the sacrifices and guilt she must have felt. (Mum's now in her mid 70's and along with my dad is currently looking after three under one year old babies...) I was lucky - mum did her very best and I feel, a fantastic job, guiding and showing us in her actions how to be good human beings. My sister and I grew up to be independent spirits thanks to her amazing example.

So how do I do the best that I can for my own children? Well for a start I'd like, and need, to spend quality time with them. I'm having to accept that it's not going to be every day, or as often as they or I would like. At the beginning of this year I made a firm resolution that I would spend good, quality time with them - not homework or eating meals together time, but one on one time. Children remember things they do rather than things they own. My memories are of holidays, swimming lessons or weekly trips to the cash and carry where the four of us would stop off and buy huge piles of fish and chips and pickled gherkins.

For our children and me, our quality time tends to be spent in the kitchen baking. They love to cook, so guiding and teaching, weighing and tasting is how we're currently spending most of our quality time. Yesterday we baked tasty little Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars from a recipe our youngest had torn out of a magazine. To our surprise the easy recipe worked, the cookies are delicious and I'm sharing it here ....

Ingredients

1 cup butter or margarine
1/2 cup caster sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 large eggs (I used 3 as the mixture looked very dry)
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups plain flour
100gms 70% chocolate broken up (or a cup of chocolate chips)
1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Method

Heat the oven to 180oC and grease and line a baking tray (23cm x 33cm). Place all the ingredients in a food processor and blitz until combined. If you don't have a food processor, cream the first seven ingredients together, then add the remaining.

Spread the mixture in the tin and place in the oven for 20 to 25 minutes until lightly browned. Remove from the oven, cut the pieces to size and turn out onto a wire rack to cool.

Enjoy with a cup of tea, cream or custard!

For now, when I'm sitting alone at night, when they're all tucked up in bed and I'm beating myself up from feelings of unbearable guilt that I missed the latest soccer match, haven't yet taught my eleven year old to knit or am sending them off to a neighbours once again to be looked after, I have to hang on to the fact that as long as my children keep slipping me notes like this one I can't be doing it that wrong.

If you have children, how do you spend your quality time with them? Do you suffer the same guilt? All tips greatly appreciated please!

Gardening with Kids - Have Fun with Cress

2012-01-24T20:30:00.000Z

Children love to watch seeds grow, and even better if theseeds they are growing are scattered in the shape of their name or favourite shape (am thinking hearts for Valentine's Day here...).

Here’s a simple project that can be grown at any time of theyear – as long as you have a light windowsill to grow them on.

What you will need:

Cress seeds

Watering can or spray bottle

A container – margarine tubs, mushroom container – anythingthat will hold your seeds

Compost, kitchen roll or cotton wool

What to do:

Place your compost, cotton wool or kitchen roll on thebottom of the container and soak with water.

Shake some seeds into your (or your child’s) hand andcarefully shape them into the desired initial or shape (beware as they areeasily scattered!)

Place the container on a windowsill, preferably where thechild can see them.

Make sure thecompost, cotton wool or kitchen roll is kept wet as the seeds won’t grow ifthey’re allowed to dry out.

In just a week’s time, when the cress has reached about 5cm,it will be ready to eat! (Tastes delicious in a sandwich with egg or cheese.)

Older children might like to try growing the seeds in morethan one container at the same time, with say compost in one and cotton wool inanother so that they can compare the results.

Some of the things youcan talk about as you watch the seeds grow are:

How the seeds all bend as they reach to the light. If youturn the tray they will bend back. There's a special word for this which I love called Phototropism. There are lots of 'tropisms'. Another one I like is Thigmotropism where a plant moves or grows in response to being gently stroked or touched.

If the seeds are sown too thickly they might not grow as strong or healthy as they will all be fighting for space and light.

If they forget to water them they might not grow as strong or healthy as they will all be fighting for space and light.

If they forget to water them they will become limp (as we do). If they are overwatered they might not germinate as they will be starved of oxygen and drown!

If two experiments are carried out, do theseeds that were grown in the compost look healthier, greener or larger than those in thekitchen paper or cotton wool? Did they grow more quickly? (If so it's because there are nutrients in compost that will feed them, whereas there are no nutrients in compost or kitchen roll! Seeds don't need nutrients to germinate as everything they require to do this is contained within their seed shell. However, once they've sprouted and grown their first leaves, they will be looking for those precious nutrients.

Have you ever grown cress seeds in different ways? What's your favourite way of eating it?

Guest Post: Fabulous! 5 Easy Winter Flower Bulbs by Susan Flowers

2012-01-20T09:30:00.000Z

Susan has kindly written the first of my new feature guests posts that I'll be including on the Greenside Up blog. She is the Manager of the Blooming Brilliant Garden Centre at Dermot Kehoe Supply & DIY Centre in New Ross, Co. Wexford. Susan has had the gardening bug for over 10 years, and has designed several gardens in that time, along with working as a horticulturalist and garden centre manager.

This Spring her garden centre is getting a bit of a re-vamp, so she is quite excited about planning the new layout! You can follow the Blooming Brilliant Garden Centree on Facebook.

You are probably longing for Spring rightabout now, aren’t you? Craving a bit of colour and cheer in the garden as youwait for the first green shoots? Well, did you know there are some fantastic flowers you can enjoy inyour garden in winter? There are, and they are easy peasy to grow! Here are mytop five:

Winter Irises

Winter Iris

These little jewels generally bloom inJanuary, and are mainly in shades of purple & blue. Iris reticulata istheir Latin name, and they look stunning planted in groups. I’ve several inbloom in my garden at the minute, and they come back year after year as longas your soil isn’t soggy. You can also have them indoors in a pot to enjoy thescent up close, (put in a coolish spot in order for the flowers to last longer) and then you can plant outside when they are done flowering. There is acheery yellow winter iris, too - iris danfordiae- which also has a fab scent,but is not quite as likely to return next year. Still, they are not expensiveas plants in pots or as dried bulbs & are worth the enjoyment!

Winter Aconite

Winter Acconite

These sunny little ‘Winter Buttercups’ (Eranthis hyemalis) are wildlifefriendly, tough as boots in the snow, and will often multiply and make a nicecarpet of sunshine! Planted underneath a deciduous tree - where other plantswill often not grow- they are a real lift! Winter Aconites are much betterbought as growing plants in pots versus dried bulbs in bags. The foliage diesback around April/May, and it feeds the bulb so it will flower again next year,so don’t chop it while it is still green- this goes for all bulbs, too.

Snowdrops

Another winter beauty best bought in a pot, Snowdrops(Galanthus nivalis) also multiply over the years- but do plant them in groupsto start; a single plant or two on their tod look a bit lonely. As they clump upmore fully you can gently split and move them when they are finished for theseason. You can go mad and pay big money for special varieties (like on the top picture above), or buy the more common kinds for much less.

January Gold& February Gold Daffodils

Early Daffodil

Daffodil February Gold

These very early daffs do what theysay on the tin! In fact, it was so mild here in Ireland this December that myJanuary Golds have been in full flower since mid December- and they are stilllooking great one month on! These bulbs have never let me down and always givea wonderful, long, show. Most likely you will find them for sale as inexpensivedry bulbs in in bags, and that is perfectly fine for them. Enjoy! But don’t tiethe foliage in knots after, or cut down until after it yellows- like with all bulbs, it feeds next years flowers.

Crocus

Mixed crocus

Crocus tommasinianus

Your teacher probably had you plant a fewcrocus in a cup in school when you were a child- they are that easy to grow,but no less valuable Winter cheer for it! There are lots of different colours and colour combos to choose from in the different varieties, but one of myall time favourites is plain old crocus tommasinianus, pictured below.

Crocus tommasinianus

It is sograceful and spreads around nicely. They all are very good for any earlyhoneybees that venture out on mild Winter days, and the happy go lucky crocusdeserve a place in every garden. JThey also are fine purchased dry, or as growing plants in pots.

I hope you are inspired to grow a few of thesegorgeous, easy Winter flowers yourself!

I hope you enjoyed ready about the fabulous bulbs available to brighten up our winter days as much as I did, and are now thinking of adding some colour to your own gardens?

Susan is currently selling all of the bulbs mentioned (and others) in pots at this time of year, with prices varying between 5 for €10 for some pots, 3 for €10 for others, which I think is great value...... Thanks Susan, I may be heading down way soon!

Sowing Seeds ? Paper Potter Product Review

2012-01-16T15:37:00.001Z

Image courtesy of Mary Gettings www.ecoevolution.ie
(fellow Paper Potter fan!)

Last year I tried making newspaper pots for my seeds using a small plastic drinks bottle as a guide but found it quite fiddly, and could never quite get the base to sit correctly.

When I saw the Nether Wallop Plant Potter (great name!) online it was top of my Christmas wish list and I was therefore delighted to find that I had been a good girl after all when I was handed my presents from under the tree.

Some seedlings sulk if their roots are disturbed so they should either be sown directly into the soil (like parsnips and carrots whose roots generally won't form) or into pots that will biodegrade (beetroot, beans, peas, squash and melons).

I've used cardboard tubes (from kitchen or toilet rolls) which work very well too but it's questionable as to whether the glue used to stick them together is 'safe'.

If you like to sow your own seedlings, making your own pots out of newspaper is a great money saver (even if you do have the initial small outlay of a wooden potter, better if it's a gift) and you'll be doing your bit to help the planet by recycling old newspapers too.

I really enjoy using my little potter. It's made from FSC oak and beautifully turned, fitting into the hand perfectly. My eight year old made several pots too and loved helping mum - she didn't want to stop! I was also impressed by the minimalistic packaging. Just a cardboard box with the instructions printed on it - no plastic and compostable - there's a lesson there for other companies who over package...

There's not much more I can say other than a great little tool that I'd recommend all gardeners have in their kit bag. These are available online for €11.75 plus postage... If you count up how much can be spent on seedling pots over the years, and the fact that once you have this tool you'll never run out of them, I think it's worth it.

If you're not sure, or are just interested in how to make them, here's a clip demonstrating how quick and easy paper pots are to make using the Nether Wallop Paper Potter.

Have you an essential piece of kit in your bag that you can't do without in the garden?

Seeds : How do you know when it's safe to sow?

2012-01-15T09:30:00.000Z

Mixed seedlings ready to harden off

You've made your lists, drawn out your crop rotation plans, have your seeds and compost ready, and before long you'll be itching to start sowing.

The pressure builds as magazines and social media start to fill with stories of planting dates and there's a noticeable jostle over who's starting to sow which vegetable seeds when.

Does that sound familiar? If you're new to vegetable gardening beware as it soon will be and before you know it you'll be sowing too and then wondering why your seedlings are seriously struggling or have died.

Leggy parsley seedlings sown too early and stretching for light

As such an avid social media user, last year I remember feeling a sense of panic that I'd left my sowing too late, yet it wasn't even March! I know from experience that we can be three weeks behind the growing conditions of warmer gardens, but it was difficult not to feel left behind when being bombarded with everyone else's reports.

Don't get caught out by a late frost - frozen seedlings!

So why is it important to sow seeds at the correct time (temperature)?
If you attempt to sow seeds below their preferred temperature, it can result in slow germination, seeds rotting, problems with plants developing and ultimately disease as they wont have started life with the best start.

Seeds need heat to germinate and the requirements vary from plant to plant. They will germinate quicker at higher temperatures but the minimums required can be roughly divided into three groups:

5 deg C for brassicas (cabbage type family), lettuce, peas and broad beans
7 deg C for parsnips, carrots, beetroot, scallions, leeks, onions
10-12 deg C for runner beans, French beans, courgettes, tomatoes and sweet corn

Different containers for seeds

So how do you know when is the best time to sow?

Part of being a successful gardener is learning to work with, understand and appreciate nature and her elements. That means noticing the wind directions and the signs of seasons changing, the fluctuations in temperature. Keeping a diary of not only what and when you sow but weather conditions that can be referred back to will become an invaluable aid.

If you wish to sow seeds indoors that can be transplanted out as the temperatures rise, or plant seeds directly into the soil where they will germinate, you'll need to have an idea of the soil temperature.

We can roughly work out when the best sowing dates are using average temperatures from previous years. Having an idea when the last frost date is in your area will help you to plan when to sow your seeds indoors, ready to be transplanted outside and hardened off once the soil temperature has warmed up.

So many things wrong here, too many seeds sown, not enough light, no drainage...

Take runner beans for instance. You have two choices:

1. Sow the beans directly into the soil once the soil temperatures have reached 10-12 deg C for three days or more (between May and June, depending upon where you lives) - NOTE: easiest method!

So for us at 1,000 m above sea level I would be aiming for early to mid June however, if you live in a warm, sheltered area, mid May should work for you.

2. Sow the beans in modules ready to plant out when soil temps are 10-12 deg C or more.

Beans take between 7 - 14 days to germinate and you could allow approx 3-4 weeks in the pots prior to transplanting outside. As an example, if I'm looking at the calender, aiming to plant my beans outside on 11th June, I would plan to plant them in pots during mid to end of April (keeping an eye out on long range weather forecasts. This should also allow time to harden them off before planting i.e. acclimatising them to the outdoors gradually.

There's no science here - most vegetable guides will suggest you sow runner beans between April and May. The above was just a demonstration of how the guides arrive at that.

Bottom heat from a propagator gives stronger seedlings

In Ireland the most helpful resource I've found for frost dates, etc are the reports published by Met Eirann that give 30 year average temperatures from 1961 to 1990. Unfortunately not up-to-date, these can nevertheless be used as a guide for the average number of (ground) frost days that occurred each month as well as minimum and maximum temperatures. Bare in mind that the weather conditions from your nearest weather station might not resemble those of your garden. In our case it can differ by up to 5 deg C

Children love to help sow seeds

For more accurate current readings Met Eirann also publish daily records, those combined with the averages could give you a very clear indication of the ultimate sowing dates.

If you want to be totally sure however, soil thermometers are readily available either online or from garden centres.

Horticultural fleece placed over beds will protect seedlings from frost

Whenever you choose to sow, it's a good idea to start gathering resources in case of unexpected frosts that can either be used at the beginning of the year to protect sowings and seedlings, or at the end to protect from autumn frosts. Start stocking up on horticultural fleece, collect newspapers or pick up old net curtains from boot sales so that you can cover precious seedlings should a cold snap occur.

Hope that helps!

How to cheer a woman up - nothing like retail therapy

2012-01-14T14:02:00.000Z

Retail therapy in the middle of January buying gorgeous gifts for myself? How did I manage that?

Back in September my friend bought me a gift voucher for the lovely Morgans Garden Centre in Carlow and I'd popped it in my handbag.

Initially I thought I'd save it for spring seeds, but today I'm having a bit of a low day and remembered that I'd slipped it in there...

Walking around a garden centre, spending money and buying treats is usually guaranteed to bring a smile to my face. It also has the beneficial bonus of igniting the gardening mojo (which is probably a healthier form of therapy than the retail version but hey, there was a voucher burning a hole).

So on this melancholic day I spoilt myself with products I usually just gaze at - a memory foam kneeling pad, a Burgon & Ball herb rack and a beautifully perfumed verbena and lavender soap to wash the veggie garden mud away.

I find it virtually impossible to walk into a garden centre without purchasing anything practical so today it was a bag of seedling compost and plant labels. I'm now heading outside to pull a few weeds and make a few seedling pots in the hope that it will heal my low-spirit.

If anybody is uncertain as to whether a gift of vouchers might be a little unimaginative, this girl for one just adores receiving them, and in particular saving them for days like today.

Winter sunrise ~ a hill dwellers perspective

2012-01-13T10:27:00.000Z

There are many days on the top of our hill that we are engulfed in low cloud. Sometimes the damp air seeps through every crook and cranny of our house seemingly endlessly, so that in the end we resort to lighting the fire to dry it out.

My memories of August 2011 are waking up, hoping that I would jump out of bed, draw back the curtains and see the sun rising above the canopy of my favourite tree, but sadly it was not to be, yet another day of damp cloud.

In the colder, winter months however, the roles can be reversed and we are blessed with spectacular sunrises whilst the valley below is blanketed with freezing fog.

As we drive down the 'horrible hill' on the school run we see islands poking through the mist, the sky lit up with a myriad of colour, the views so spectacular that even the children stop chattering and gasp.

Mornings like today make up for all those dull summer days. Mornings like today make living and gardening in an exposed elevated spot so worthwhile. Mornings like today can make my soul swell with happiness that we live on such a beautiful planet.

Composting - How each household could save up to €1,000 a year

2012-01-09T22:42:00.000Z

If you're not already composting, the start of a new year is a good time to start afresh and plan to do so. Last year I attended a very interesting seminar at the Carlow County Council chambers given by Nuala on behalf of the Stop Food Waste Campaign which, apart from giving us a free source of organic matter, explained why composting is so important.

The campaign is a great initiative primarily aimed at reducing the amount of waste that goes into landfill each year, and encouraging us to think more carefully about how we shop, cook and eat.

Their website is a mine of information and well worth a look but a couple of points that were highlighted include:

The average person throws out the equivalent of three grown men of waste each year (300kgs), 30% of which is made up of food and 7% of garden and landscaping materials.
One third of food that Irish households buy is wasted - the equivalent of a third of our groceries being stolen out of our shopping trolleys.
The average household could save up to €1,000 a year by avoiding this waste by composting!

From our own perspective I'm so glad we have chickens and dogs for the cooked food leftovers. We also keep our waste to a minimum by writing weekly shopping lists and compost as much as we can, just using a few old pallets to make a couple of containers to contain it. Those practices combined with recycling, means that our family of five produces on average one black bin bag of refuse destined for the landfill every two weeks.

Nuala highlighted a few different composting systems and I was particularly interested in the ones for smaller gardens, as I'm often asked about them.

One was a Bokashi which seems like a really handy way of composting if you don't have a big garden but use an allotment.

Wormeries are another great alternative to compost bins and heaps, especially if you don't currently compost because you're worried about vermin. I was hugely impressed by a community composting (wormery) scheme that a group in Temple Bar, Dublin have set up. Their log of how they went about it is well worth a read for anybody interested in community composting, particularly in an urban area.

It's worth keeping an eye on the catalogues or in your garden centres as different products become available, such as this Earthmaker Aerobic Composter where research has shown that it will make twice as much compost as traditional bins over the same period.

If you have a few minutes, do take a couple of minutes to check out the Stop Food Waste website above.

For anybody who isn't already composting and doesn't have the Brown bin option for their 'green' waste, it was suggested that they get a small bucket with a lid and throw all their food waste into it for a week or two to see how much is thrown away.

Would you be willing to give that challenge a go?

If you'd like to know more about composting, there's a free downloadable pdf file on my website giving full details on how to compost.

Hairy Bittercress ~ if you don't plan to eat it, compost it!

2012-01-08T10:30:00.000Z

As weeds go you can do a lot worse than Hairy Bittercress, which is just as well as it's currently taking over one of my uncovered vegetable beds (it's giving my soil protection from the winter weather).

This is an annual to biennial weed - seedlings can withstand the severest frost, making it a very hardy weed. It carries hundreds of explosive seed pods that when ripe, can explode suddenly in all directions up to a metre around you (so weed in glasses!). The seeds generally germinate between April to December.

Hairy Bittercress is easy to remove from the soil with a hoe or by hand and it's important to do so as it can quickly smother beds containing your small vegetable seedlings, competing with them for space and light. Once removed the weeds can then be added to the compost heap.

If you don't mind eating *weeds however, Hairy Bittercress is edible, apparently tasting of watercress. I promise to give it a go when it stops raining ;)... Have you tried eating it?

Hairy Bittercress

The following is an audio clip of my tasting session. Apologies for the slight mad excitement of being out in the fresh air again, am new to audio!

Hairy Bittercress - tastes surprisingly good! (mp3)

* A weed is just a plant that's growing somewhere that it's unwanted.

Fresh growth, hope and patience

2012-01-05T15:06:00.000Z

It seems apt somehow that during the first week of a new year I should walk out into my polytunnel and be greeted with rows of tiny fresh green leaves.

The two seed leaves of the broad bean that were sown a few weeks ago and now reach upwards for the light, resembling miniature ancient Egyptian cats, fill me with hope.

They are the sign of birth and of nature's cycle. I feel excited at the prospect of a new season of growth and longer days ahead, planning and raking, sowing and planting. I look forward to naturing the little plants until they are big, strong and healthy and can be harvested and cooked, their discarded pods added to the compost where they will decompose and finally be scattered onto the soil where their nutrients will nourish the next crop, completing the cycle.

Today I am smiling at nature's gifts and patiently waiting for the coming weeks ahead and the joy and tranquillity they will bring. Today I am quietly reminded why I have such a love of gardening.

2012 - A New Dawn, A New Day

2012-01-02T23:56:00.003Z

It's that time of year when we sit down, look at the year gone by, the year ahead and plan our coming goals...

But I haven't yet! As a working mum with a shift working husband one aspect that I've had to resolve myself to is juggling family life. That includes taking time off with our children and/or working at midnight when they're in bed and/or shutting myself in the bedroom with the netbook for some peace and quiet.

So here we are on the 3rd January. I have another week at home (mostly) enjoying their company and although I haven't sat down yet and written a list, I have been thinking about the year gone past and the one ahead.

2011 was the busiest yet for Greenside Up with new Community Gardens starting up, the launch of the community garden network at the GIY National Conference, finding out I was a finalist at the Irish Green Awards and again at the South East Women in Business Awards. Mr G built raised beds, whilst I helped individuals start up, taught at night courses, spoke on radio interviews and, despite my nerves, spoke at several events about my passion - veggies and community gardening. I've met so many lovely, enthusiastic, talented, genuine people in the couple of years since starting Greenside Up I feel blessed and I'm really looking forward to meeting them again, and hopefully meeting more.

However, the great thing about a new year is that it's a dam good excuse to start afresh.

I love opening my brand new diary and the pages are bare. The uncertainty of not knowing what events will be unfolding and filling the crisp pages is exciting.

I'm feeling amazingly motivated about helping more people grow veggies, as well as looking forward to starting a fresh year with the community and intellectually disabled gardeners I've been lucky enough to work with in the past.

I'm also looking forward to starting afresh on our own plot, trying out some new varieties of vegetables, maybe some new methods, and am determined to make more wines and preserves this year too.

So in the words of Nina Simone "It's a new dawn, it's a new day, it's a new life ...." bring on 2012 and whatever challenges it unveils....

Purple Themed Vegetable Garden - Would you do it?

2011-12-28T11:23:00.001Z

Kohl Rabi

Being a lover of the colour purple, it was only a matter of time before I thought of the idea of growing a colour themed vegetable garden.

I've grown several types of purple veg already including purple sprouting brocolli, carrots, scarlet kale (which is purple in colour), kohl rabi and rainbow chard which includes a purple stemmed variety.

It's unlikely that I'll go for it this coming year but as purple varieties of most vegetables are now readily available, I may just start replacing some of my seeds with the purple varieties listed below as they run out until eventually - well who knows.

So what makes purple vegetables special apart from their glorious colour? Well for a start they contain natural pigments called anthocyanins. These act as powerful andixidants that protect from cell damage and are said to help lower the risk of cancer, strokes and heart disease.

According to Asparabuddies (and their furry friends) purple asparagus is the sweetest of all the varieties they've grown, whilst here we've noticed that the pests head to the green varieties of kale first, leaving the purple leaves relatively unscathed.

So here's a list of over thirty different purple veg, including links to seed suppliers in Ireland and the UK if you'd like to give them ...

Asparagus - Purple Passion
Aubergine - Rosa Bianca
Basil - Red Ruben
Beans - Selma Zebra
Beetroot - Detroit Globe
Broccoli - Broccoli Purple Sprouting
Brussels Sprouts - Red Ball Haze
Cabbage Red Drumhead
Cauliflower Violet Queen

Carrots - Purple Haze
Chives SKU
Choy Sum Purple
Garlic Iberian Wight
Globe Artichoke - Purple Globe Artichoke
Leef Beet Bulls Blood Scarletta
Lettuce - Amorina
Kale - Red Russian
Kohl Rabi - Kolibri
Mange Tout Pea Shiraz
Mint Korean
Mustard Osaka Purple
Onions Hyred
Pak Choi Rubi
Peppers Hot Pepper Purple
Potatoes - Purple Majesty
Radish - China Rose
Scorzionna - Giant Russian
Swede Tweed
Sweetcorn - Painted Mountain
Swiss Chard (Leaf Beat) Magenta Sunset
Tomatoes - Black Cherry Tomatoes
Turnip - Milan Purple

Do you like the idea of eating purple vegetables? Have you ever grown any? Have I missed any? I'd love to hear your thoughts...

Christmas Traditions ~ Twas the Night Before Christmas

2011-12-24T21:52:00.000Z

When our first child was born it was time to make up new traditions for our family. A combination of some old ones from Mr G's childhood, some from my own and new ones created for our first and subsequent children.

Our eldest was born just three weeks before Christmas and reading the poem The Night Before Christmas by Clement C Moore to him as a tiny baby was one of our first new traditions. It's a poem I've read with delight every Christmas since, and no doubt will continue long after they've left home...

Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house

Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse;

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,

In hopes that St.Nicholas soon would be there;

The children were nestled all snug in their beds

While visions of sugar plums danced in their heads;

And Mamma in her kerchief, and I in my cap,

Had just settled our brains for a long winter's nap,

When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter,

I sprang from my bed to see what was the matter.

Away to the window I flew in a flash,

Tore open the shutters and threw up the sash.

The moon on the breast of the new-fallen snow

Gave a lustre of midday to objects below,

When, what to my wondering eyes should appear,

But a miniature sleigh and eight tiny reindeer,

With a little old driver, so lively and quick,

I knew in a moment it must be St. Nick.

More rapid than eagles his coursers they came,

And he whistled and shouted, and called them by name:

"Now, Dasher! now, Dancer! now Prancer and Vixen!

On, Comet! on, Cupid! on, Donder and Blitzen!

To the top of the porch! To the top of the wall!

Now dash away! dash away! dash away, all!"

As dry leaves that before the wild hurricane fly,

When they meet with an obstacle, mount to the sky,

So up to the housetop the coursers they flew,

With a sleigh full of toys and St. Nicholas, too.

And then, in a twinkling, I heard on the roof

The prancing and pawing of each little hoof.

As I drew in my head, and was turning around,

Down the chimney St Nicholas came with a bound.

He was dressed all in fur, from his head to his foot,

And his clothes were all tarnished with ashes and soot;

A bundle of toys he had flung on his back,

And he looked like a peddler just opening his pack.

His eyes - how they twinkled! his dimples, how merry!

His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry!

His droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow,

And the beard on his chin was as white as the snow;

He had a broad face and a little round belly

That shook, when he laughed, like a bowl full of jelly.

He was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf,

And I laughed, which I saw him, in spite of myself;

A wink of his eye and a twist of his head,

Soon gave me to know I nothing to dread;

He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work,

And filled all the stockings, then turned with a jerk,

And laying a finger aside of his nose,

And giving a nod, up the chimney he rose.

He sprang to his sleigh, to his team gave a whistle,

And away they all flew like the down of a thistle.

But I heard him exclaim, ere he drove out of sight,

"Happy Christmas to all, And to all a good night!"

Natural Christmas Decoration

2011-12-19T12:00:00.004Z

I'm not going to even try to explain how to weave this willow and wool Christmas decoration! If you'd like to have a go at making it just look very carefully at the photo and copy. All you need are pieces of freshly cut willow, trimmed to your desired size and some red wool to tie them together.

We were given one of these by a (then) 12 year old friend of the family as a Christmas gift who'd made it himself. We've been making them as small gifts for friends every year since.

The original gift

Christmas Chilli Competition

2011-12-18T10:02:00.000Z

It's competition time! I've been reorganising my blog recently making it easier to find posts, tips on growing vegetables and recipes (see the tabs above).

To celebrate I'll be giving away some chilli seeds that are perfect for growing in containers.

All you have to do is leave a comment on any of the posts or drop me an email saying which post you liked and I'll pick a name at random on Christmas eve. Best of luck!

As it's Christmas why not share the love and tell your friends about the competition too... I have a few packets to spare so you never know, if lots of people enter I'll be choosing more than one winner.

How to make a Natural Christmas Door Wreath

2011-12-16T14:53:00.002Z

I used to look at people's lovely festive door wreath's longingly but they always seemed an unnecessary extravagance at a time of year when every cent counts. Eventually I had a go at making one for myself and have never looked back. Everything contained in the wreath above was foraged from the garden, the only expense being some forestry wire to hold some of it together.

Materials

Four willow wands

(if you don't have access to willow, garden centres or florists sell wire hoops, in which case you'd need to wrap them in moss first)

Seed heads and evergreens

(I've used pittosporum, hydrangeas, sedums, hypericum, rosemary and ivy)

Secateurs

Twine to hang the wreath

Floristry wire

Taking the first piece of willow, wind it into a circle shape. Tip: use fresh willow as it's pliable. Then wind the next piece of willow around the circle, adding additional pieces until you have a chunky frame.

You can add more or less willow depending upon the size of wreath you'd like. Once you have the basic frame you can start threading the seeds heads and evergreens that you've gathered around it. When adding 'features' such as the hydrangeas, use odd numbers as they catch the eye.

Foraging is half the fun

Most of the materials can be tucked and threaded through the willow but you may have to tie florists wire around some to ensure they're kept in place. This can be disguised towards the end by adding more greenery.

and that's pretty much it. Keep building up your design with more plant materials until you have your desired effect. It may take a bit of fiddling around and mind changing but that's all part of it. I prefer a more natural look and we don't have any red berries, but you can add ribbons and bells, dried orange slices, pine cones - whatever takes your fancy.

and that's all there is to it. Finally tie the twine to hang your wreath, stand back and enjoy. The first year I made one Mr G looked at it and said "where did you buy that"... ", I made it" I replied, "oh, I thought it looked too good for that".... this year he's learnt his lesson ;)

Postscript: Now my wreath's been hanging on the door for a couple of hours I'm thinking it needs some Christmassy reds. As Mr G wont let me use the last red chilli, I'm off to forage a few small red berries from the hedgerows...

If you'd like some more tips and ideas for Christmas wreaths, take a look at One Bean Row's post where you'll find some beautifully crafted ideas.

Reflecting on 2011 and Looking forward to 2012

2011-12-14T18:31:00.000Z

One evening's dinner picked fresh from the garden

Since launching Greenside Up a couple of years ago I've been encouraged by the resurgence of interest in providing food for ourselves - whether it's through growing vegetables or keeping animals and bees and becoming more self-sufficient.

Our future is so uncertain (both environmentally and economically) that it's heartening to see people take control of a small part of their lives (if you can call eating a small part!).

The interest in school gardening at primary level is massively important for our children's futures and with initiatives like SEED and transition year students starting to grow vegetables, many more youngsters will start to benefit from gardening projects in their schools too. GIY Ireland have had phenomenal success with groups meeting up monthly in almost every town in Ireland, enabling people to come together and share their knowledge. Garden centres have been welcoming the revival in grow your own, which must be helping to keep their doors open in these very hard pressed times as well as keeping local people in employment.

Goresbridge Community Garden

Community Gardens

As well as various other projects for Greenside Up, 2011 saw a developing interest in community gardens. My passion for this area of gardening grew whilst I was helping Goresbridge start their community garden in the spring of 2010. The sense of friendship, laughter, teamwork, appreciation of nature and satisfaction from learning new skills cannot be underestimated in today's climate.

Bagenalstown Community Garden

For the growing season this year I was delighted to be invited back to help both old and new gardeners once again.

In March, after mixed success at encouraging new gardeners, Bagenalstown Family Resource Centre approached Carlow VEC and for 15 weeks I was able to help a group fill the raised beds with seeds and seedlings.

Ballyhale Community Garden

In April Kilkenny VEC were able to fund a gardening course for a group of active retired people in Ballyhale which has resulted in a small community garden being established in the land beside the local community centre. A variety of age groups were involved and I was delighted towards the end of the six weeks to welcome grandchildren of some of the participants along too.

Millennium Court Community Garden

I learnt a great deal from the older participants of that group - from how things were done in the olden days to lots of reuse/recycle tips.

I especially enjoyed hearing about old leather boots being cut up and the material being used to make door hinges!

Then in October Respond got in touch and I was asked to help a brand new community garden project in Kilkenny at Millennium Court. We started with four mornings and are planning a full Fetac Level 3 course in Outdoor Vegetable Crop Production for the spring months of 2012. Set in the middle of a housing estate almost all the participants are neighbours and we can already see the benefits to the community of them all growing vegetables, both at the Community Centre and in their own gardens, swooping and sharing their produce and vegetable recipes.

Without the funding it's unlikely that these groups would have started and I sincerely hope that whoever decides where funding is allocated, they too see the incredible benefits of these gardens to communities and individuals alike.

Plans for 2012?

More community gardens I hope! My own local parish of Leighlinbridge will be starting one in the early spring which I'm really looking forward to getting involved with.

Now that FETAC have introduced their new level 3 course I'll be able to offer accredited courses aimed at people who want to grow their own food. I'm especially looking forward to delivering this as I continued with my own training this summer by undertaking a FETAC level 6 Train the Trainer course and will be able to implement the recommendations made.

I'm also coordinating a new All Ireland Community Garden Network group (official name still to be decided) with representatives from all over the island due to meet up in the new year to decide where we go from here. This is a very exciting project as it's hoped that it will be supported by various interested parties around the country and will benefit many, including those of us who work with the gardens, local councils and of course the gardeners themselves.

It's very easy to get disheartened by all the negativity and uncertainty that surrounds our day to day lives at present, but we'll get nowhere by allowing those thoughts and feelings to take over. Growing food for ourselves and our families is empowering. It helps our budgets, it brings us closer to nature, it's good for us and it gives us the choice over what we want to eat.

So if you're not already growing your own, will it be your resolution for 2012? Or if you are, will you be growing even more ?

Gingerbread Cookie or House Recipe

2011-12-11T19:07:00.005Z

Very first gingerbread house!

Gingerbread houses are lots of fun to make and not as difficult as you might think. I've often made basic houses for neighbours and one of our girl's made a request for one as a birthday cake one year too.

I loved the vegetable garden version that River Cottage posted on their site (which prompted me to write this) but the book 'Gingerbread Things to Make and Bake' by Teresa Layman and Barbara Morgenroth is truly inspiring if you like the idea of making different styles of houses.

From churches to cabins, barns to farmhouses the book has them all and if you 'collect' recipe books, I think you'd love to have this one on the bookshelf.

Birthday Cake (full of sweets for added surprise)

There are various recipes for gingerbread but the one below is my tried and tested favourite which was given with my first gingerbread house recipe in an old Good Food Magazine (you can find a link to the template here ).

I also use this recipe for gingerbread people and Christmas shapes as it's easy to work with and tastes delicious.

Ingredients (enough to make the house in the sweet shop above)

650g self raising flour
3 tsp ground ginger
3 tsp ground cinnamon
175g butter
225g dark brown sugar
175g black treacle
2 eggs, beaten

Preheat oven to 180oC

1. Place the flour, ginger, cinnamon and butter in a food processor and pulse until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs (in two batches if the bowl is small).

2. Combine the sugar, treacle and egg in a large mixing bowl. Tip in the flour mix and stir, then bring the dough together with your hands.

3. Turn onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth.

4. Cover and chill for at least one hour before rolling and cutting into shapes (approx 2 euro coins in thickness.

5. Place the shapes onto baking parchment and bake in the oven for 15 minutes.

If you're making biscuits rather than the house, this is how many (roughly) the quantity of ingredients listed above makes.... lots of presents (or munchies for you)!! If you've children in the house, decorating them will keep them happy for hours.

Festive vegetable recipes

2011-12-07T11:14:00.000Z

We've been cooking this Christmas day menu for several years as we love every scrap of it! The vegetables (except the cranberries) will have been growing or stored from the garden which reduces the grocery bill considerably too.

All the recipes were taken from a selection of Good Food and Good Housekeeping magazines that have long since been recycled. There's usually only the five of us sitting down for dinner but we love heating up the leftovers for the following day or two, which is why we cook so much.

Traditionally Christmas eve in our house is all about preparing the food for the big meal the following day. It's the day we bake the ham so the stove is usually on for hours and the whole family gets involved baking, chopping, peeling, rinsing, stirring, decorating and tasting.

You can find the recipes for the vegetable dishes below if you'd like to try something different and I'll post the meaty ones separately for the non vegetarians (the sprout recipe is here).

* * * * * * * * * *

Creamy Lemon, Pancetta & Rosemary Turkey,

Sausage NutStuffing Cake,

BrusselsSprouts in Pine Nut Butter,

Roast HoneyGlazed

Carrots & Parsnips,

Steamed Rainbow Swiss Chard

Pigs inBlankets,

BaconWrapped Prunes,

CreamyLeeks,

RoastPotatoes,

CranberrySauce,

Bread Sauce

* * * * * * * * * *

Cranberry Sauce

(Serves 8-10)

2 clementines

200g cranberries

100g light muscavado sugar

6 tbsp port

Squeeze 1 clementine and put the juice in a pan with the cranberries, sugar and port. Cook for 5 minutes until the cranberries start to soften and burst. Tear the other clementine into segments (remove the membrane if you have time) and cook along with the cranberries for 2 mins more. Store in the fridge, or freeze for up to 2 months.

Creamy Baked Leeks

(Serves 3 - 4)

2 large leeks

1 tbsp olive oil

1 tbsp butter

salt & pepper

1 tsp fresh thyme

60g grated Parmesan

2 tbsp cream

Chop the green leaves off the leeks and cut the white stem into rounds and rinse well. Heat the olive oil in a saucepan and add the leeks, thyme, butter and salt allowing them to sweat, stirring frequently. Add half the Parmesan cheese and the cream. If it looks dry add a little water. Place into an oven proof dish, sprinkle over the remaining Parmesan and bake for 15 minutes until browned on top.

Roast Honey Glazed Carrots & Parsnips

(Serves 8)

800g each of carrots and parsnips

4 tbsp runny honey

2 tbsp chopped lemon thyme (if you can get it)

zest & juice of 1 lemon

75g butter, chopped

600ml hot turkey stock

Roughly chop the carrots and parsnips, place in a large pan of boiling water and cook for 3-4 mins. Drain well. Put the honey, thyme, lemon zest and juice into a large bowl. Season and mix well, then add to the carrots and parsnips. Mix to coat. Put into a large, lightly greased ovenproof dish. Stir butter into the hot stock, pour it over the vegetables and cover with greased foil. Bake for 1 hr, removing the foil 15 mins before the end of the cooking time until tender and golden.

Not vegetable or meat but delicious....

Bread Sauce

(Serves 8-10)

600ml milk

50g butter

1 onion

6 cloves

6 peppercorns

2 garlic cloves

1 bay leaf

3 thyme sprigs

100g white breadcrumbs

4 tbsp single cream or mascarpone

pinch nutmeg, freshly grated

Simmer the milk, butter, onion, cloves, peppercorns, garlic and herbs in a pan for 20 mins. Strain and return the liquid to the pan. Add the breadcrumbs and simmer for 3-4 mins. Stir in the cream or mascarpone. Add nutmeg, season and serve. (This can be made up to 3 days ahead and reheated.)

Recycled bathroom – an environmental or budget decision?

2011-12-04T11:53:00.000Z

A friend asked me recently whether we recycled everything because we wereon a budget or because we really cared about the environment. The question could have offended given thatI’ve been writing to MPs since I was 17, but it was genuinely asked and set methinking…. If you’re watching your budget then doesn't it makes sense to beenvironmentally conscious? Surely they go hand in hand in that the less materially motivatedwe are the better it is for our planet.

I remember as a teenager being devastated when my parentsbrought home a new mahogany toilet seat - why? Because it came from trees that had been growing for centuries in our precious rainforests. What an earth was wrong with sitting on a pine seat for goodness sake, both sustainable and cheaper?

After leaving home and moving into rental accommodation, then becoming ahome owner myself, reusing old furniture andsecond hand white goods seemed obvious. Yes it was budget driven but why buynew when so much ‘stuff’ was being discarded. Did I need brand new everything?Other than a new mattress, no not really, not when I could buy clean, no longerloved second hand goods that needed new homes.

It's always puzzled me why so many people have never grasped the fact that apart from being morally obliged, it makesfinancial sense to be 'green' - why would you pay a bin man to take your glassbottles away and bury them in the dump (or worse, leave them in ditches on the side of the road) when they can be recycled for free in abottle bank ?

When we started renovating our old farmhouse we were more than happy to useother people's 'rubbish' to fit and furnish it. We visited salvage yards,auctions and small ads. In fact once neighbours heard that we were willing touse old things, they would phone to see if we wanted their left overinsulation, piping, or other building supplies that were left over from theirown new house builds (yes please!!)

One of the things I love about our old house is the way it's evolved, thecharacter it’s taken on and the history and stories that surround everything init. Because we've undertaken all of the work ourselves, and on a (almost non existent) budget, it has developed gradually. Our bathroom is a case in point.

I mentioned in a previous post that we spent months and months without a hot water supply, so when Mr G finally started work on our bathroom it was with great excitement from thewhole family. During the celtic tiger years people were spending thousands fitting out bathrooms. We spent lessthan €500 on the entire room, including paint, wood, bath, shower, loo, sinkflooring and lights. So how did we manage that?

Starting with the floor, we used old slates that were given to us, surplusto their requirements. Cleaned, scrubbed up, cemented down and varnished theymake hardwearing and waterproof flooring. Because they're 'heathers' they havelovely purpley shades running through them and that gave us the colour themefor the rest of the room.

The old Victorian claw legged bath and taps were a freebie. Mr G was rewiring a house inKilkenny where they were refitting their old bathroom with a brand new one -"you can have it if you can move it" came the reply when he askedwhat was going to happen to the old bath. So with help from the plumber it wascarried down the stairs, left out on the front lawn and we brought it home (not easy, cast iron baths are bloomin heavy!).Again, scrubbed, sanded and painted the bath was transformed and we weredelighted.

The sink and taps came from the Slaney Arms in Tullow. Lying in astoreroom, Mr G enquired about it (you have to be a bit cheeky to reuse and recycle),found it was destined for the dump and it was transferred to the back of thevan and proudly brought home. The old sewing machine stand that the sink nowsits on was given to us by a friend.

The toilet cistern came from Murphy’s Bar in Ballylynam (with permission!) and the originaltoilet pan and old seat from the Buy and Sell for a tenner, which have since been replaced with a new one with a lid that closes (FSC pine, no new mahogany here).

The shower cubicle, plumbing fittings and lights were the only new itemswe've bought for the room, and the wall tiles were end of line bargain offers.

Mr G built all the tongue and groove wainscoting; I painted it and made theblinds and curtains.

Finally, after a month with just a curtain for privacy (fine for us but used to embarrass friends), we found a lovely old solidpine door with the original leaded glass and brass door knob that came from a local salvage yard that we stripped and waxed.

So in answer to my friend's question, caring about our environment has always been very high on my agenda, but why buy new when it's not necessary...

Brussels Sprouts in Pine Nut Butter Recipe

2011-12-03T09:30:00.003Z

I have to admit to cooking this vegetable accompaniment to Christmas dinner for the past six years(!) as we love it so much.

The pine nuts and sprouts can be prepared the day before (or prepared and frozen) making it a really quick and easy veg dish that doesn't need to be overly worried about on the day.

Ingredients (serves 8)

50g pine nuts
40g butter
Lemon, finely grated zest
Nutmeg, small amount grated
1.1kg Brussels sprouts
200g pancetta (optional)

Method

Toast the pine nuts in a dry frying pan for 2 - 3 minutes until golden and allow to cool. Mix the butter and lemon zest in a bowl. Add the pine nuts and nutmeg and season with freshly ground black pepper. Mix everything together, spoon on to a piece of greaseproof paper and wrap tightly. Freeze for up to a month.

Bring a large pan of water to the boil, add the sprouts. Bring back to the boil and simmer for 5 - 7 minutes. Drain well, return to the pan, add the pine nut butter and toss to coat.

Optional: fry the pancetta and add to the mixture.

To avoid bitterness: If you find your sprouts often taste bitter there are a couple of things you can do that will help to reduce this...

If you're growing your own, avoid picking them until they've gone through a few frosts. Frost concentrates the sugars making them a bit sweeter. Also overcooking them can make them bitter, so slicing them in half (which also releases some of the acidic compounds they contain) will help them cook a bit quicker too.

Do you have a favourite sprout recipe for Christmas time?

Community Harvest Fruit Projects

2011-12-01T15:02:00.003Z

Last week I headed up to Dublin to attend a Harvest Seminar organised by Green Home, a framework that are supported by the Environmental Protection Agency to support and advise householders on ways to protect the environment whilst saving money on their household bills.

Green Homes is an extension of the green schools programme and a really worthwhile initiative run by a very enthusiastic and committed bunch of people. (So do take a look at their site if you'd like to get involved.)

Back to the harvest seminar though, in the lead up to the European Waste Reduction week Green Homes organised a fruit awareness programme, encouraging local groups, schools and individuals to map then harvest fruit that is often wasted each year because people don't have the time, energy or physical ability to harvest them, or just don't notice that the fruit is going to waste.

This idea really appealed to me, particularly as I'm involved with community gardeners and can see the potential to the community groups I work with.

So often, as you walk or drive around the towns, villages or countryside, you can see apple trees dripping with fruit that you know will just go to waste. At the same time supermarket shelves are stacked with perfectly shaped cardboard and cellophane packets of apples that have usually been imported from overseas. Is there not something slightly skewed about that? Food is being wasted, literally left to rot on the trees or ground, yet money is being spent on importing goods destined for our fruit bowls? Even today whilst shopping in Lidl (who are usually pretty good at stocking Irish goods) there were no Irish grown apples and yet they're still in season. Thankfully other supermarkets such as Supervalu are stocking them, but shouldn't it be the norm rather than the exception?

So Irish apples may not be as tasty as imports, but there are many uses for them apart from eating them in their raw format. At the Savour Kilkenny weekend the Futureproof Kilkenny group were pulping apples and handing out apple juice to passersby. It struck me then that if every parish owned a pulper/juicer wouldn't it be a great excuse for a community harvest knees up (River Cottage style perhaps)?

I'm really hoping that this event is just the beginning of something good, something that can grow and develop and be another step towards communities working together. I'm hoping that it will be a chance for people to learn about communities becoming more sustainable and at the very least, a darn good excuse to get together and have a bit of an old fashioned knees up.

What do you think?

Note:

If you're living in the Republic of Ireland and would like to participate in the green home scheme where you can monitor your household's performance with the aim of reducing your environmental footprint, you can register your interest here.

Peppermint Cream Recipe

2011-11-28T16:47:00.001Z

So simple to make you'll never need to buy peppermint creams again.

Just whisk two free range egg whites until they're frothy then add enough of the whites to 500g of sifted icing sugar to make a pliable dough, adding peppermint essence to taste.

Remove from the bowl and roll out on a clean surface dusted with icing sugar to desired thickness. Cut into shapes with cookie cutters. Our girls often choose the hearts but at Christmas all the festive shapes come into play.

Set aside on a tray to harden for 24hrs (that's the difficult part!)

These make lovely presents at Christmas and our younger girls like to hand them out in little boxes to friends and teachers. I'd advise dusting them first with a little sugar to prevent them sticking.

Happy sweet making!

Ten-minute Oat & Raisin Cookie Recipe

2011-11-28T12:41:00.001Z

This is a variation of the ten-minute chocolate chip cookie that's in the River Cottage Everyday cookbook.

We watched Hugh bake these on a recent episode of his excellent River Cottage Veg show. They looked so quick & easy to make (they are) that the girls asked to make them for their lunch boxes this week.

We made a batch of the chocolate ones too but surprisingly the oaty ones are the preferred choice!

The recipe makes 14 - 16 biscuits. Heat the oven to 190oC/Gas 5 and line a couple of baking sheets with baking parchment paper.

Ingredients

125g butter (preferably unsalted)
2 tbsp honey
100g caster sugar
75g soft light brown sugar
1 medium free range egg, lightly beaten
150g plain flour
50g jumbo oats
100g raisins
75g chopped, roasted hazelnuts
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp baking powder
pinch sea salt

Method

Put both the sugars in a mixing bowl. Melt the butter and honey in a small saucepan and add to the sugars, mixing well. Sift the flour, baking powder and cinnamon into the bowl then add the egg and salt, oats, raisins and hazelnuts. The mixture should be fairly sloppy, but hold it's shape when dolloped onto the baking sheets with a dessert spoon. Ensure you leave enough space between the mixture on the tray to enable them to spread out. Bake for 8 - 10 minutes until the cookies turn a pale, golden brown.

Remove from the oven and leave on the baking sheets for a few minutes to firm up before lifting on to a cooling rack.

If you want to make the chocolate version, leave out the oats, raisins, cinnamon, honey and nuts and just add big chunks (100g) of chocolate and 2 tsp vanilla extract to the mixture.

Three Sisters Companion Planting

2011-11-27T12:14:00.000Z

Three Sisters Companion Planting

Three sisters is a type of companion planting in the vegetable garden that the north Americans have traditionally used for over 6,000 years, both symbolically and beneficially.

Symbolism

Passed down through generations, the stories are that corn, beans and squash are sacred gifts from the Great Spirit. The planting season is marked by ceremonies to honour the three sister spirits.

Planting

Although we didn't follow the traditional three sister planting to the letter in our own garden (I planted the seeds in blocks rather than up and around each other), I can say without a doubt that we harvested bountiful crops of all three vegetables during 2010 when we experimented with this planting method.

French Beans & Courgette

How does it work?

Traditionally the beans are planted at the base of the corn stalks which are then used to support the growing bean stems.

The leaves from the squash shade the roots of the corn and beans and help to preserve moisture. The also suppress the weeds and their prickly stems discourage pests. Also the roots from the beans are nitrogen fixers which benefits both the corn and the squash.

This method is quite different from the commonly grown rows of vegetables used in crop rotation, as here the vegetable families have been juggled up, but it works. Their growth habits and nutritional requirements are quite different but complementary to each other.

I'd certainly recommend giving this method a try and look forward to using it again in my own garden.

Water ... and life in the Irish rural slow lane

2011-11-25T14:43:00.001Z

Spot the baby (2001)
Our house, mobile & guest accommodation

I was passed a link this morning by Roisin from Creative Dynamix that immediately reminded me of when we first moved to the top of our hill and the months we spent at our site without water.

I cried two days after this (2001) when I found my
toddler 'swimming' in a muddy trench and had
no water to clean him.

Many rural Ireland dwellers will have an inkling about how it feels to be without this precious resouce. Most of us who live outside of the towns and villages rely on electric pumps that live in the bottom of deep wells to draw up our water.

Whenever there's a power cut we not only lose our lights and electricity, but also our water supply (and if, like us you have to rely on an electrically powered heating system, we lose that too).

Our kitchen (2000) - lots of work ahead

When we first moved up to our abandoned, unloved old house in the summer of 2001 there were no modern facilities.

The stories are that two elderly women lived in the farmhouse full of laughter and music until the mid 1980's (when I was living in the UK and taking all my mod cons for granted...) It was the place where the local children used to bunk off school and hide away from their parents until it was time to return home. They'd chat, sing and stomp their feet to the accordion playing and have their bellies filled with bowls of soup, laddled from a pot that was suspended upon the old crane, stewing above the open fire in the dark, peat warmed kitchen.

Every day, and several times a day I imagine, the elderly ladies would take it in turns to fill a container with water from the nearby spring that is now almost hidden in the bank down the lane and carry it back up to the house for their supplies.

Levelling the kitchen floor.... no power tools here

When Mr G, two children under 3, two dogs, two cats and I turned up to start our new life in a one bedroomed mobile home in the front courtyard of the old farmhouse, it was to conditions we were unfamiliar with. (Just as well we were used to camping holidays!)

We were lucky in that we didn't have to collect our water from the spring. Our neighbouring farmer had an outside tap that we hauled containers backwards and forwards to everyday. Still, it wasn't the cleanest of water but we filtered it the best we could for drinking. Our mobile home didn't have provisions for hot water either, so for 18 months and another baby later, all our hot water came via boiled kettles.

When the 300ft well was finally drilled and Mr G had plumbed a tap into the shed, we turned it on for the first time and spent the day rejoicing.

We did and still do have an abundance of dry, stone sheds so it was not long after turning on the first tap, that we installed a shower and a handbasin next to the outside loo, thereby ending the family trip to the swimming pool for a weekly clean (first) then bathe...

However, I'll never forget the dark, January morning that I headed out to our chilly shower, stripped off, lathered up and the water froze... or the way that all the cold water droplets used to spill onto you when your shut the clear, plastic sheet door that Mr G had built around the little cubicle to try and keep the drafts out.

It was almost two and a half years after first moving to our site that we were finally able to switch on a tap in an inside bathroom and hot water came out of it.

By then our youngest daughter was more than a year and a half old and a basin full of water would entertain our middle daughter for hours. The experience was powerful and has resulted in us never taking water for granted since, although I do admit to occasionally forgetting.

Now my dream kitchen, hand built by Mr G is finished. We thank the dishwasher daily and enjoy stove cooked meals rather than the daily menu's I had to conjour up for the family on two gas rings.

So back to the link. It was for Environment Africa an inspiring organisation who's mission is to "work together with all sectors of society raising awareness, encouraging action and advocating a better environment that uplifts the livelihood of current and future generations".

What a positive mission statement! That single sentence encapsulates so much but is one that could be echoed in all countries around the world, including our own.

Environment Africa called for everyone to take a challenge - a very difficult challenge as it happens...

"Switch off your water at the main source in your home for 24 hours. The closest point at which you could walk to fetch water must be a minimum of 1 kilometer away from your home, no hopping in your car and driving, you must walk. Sounds simple enough, but I challenge you to do it, for 24 hours and it will give you a new perspective on how we take water for granted and how we cannot live without it. For many people living in rural communities, this is not a 24 hour challenge, but an every day reality with people having to walk many kilometres each day to fetch water."

So how did the thought of that make you feel? Did you get a shiver down your spine at the inconvenience that living without water would cause? Are you prepared to take that challenge? Probably not I suspect, but even being aware of just how much water we use daily is a start in appreciating just how precious this resource is.

GM. A ticking time bomb?

2011-11-22T13:21:00.001Z

photo via www.urbansprout.co.za

Many people I'm sure, see the initials GM and their eyes glaze over, or worse they ignore them and skip onto something more interesting. Why is that I wonder, why aren't people interested in knowing the origins of what they're eating - is playing around with genetics, or DNA, something that many of us wish wasn't happening but feel helpless to do anything about, much like battery hens or mass commercial farming?

I've been thinking of writing about genetically modified food (GM) ever since I heard Alfie from Old Farm talking about it at this year's Food Camp at the Savour Kilkenny festival, but how do you encourage people to read about it with glazed eyes? More importantly, do I know enough myself to write about it accurately? Getting the facts straight is important whenever we write, but the more I've delved into the subject of GM over the past few days, the more bogged down by legal documents, political declarations and scientific research I've become.

One thing I'm certain about however, is that I'm not happy that my personal choice over whether or not I wish to eat this contentious food source appears to have been taken away from me. Given that my housekeeping budget does not allow my family to eat a diet made up entirely of organic food, it would seem that we are already eating food that contain GM ingredients, like it or not.

Although I knew scientists have been messing around with genetics (cows producing human milk, come on!), it wasn't until I heard Alfie speak so passionately about it that the dangers of using human beings as living, breathing test tubes for this branch of science, and where it's potentially headed that it really struck home.

I've since brought the topic up in a couple of workshops and it seems that many people just aren't informed, or have never heard of GM. So, rather than give you a detailed scientific list (which I'm not qualified to do anyway), the following are just a few points that I've gathered that we do know about. I'm sure this can be added to, and if you can and wish to, please do so in the comments...

Genetically modifying isn't just another word(s) for plant breeding. Natural breeding occurs when closely related species are reproduced e.g. a tomato and a potato, not by mingling the DNA of different species e.g. a tomato and a monkey.
Once created and planted, there's no going back. Genetically modified plants cannot be recalled, but as living organisms will multiply, passing any traits from generation to generation.We simply don't know enough about them yet to unleash them to the world.
The Irish Doctors Environmental Association are very concerned about the possible health implications of foods containing genetically modified (GM) ingredients. They express serious concerns about the results of animal testing, and the lack of publications of clinical studies on the human health effects of GM food.
Food containing genetically modified organisms is already on sale in Irish shops. In a survey of soya based foods undertaken by the Food Safety Authority of Ireland in 2002, over a half of the products tested contained genetically modified ingredients. Such products included baby foods and soya products.
Although Ireland does not grow GM crops, we do import animal feeds that contain them, so we are already indirectly consuming products containing them.
The labelling laws aren't strict enough. Milk, eggs and meat from animals that are fed GM food do not currently have to be labelled.
The weedkiller Roundup (produced by Monsanto) which is routinely sprayed on GM crops, has been linked to human cell death, birth defects, cancer, miscarriages and environmental damage according to a report released by an international group of scientists in 2011.
90% of genetically modified crops belong to Monsanto.
According to WikiLeaks, Monsanto have links with the US government and the US government have been putting Europe under pressure, threatening trade restrictions if they oppose genetically modified crops (just saying...)

This list could go on and on, but it wont. Instead I strongly urge you to watch the four minute video that Greenpeace Switzerland have created that explains very simply why we should be concerned about genetically modified food - it's well worth taking a few minutes to view it.

Then please take a look at the Irish GM Moratorium web site where there is a link to a petition urging the Irish Government to put in place a 5-year moratorium on growing GM crops and food in Ireland because not enough is yet known about GM crop effects.

Also take a look at some of the links to the science and research from the web page and make your own minds up.

Whatever you do, please don't ignore the GM issue in the hope that it will just go away... it wont.

Fun experiment to determine your soil texture

2011-11-13T16:24:00.003Z

Soil Texture Experiment

Getting to know your soil is half way to determining how well yourplants will grow.

Your soil contains nutrients and minerals that allow plants to thriveso if you can identify your soil type – whether it’s clay, sand, peaty or loam,you can work with the soil you have rather than constantly fighting against it.

So how do you find out what your soil texture is?

A fun experiment you can carry out at home (and a great one for the children to help with too) is to place about a cup fullof your soil into a straight sided, clean jar, removing any larger pebbles orstones first.

Add a tablespoon of laundry detergent and a tablespoon of salt to thesoil then fill the jar with water to the top before screwing on a lid tightly.

Shake the jar for five minutes or so (you may need help!)

Leave the jar undisturbed where you can see it. After a couple of daysthe soil particles will settle into layers.

As the sand particles are the heaviest they will sink to the bottomfirst, followed by silt then clay. The thickness of each layer will help todetermine how much of each is contained in your soil.

So as you can see from the result of our Greenside Up soil, a small layer of sand has settled at the bottom, then silt, with clay at the top, at roughly 20% sand, 30% silt and 50% clay.

The Greenside up soil istherefore considered a heavy clay soil.

You can usually identify your soil type just by looking at it and feeling it, without the need for an experiment (this was just for a bit of fun) - sandy soil is lighter in colour than clay for instance.

So how do I do that?

Grab a handful of dry soil and add a few drops of water, mixing welluntil it become pliable. Try rolling the soil into a ball.

Sandy

If it feels gritty, if it crumbles when you try to roll it into a ballthen your soil is sandy.

Course sand feels likegranulated sugar when rubbed between fingers.

Medium sand feels like tablesalt when rubbed.

Fine sand is harder todetect unless you hold your fingers near your ears as you rub it.

Sandy soils are easy to dig but water and nutrients flow through themeasily, meaning they dry out quickly and will have to be replenished regularly. Sandy soils warm quickly and retaintheir heat (just think of a warm beach) which some plants especially like,particularly carrots and their roots will swell.

Silt and Clay

If, when you try to roll the soil into a ball in your hand it holdstogether well, or if it feels much finer than sand, then your soil texture willbe silt or clay. If it feels like plasticine then its fine clay whereas siltparticles will leave it feeling like icing sugar. If you can roll the soil intoa sausage and it forms a ring, its clay. If it forms a sausage but breaks up asyou try to make a ring, its clay.

Clay soils are described as heavy and can be very sticky to dig. If youtry digging when clay soil is wet you can damage the structure of it. Claysoils are slow to warm up but retain water better in the hotter months andtherefore keep their valuable nutrients for longer. Because their particles are so tiny they tendto pack together tightly which creates poor drainage and aeration and cancontribute towards roots rotting.

Silty soils feel silky or soapy when moist.

Clay soils feel sticky when moist.

I'll be posting an article on the Greenside Up website soon explaining soil texture in more detail. In the meantime why not have a go and see what results you come up with.

If you'd like to read more about soil types, Peter Donegan wrote a much more detailed blog post about it back in 2008.

Water, water everywhere?

2011-11-05T21:45:00.001Z

Or so we'd like to think, particularly after the recent floods, but during early October and for the first time since we've lived on the top of the hill, our well ran dry and we suffered a water shortage. It was a bit of a shock as we've had such a wet summer (again) but the taps stopped flowing and our appliances flashed 'no water' alerts, despite being A rated.

We have a deep well, almost 300ft and have never experienced a water shortage. Chatting to the shopkeeper in the local village however, we weren't alone this year - several residents at the bottom of the hill had suffered a shortage too. In a way it's not surprising with the demands of modern day life putting pressures on our supplies. Most households in Ireland now have dishwashers, washing machines, showers and baths, all demanding an instant water supply.

So what can gardeners do to help to preserve this precious resource?

Here are my top ten tips:

1. Make sure there are no leaky taps, hoses or pipes in your property - fixing a leak can save up to 300 gallons a month.

2. Spread organic mulch around plants as this helps to retain moisture.

3. Valve off outside taps during frosty winter months but leave tap open (to prevent pipes bursting).

4. Wash fruit and vegetables in a bowl rather than under a running tap and use the water from the bowl to water plants.

(hidden at the back of house!)

5. Collect water from your roof gutters to water the garden. There are many types of attractive water containers for this purpose or you can recycle - we installed a system this year using a discarded builders container and our old well pipe.

6. Install a timed irrigation system for watering plants/polytunnels/containers.

7. Place a sink under an outside tap for rinsing pots, vegetables etc.

8. When cutting your lawn, adjust your mower to a higher setting - a longer lawn shades the roots and prevents it drying out as quickly.

9. Water plants only when necessary. More plants die from over watering than under watering.

10. Finally when you're washing your hands after a hard day's gardening, put the plug in the sink rather than letting the tap run.

If householders are doing their bit, what are the scientists doing about the water crisis? I enjoyed watching this recent news clip telling us how solar panels are being used to convert sea water.

What do you do? Do you have any more tips for saving water in the garden?

Communities - are they the key to our survival?

2011-10-29T13:45:00.005+01:00

We're all familiar with the term 'Community'. Those of us who are regular users of social media are part of a global community. The Oxford dictionary definition is [mass noun] the condition of sharing or having certain attitudes and interests in common.*

We like to share, educate, chat, help and support each other. We get a buzz when people take the time to comment on our blog posts, like our facebook pages, view our youtube clips or retweet our links. It makes us feel that we are listened to, respected or just happy that we've found like-minded individuals to chat and chuckle with. But how can that sense of community transfer into the real world as opposed to a virtual one and help us to survive the challenging times we find ourselves in?

As an intricately social species we receive immense pleasure from being part of a group, and studies on teenagers have shown that adolescents actively seek peer groups as investments in their future survival**.

Aristotle once said "Without friends no one would choose to live, though he had all other goods."

It strikes me that in the last couple of decades many people have been so busy collecting 'goods' they've forgotten about the importance of friends - or community.

This week Cultivate launched a video that explains the term 'community resilience' in a friendly, jargon free manner. The video encourages us to look beyond ourselves and shows us that by working together we can change our way of thinking and ultimately steer our lives so that we can survive the climatic and economic challenges that we find ourselves in.

During the past 18 months I've been fortunate enough to be able to work with six community gardens in the surrounding area. In two weeks time a group of us will be meeting in Dublin to establish an All Ireland Community Garden Network with the aim of linking and supporting all the gardens on the island of Ireland. Many of us have realised that with hard work, passion and commitment as individuals we can make a difference, but as a group we can do so much more.

I've written about the many benefits of Community gardening in previous posts - from the basic life skills of learning how to provide and preserve food through to friendships made and sense of achievement gained. However, community gardens can also be the catalyst that enables those same communities to look within themselves and begin to acknowledge that the only way to their survival is by working together. From gardening to supporting local business, to sharing knowledge, educating each other and listening to our elders, once we reach within our community we can flourish.

Communities with common goals can find considerable energy if they so desire - just look at the fundraising efforts and commitment expended when creating new sports facilities. Now imagine that same energy transferred into making a community more resilient - providing land that could be used to grow food in community supported agriculture or installing wind or solar power that could be used to run the homes and businesses within those communities.

This change in attitude takes time and as we are discovering, time that our planet may not give us the luxury to take. If we don't wake up and shake up our communities soon and figure out how we are to survive the more difficult years ahead of us, we may just find we've left it too late.

*Oxford Dictionary
**Source: National Geographic Magazine 2011

Reproduced with kind permission of Ciltivate)

What's growing in the Greenside Up garden mid October 2011?

2011-10-23T16:08:00.000+01:00

Perpetual spinach, rosemary, tarragon, chives and carrots

I've been asked a few times this week "what're you harvesting/growing now in your veggie garden", so on this misty, rainy late October morning out in the polytunnel having a quick tidy up, I took a few pics...

It mightn't look like it but we are eating the spinach! The caterpillars had a good old munch this year but once the worst of the leaves were removed, the not so holey ones have been added to stir fries, curries and accompanying stews and roasts.

Still producing courgettes!

If you've been following Greenside Up on Twitter or Facebook you'll know that our two indoor and one outdoor courgette plants have been prolific this year! Of the two plants in the polytunnel, one now has a bad dose of powdery mildew but this one is hanging on in there. There are a few recipes using courgettes on the tab above that we've enjoyed, the most recent being the courgette, pistachio and chocolate cake.

Strawberries and grapevine

These few strawberry plants that were moved into the tunnel during the early spring produced the sweetest berries. Sadly the magpies ate ALL the grapes!

Chilli peppers

Looking a bit holey now, we've had our best crop of chilli's this year from the couple of plants grown. On advice from a community gardener once harvested they were placed on a tray and individually frozen before bagging up ~ worked a treat!

Great carrot crop!

The carrots were thinned after the picture was taken but this early crop planted a couple of months ago love to grow in the polytunnel where the soil tends to be drier. Beyond them are the winter lettuce and pak choi that were planted today. The big leaf at the front is a globe artichoke that if it survives the winter, I may regret planting inside!

Grown from a saved seed - variety 'anyonesguessia'

Yet to grow a successful crop of squashes in the Greenside Up garden, but not one to give up this is the best to date. Next year I'm planning to grow smaller varieties.

Gardening's not for the faint hearted - have learnt to avoid but love and admire these little critters.

Confession here in that outside has been a little neglected of late. Not that I'm a fair weather gardener, more that heading outside in the cold, rain when I've a couple of free hours hasn't especially inspired me. Dry day or not, am going to have to make a date with my garden soon as a couple of beds still need clearing, manuring and covering before the winter months.

Misty and slightly neglected veg patch

I did say squashes don't grow well here - despite lots of manuring they never reach a good size outside!

This is supposed to be a pumpkin!

The courgette plant's the same although it did produce lots of very regular sized, healthy fruit...

Courgette and borage

I'm never disappointed by a failure in the veg garden as more can be learnt from observing it than any book can teach you. Aware that I'd planted the runner beans out too late this year (last week in June), they never really took off and most succumbed to the usual mildews before they got to a reasonable size.

Runner beans with sweet peas grown at the end of the poles to
encourage pollinating insects

Bumper crop of swedes these year the size of small footballs. Love these mashed with carrots ... yum.

Swede

Still with me?? There's more..... Note to self - sow more leeks next year! Never have enough of this lovely crop.

Leeks with dill gone to seed

We lost last year's celery to the winter snow, another note to self ~ pick it!! Our favourite & quickest way to eat the colourful rainbow chard is to steam it and serve it as an accompanying veg.

Parsley, celery and rainbow chard

A veg patch wouldn't be complete without the odd cabbage or two....

Cabbage plant

Okay, even I'm tiring of this now so the last picture will be of our trusty old kale. Have another bed with kale, cauliflower and cabbage and yet another full of the green manure grazing rye (sorry Mr G, can see already it's going to be a back breaking job digging that over!).

Green and Scarlet Curly Kale

So, how've you got on this year in your veg patch ~ successes, failure, must do next year? Would love to hear how you're doing.

Pumpkin Rice & Pumpkin Soup Recipes

2011-10-22T18:51:00.001+01:00

It's that time of year when we're all scooping out the flesh of our juicy pumpkins and wondering what to do with them. When supermarkets are selling large ones for just 65c we owe it to the farmers who've spent months growing them to at least use the flesh.

Here's are two recipes that our family enjoyed last year taken from two favourite cook books .....

Available from Amazon

Pumpkin Rice from Caribbean Food Made Easy by Levi Roots. We make lots of recipes from this highly recommended cookbook but this is the recipe as written by Levi....

Pumpkin Rice (serves 8-9)

550ml (just under a pint) water
400g (14oz) pumpkin flesh, deseeded and cut into small chunks
2-3 sprigs of thyme
1 tsp salt
450g (1lb) basmati rice
15g (1/2oz) butter

1. Put the water, pumpkin, 2 sprigs of thyme and salt in a saucepan. Put on a lid. Bring to the boil, turn down the heat and simmer, covered, for 10 minutes or until soft. Remove the thyme and very roughly mash the pumpkin into the liquid with a potato masher. You're not after a smooth puree, more a rough mix.

2. Wash the rice twice to remove some of the starch, swishing it round a bowl and running cold water over it until the water is almost clear, and add it to the pumpkin mix in the saucepan. You want the liquid to cover the rice by about 2 1/2cm (1in). Add a little more water if necessary (or pour off some if there's too much). Add the butter and stir it in as it melts. Put the lid back on the pan. Bring to the boil and turn down to a simmer immediately.

3. Leave to simmer gently for around 20 mins. Do not uncover the pan to take a peek as you want to keep in the heat. The bottom of the rice will brown a little; this is how it is meant to be. Just make sure it is on the lowest heat. Turn off the heat and leave for a few more minutes, or until you're ready to eat. Add the remaining spring of thyme and, if you want to serve it with lots of style, pack into a lightly oiled dish and turn it out in a neat mound on to a serving plate.

Available from Amazon

The second recipe we use for the flesh is a lovely Pumpkin Soup from The New Covent Garden Food Co Book of Soups

Pumpkin Soup (serves 6)

25g (1oz) butter
1 medium onion, finely chopped
200g (7oz) potatoes, peeled and chopped
900g (2lb) pumpkin, diced
250g (9oz) carrots, diced
1.2ltrs (2pints) vegetable stock
150ml (1/4pint) milk
demerara sugar to taste
finely grated nutmeg to taste
salt and freshly ground black pepper

Melt the butter and cook the onion gently for 5 minutes in a covered saucepan, without colouring. Add the potato, 700g of the pumpkin, the carrots and the vegetable stock. Cover, bring to the boil and simmer gently for about 20 mins until the vegetables are tender. Cool a little, then puree in a liquidiser. Return to a clean saucepan and stir in the milk.

Meanwhile, add the remaining pumpkin to a saucepan of boiled salted water and cook for 2 minutes. Drain and add to the pureed soup. Add the sugar, nutmeg and seasoning to taste. Reheat gently.

The most effective way to serve is in a hollowed-out pumpkin. Take a pumpkin, slice off the top quarter, scoop out the seeds, place slices of toasted baguette in the base together with grated Gruyere cheese. Fill with the soup, put on the lid and serve at the table.

Have you any favourite pumpkin recipes?

Courgette, Pistachio & Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Fudge Topping Recipe

2011-10-15T09:30:00.001+01:00

Chocolate, Pistachio & Courgette Cake

The original recipe for this courgette and chocolate cake came from the BBC Good Food but feeling impatient and not having all the ingredients in the press, it's been adapted (and worked!).

We have another birthday coming up this weekend and I needed a small second tier (by request) for the cake. We also have a fridge full of courgettes so what better way to make use of them than stick them into another cake (we already have a large pan of soup on the stove that we're working our way through)!

Today's cake baking was saved for school home time knowing how much the girls like to help. Today the youngest came running in the door to see what I was up to and immediately put on her apron full of delight at the prospect of helping mum ... the delight was short lived and the smile quickly turned into a frown...

She spotted the courgette that was waiting to be fed to the grater in the food processor "ahh no - we're not putting THAT in a chocolate cake!!" She loves cracking eggs and sieving flour however, so was persuaded to stay and give it a go. A few hours later when her big sister returned home she excitedly dragged her into the kitchen ... "you have to try the chocolate cake - it has courgettes in and its DELICIOUS!"

She's right, it is and here's the recipe.

Ingredients (my version)

350g self-raising flour
50g cocoa powder
1 tsp mixed spice
175ml olive oil
375g caster sugar
3 free range eggs
a few drops of vanilla extract
1 tsp salt
500g grated courgettes
140g roasted pistachio nuts, roughly chopped

For the Icing

100g dark chocolate 70%
75ml evaporated milk
75g granulated sugar
40g butter
few drops vanilla extract

Method

Heat the oven to 180oC. Grease and line a 24cm deep cake tin.

1. Place the flour, cocoa powder, mixed spice and salt into a large bowl and combine.
2. In another bowl combine the sugar, eggs, olive oil, vanilla extract and grated courgette.
3. Mix the dry and wet mixture until almost combined then add the pistachio nuts.
4. Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and bake for approx 50 min's (use a skewer to ensure it's cooked)
5. Cool in the cake tin for 10 min's before turning out onto a wire rack and cooling.

For the Icing

Put the sugar and evaporated milk into a heavy based saucepan and heat until the sugar has dissolved. Bring to the boil then simmer without stirring for 6 min's.

Remove from the heat, add the broken up chocolate pieces and once fully incorporated, stir in the butter and vanilla extract, stirring until smooth. Pour into a bowl, cover with clingfilm and once cool place in the fridge to thicken.

Spread the chocolate fudge over the cake and enjoy!

I'll update this in a couple of days and let you know what the children think of the surprise layer at the party! Have you any tasty sweet recipes that use vegetables?

Coconut Shell Bird Feeders

2011-10-11T14:32:00.000+01:00

Feeding birds in the wintertime not only helps them find food when it's scarce, but has other benefits too, and what better way to do it than to get down & squelchy making your own bird feeders.

According to *research undertaken by the University of Exeter and Queen's University Belfast, birds that are provided with extra food during the winter helps to ensure a more successful breeding season the following spring.

It's also much more economical making your own fat feeders than buying them, and great fun if you don't mind getting your hands dirty (just wear rubber gloves if you do).

So with that in mind this morning a group of twenty of us made enough feeders to keep our local bird population full for months!

So what do you need?

Lard (at room temperature)

Peanuts

Bird seed

Grated cheese

Raisins

Coconut shells, yogurt pots or small disposable cups

String

Mixing bowl

I deliberately haven't added quantities here as we made lots (the picture shows a 2kg bag of peanuts). However, I would estimate that one pack of lard would be enough to fill four half shells, with the other ingredients added until the mixture 'just looks right'.

What's next?

A friend donated some empty coconut shells, pre-cut & holes drilled (thanks Pat!) to tie the string to. We left the coconut inside, just scoring it with a blade to give the mixture something to stick to although I'm not sure that was necessary. Then we added all the ingredients to a bowl and squished and squelched it between our fingers until everything was combined (which caused great amusement & delight!)

The mixture was then packed into the shells. Once we ran out of shells we made holes in the bottom of yogurt pots, poked & tied string through them and filled those. When they were filled we used plastic drink cups!

Once the containers were full they were placed in the fridge for an hour or more which allowed the lard to set. Once set they're ready to hang outdoors as they are.

Have you ever made your own bird feeders and do you use any other ingredients/method?

* Source: Science Daily

Bramley Apple cake recipe - scrummy way to use up all those windfalls...

2011-09-15T20:52:00.003+01:00

I was given this recipe for apple cake a couple of years ago by a friend and it's delicious hot or cold (and a great excuse to eat cake and use up all those excess apples that are dropping off the trees after the high winds):

Ingredients:

190g self raising flour
pinch salt
150g butter or half margarine
1 egg
75g caster sugar
325g Bramley cooking apples
lemon juice
2 tbsp apricot jam
2 tbsp granulated or demerara sugar

Method

Heat oven to 160oC then grease and line a 20cm cake tin which should be at least 7.5cm deep.

Cream the butter and caster sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg. Sieve the flour and salt then fold in to the creamed mixture.

Using a lightly floured board, gently pat or roll out three quarters of the mixture and fit into the prepared tin (warning - very sticky!)

Peel, core and slice the apples and squeeze lemon over the top to keep their colour. Arrange the apples on top of the cake mixture. Heat the jam and brush or pour over the the apples. Sprinkle the sugar over the top.

Roll the remaining mixture and arrange a lattice over the apples (I just covered them completely this afternoon - oops didn't read the recipe).

Bake in the middle of the oven for 1 hour. Cool on a rack and dust with icing sugar. Hope you enjoy it as much as we did!

Fun grass heads - gardening project for children

2011-09-13T19:58:00.000+01:00

If you're looking for a way to get children interested (and some adults!) in growing seeds, how about this for a fun project?

All you need are some nylon pop socks, compost and grass seeds - permanent markers, felt & wool optional.

Just place a handful of grass seed into the toe of the pop sock then add compost to whatever size head you desire. Once full, tie a knot in the loose end and snip off the excess fabric.

Place on a dish and water until the compost is moist, then just add water as required. The grass will keep growing for weeks - months even - so can be snipped and styled frequently.

Enjoy!

GIYing and Community Gardening

2011-09-12T23:35:00.001+01:00

This weekend saw the largest annual get together of fruit and veg growing enthusiasts in Ireland at the GIY Gathering and Street Feast. As part of the Waterford harvest food festival, whether you like eating food, cooking it, watching other people cook it , listen to people talk about it or just growing it, Waterford was the place to be.

I would love to have been there for the whole weekend and participated in many of the delights on offer. The mile long street market, cookery demos, the massive Barbecue gig, let alone the GIY feast and the expert Q and A session with gardening greats on the Sunday, but due to the usual parental taxi juggle could only make it for the Saturday - the GIY gathering - and am so glad I was there for that part at the very least.

GIY yummy lunch

What a fabulous, well organised, inspirational day - what more could a passionate veg grower want than to be in the company of so many equally passionate veg growers for a whole day and get to listen to organic gardening heroes Joy Larkcom and Bob Flowerdew speak too??!!

GIY Ireland, a registered not-for-profit charity, was launched just two years ago and already has over 10,000 people involved and nearly 100 groups around Ireland. Their aim is to inspire people to grow their own food and give them the practical skills to grow successfully - so what better place to launch the new Community Garden Network for Ireland and Northern Ireland.

Bob Flowerdew at the GIY Gathering, Waterford 2011

When I started helping community gardens a couple of years ago I was under the complete misunderstanding that there weren't many of them in Ireland.

I'd googled and searched yet could only find a handful and they seemed to be in Dublin. As time went by and I started to help more gardens set up, I became aware of a few more, but it still felt lonely out there.

Then Thomas McDonagh contacted me - he was about to undertake a bicycle tour of Ireland, visiting as many community gardens as he could (in November!) to raise money for a trip to Columbia. Thomas blogged about his travels and it was a delight to follow his journey, virtually meet the people he met and look at pictures of other community gardens around Ireland through his regular updates.

And so the seed for a network of community gardeners was planted (npi).... after Thomas I met up with Ciaran Walsh of GIY, then Suzie Cahn of Carraig Dulra who'd helped ten community gardens in Wicklow, and momentum started to build.

It was with anticipation that on Saturday afternoon a few panelists and a room full of people sat together and discussed the need for a network group, and low and behold, in just 35 allocated minutes ten like minded individuals agreed to help get it off the ground.

We hope to meet up in the coming weeks to make plans and discuss how it will be run, but it was unlikely to happen anytime in the near future without the incredible support of GIY Ireland who will be mapping our findings on their website and hosting a forum amongst other things, and it will need the enthusiasm of fellow community gardeners to help us find everybody!

So, in the meantime if you're involved in a community garden in the island of Ireland or know of a community garden in your neighbourhood you can leave a comment below and we'll let you know when the map and network is up and running!

Just when you think you're on top of everything along comes Powdery Mildew

2011-09-08T15:39:00.000+01:00

Last week in the community garden polytunnel the courgettes were looking fab. I can say that with certainty as we'd closely checked all the plants following the discovery of the red spider mite (see previous post). So the last thing we were expecting this week was a fungal disease, and quite a major outbreak at that.

It's often the way that during the first year of growing fruit and vegetables everything will perform spectacularly for you. You may be lucky the following year too, but no matter how often you wish or believe otherwise, sooner or later a pest or disease will find your plants and my experience in the Greenside Up garden has been that it will be a different pest or disease each year.

Identifying the pest or disease quickly is the key to preventing a larger, more devastating disaster and there are many books out there to help you do this.

My current favourite is The RHS Pests & Diseases by Pippa Greenwood & Andrew Halstead. It's full of colour photographs, good descriptions and a great A-Z of pests, diseases and disorders, suggesting ways for tackling them both organically or chemically.

So, back to the Powdery Mildew....

One of the problems of growing different fruit and vegetables undercover is that they require different growing conditions. Red spider mite doesn't like moist, humid conditions so it's often advised to hose down the floors and staging of greenhouses etc to create humid atmospheres...

.... but then powdery mildew thrives where there's humid or damp air around the top growth of leaves. This can be very confusing to any of us starting out growing our own! So what do you do???

Mildews and moulds tend to build up where there's lack of good airflow so keep windows and doors open. Yes, spray the floors and decking if you have to, but try and avoid the water splashing the leaves of your plants.

Ensure there is adequate space around your plants, again to help with air flow and do try to keep on top of the weeding. Lastly, and I can't emphasis it enough, be vigilant and don't ignore something if you don't know what it is hoping that it will go away! (Yep, I've done that too...) - it won't.

Once we'd identified the Powdery Mildew we immediately removed all the badly infected leaves and bagged them up (these weren't destined for the compost heap). Unfortunately most of the leaves on the two plants had been affected and we couldn't remove all of the leaves without killing the plants, so we just removed the very worst.

An old remedy for Powdery Mildew is to spray the plants with a milk solution (300ml milk, 700ml water mixed together in a clean spray bottle). The enzymes of fresh milk will attack mildew and a stronger solution will result in a foul smell as the milk goes rancid.

Another is to mix 5g baking soda with 1lt of water.

We didn't have baking soda to hand but as community gardeners who enjoy the odd cup of tea and slice of tart, we could provide the milk.

Hopefully the milk will do the trick but if it doesn't, I don't think any of the gardeners will be too devastated.... even the most avid courgette eaters are secretly looking forward to the day they don't have to take one home with them again ;).

Wednesday Wigglers ~ Red Spider Mite

2011-09-01T13:53:00.001+01:00

Yesterday we discovered the dreaded red spider mite in the community garden polytunnel. The first question asked was:

"How Do You Know?"

Initially we noticed a pale mottling on the surface of the leaves of plants, namely aubergines in this case (which the mites have a particular taste for).

As you peer closer, and if you have a heavy infestation as we had, you may notice webs speckled with tiny flakes of dust. As you look even closer you'll notice that the dust moves and isn't dust at all, but the tiny mites (they're less than 1mm long).

So once we'd identified the little pests, the questions flowed:-

"What Do They Do?"

Red spider mites are sap-feeders which means they have a toxic saliva that results in the leaves discolouring. In the case of glasshouse mites, initially the leaves become a dull green but then increasingly a yellowish-white. Eventually leaves can dry up and fall off.

The mottled leaves can resemble a mineral deficiency so if you notice any discolouration in leaves they will always warrant further investigation.

"So They're Not Red Then?"

Red spider mites only turn an orangish-red in the autumn and winter months when the adult females hibernate. Until then they are yellowish-green in colour, so no, they're not the little red spiders that you often see scurrying across paths and brickwork.

"Will they attack everything?"

They have a varied diet, are fond of a wide range of plants in a greenhouse, polytunnel or even indoors. In dry summers they will also feed on strawberries, currents and beans as well as other outdoor plants.

"How did we get them?"

As they're so easy to miss because of their size the likelihood is that they were brought if from another garden/polytunnel with an infestation.

One of the lovely things about gardening is swapping plants but unless you can be absolutely sure they were grown in a pest free environment, be cautious. Always clean and disinfect pots and containers every year prior to sowing as they can harbour pests, and of course - be vigilant.

I hadn't been to the community garden over the summer holiday weeks, only returning last week for a tidy and catch up and unless you've seen an infestation before, it's very easy to miss.

"So what do we do? How do we get rid of them?"

Undercover in warm, dry conditions they breed rapidly so regularly hosing down in greenhouses, etc will help to raise the humidity and give some control. They can over winter though so once you've identified you have them, you need to eradicate them before they start to breed again in the spring time.

If you're gardening without the use of pesticides as we are in the community garden, then biological control is likely to be the most effective method of ridding them.

This means we will be introducing predatory mites Phytoseiulus Persiliis into the polytunnel in the hope that they will target and attack the Red Spider Mites.

If the infestation isn't too severe insecticidal soaps can work too.

In the meantime, we've removed all the aubergines from the polytunnel and away from the garden entirely as they were heavily infected and we're keeping a very close eye on the cucumbers that are in the next bed.

We'll all be looking very closely at our own gardens and polytunnels/greenhouses too and hoping that they didn't hitch a ride home on any of our clothing.

Colourful Kale

2011-08-27T14:12:00.003+01:00

Purple's the colour in the Greenside Up household so I had to plant some Scarlet Curly Kale (which isn't scarlet at all)...

We're real fans of this hardy veg and I've written several posts on growing and cooking kale. Once steamed the colour dims but the flavour is mild enough that even the fussy eaters will eat a leaf or two.

Do you have any favourite colourful vegetables?

Courgette Chutney Recipe

2011-08-24T13:24:00.000+01:00

We were talking about pickles and chutneys at Goresbridge Community Garden this morning and I was reminded of this delicious chutney recipe that I made last year. It was passed on to me by Yvonne Carty from Hey Pesto .

Easy to throw together, it makes a great accompaniment to salads, eaten with crackers or even on the side with a chilli or curry.

Because we had/have so many courgettes the quantities given below will make up around 3kg of chutney so make sure you have lots of sterilised jars ready or reduce the amount of ingredients.

Put all the following into a large pan:

2 onions, chopped
500g tomatoes, chopped
500g courgettes, diced
200ml white wine vinegar
2 apples, peeled, cored and diced
250g brown sugar
2 tsp mixed spice
1 tbsp mustard seeds
2.5cm piece ginger, grated
4 garlic cloves, crushed

Bring everything slowly to simmer, stirring occasionally to stop it sticking. Simmer uncovered for two hours until thick and 'chutney' like.

Pour into sterilised jars and leave for 2-3 weeks to mature before serving.

Harvesting the garlic

2011-08-19T20:10:00.000+01:00

Harvesting Garlic Arno in August

Back in October last year I wrote a post on how to plant garlic. Today I harvested the bulbs.

They do have a long growing season but once planted, all you have to do is keep the bed weeded, and that's it! They're hardy (remember last winter) and survived our fluctuating temperatures and rain throughout the spring and summer without bolting.

I'm delighted with the results, loving the big bulbs and looking forward to eating home grown tasty garlic over the coming months.

Having dug them up, the plants are now on a rack drying out thoroughly before I plait and store them. In the meantime, we'll be cooking some of the bulbs as we need them and keeping a few aside to split and plant this autumn.

Does anybody else grow garlic and do you have any favourite varieties?

Mmmmmm Plum & Maple Crumble Recipe

2011-08-17T09:53:00.000+01:00

Plums are currently in season so what better way to cook them than a delicious crumble... this is one of our favourite recipes.

Ingredients (serves 4):

8 ripe plums
4 tbsp maple syrup
50g butter cut into pieces
50g plain flour
50g rolled oats
25g golden caster sugar
half teaspoon ground cinnamon
25g flaked almonds (may be toasted)

Method

Heat the oven to 200oC (or equivalent). Place the plum halves skin side down in the base of an ovenproof dish. Drizzle over half the maple syrup and roast for 10 mins.

Whilst the plums are in the oven place the butter, flour, oats, sugar and cinnamon into a bowl and rub the butter into the mixture until it resembles rough crumbs. Stir in the almonds, then sprinkle over the softened plums. Drizzle the top with the remaining maple syrup and bake for 15 mins until the top is golden, sprinkling extra almonds on the top if desired (or if like me you forgot to add them earlier!). Serve with custard, cream or ice cream.

Hope you enjoy it. Have you a favourite recipe for using up your plums?

Ever wondered what fruit and veg other people are growing?

2011-08-15T21:53:00.002+01:00

Several months ago I set up a Facebook questionnaire asking everyone to list the fruit and veg they were growing at home, primarily to help me design workshops and gear my advice in the right direction.

There were 420 votes in total and for anyone like me who likes stats, the two charts below show the results. For anyone who doesn't, this is likely to bore the pants off you...

Although interesting, (I was surprised how few people answered garlic), it's difficult to really determine the chart's accuracy. My original questions covered the (I thought) most common veg but over the week they were added to resulting in over 40 different fruit or veg categories. Some people may have got bored (3 people ticked the newly added 'weiry with all these questions') and a couple of people commented the questionnaire was causing their computer to stall, which is enough to stop even the most dedicated from answering!

So, for anyone else who likes facts & figures, here are the results:-

and a much bigger chart for the vegetables:

(Struggled to fit them all in there were so many! The last one is celeriac)

The charts incidentally were created by a very handy online chart tool that was linked by Spiderworking.com. Thanks to everyone who took the time to answer.

Herbs can be beautiful and healing in many ways...

2011-08-06T17:13:00.001+01:00

Unusually I'm feeling like quite the social butterfly meeting up with social media friends this month at various summer festivals and events. From wildflower walks in Tipperary to classical guitar concerts as part of the Abhainn Ri week in Callan, it's been a busy month. Last week was no exception when on Wednesday I was lucky enough to be able to juggle childcare (a rare thing during the summer holidays) and spend three peaceful hours at Kilgraney House and Herb Gardens in County Carlow.

Carlow Garden Festival is celebrating it's tenth anniversary this year and is an ideal opportunity to visit several gardens around the county, with guest speakers on-hand to offer their expert advice and provide demonstrations.

Dermot O'Neill was this year's guest at Kilgraney and it was to everyone's delight that we heard he's now in remission from his recent encounter with cancer. As Dermot lead us around the Medicinal Herb Garden, and in particular the new Oncology bed, he told us about his shock discovery on developing this (frightening for most of us) disease and gave us an insight into his treatment. He really is looking much better than he did in his TV series Secret Garden last year and judging by his mostly female audience on Wednesday, has not lost any of his appeal!

Headaches or fevers anyone?

There are several herb beds in the Kilgraney courtyard, each containing plants specific to various ailments. The Oncology herb bed was newly created in honour of the co-owner's mother who passed away earlier this year, containing several herbs that are used to aid the treatment of various cancers - Irish Yew, Opium Poppy, Caster Bean, Feverfew, Elderflower - familiar names to many of us but who's extracts are often used to treat or aid pain relief.

Pebbled pathways lined with granite lead you around the gardens and there are several inspired themes to chose to visit next....

The Cosmic Herb Circle

I loved the Cosmic Herb Circle where I discovered that the plants for my own star sign Virgo are Fennel, Savoury, Southernwood and Valerian (all of which are growing in the Greenside Up garden!).

There are tremendous views from this particular garden too looking across the valley to the top of our hill.

Delightful Cottage Garden

The Monastic Herb Cloister opposite contains many herbs that would have been grown in monasteries throughout Ireland, either to eat, heal or brew.

Monastic Herb Cloister

From this area you can either walk up to the Kitchen Garden where all the fruit and vegetables are grown for the Kilgraney kitchens (and purchase plants too from their polytunnel) and then on to the Herbal Tea Walk, or

Lots of tasty looking veg & pretty companion planting

walk across to the Rose and Aromatic Herb Gardens which are in the spa area of the complex, filling the air with their intoxicating scents.

A garden humming with busy insects and full of beautiful scents

Still there's more.... Kilgraney is so full of romance that even the trees reach for each other across pathways, their limbs entwining. The orchard trees are laden with fruit and the sound of birdsong and busy bees fill the gardens as you meander along the pathways.

Even the trees embrace here

The afternoon finished with us all tucking into some delicious home baked refreshments provided by Kilgraney and then an excellent propagating demonstration held by Dermot where he shared the art of taking cuttings (to a captivated audience) chosen from a large variety of hard and softwood plants.

Dermot O'Neill entertaining the ladies...

This wasn't a free event, although some of the Trail week's demonstrations are. The cost was €10 but it was money very well spent. To their credit, owners Bryan and Martin donate every cent raised on their annual open day to charity and this year it will be heading to the Friends of Wexford General Hospital.

If you're interested in visiting the herb gardens they're open from Thursday to Sunday, May to September from 2.00pm to 5.00pm. There's a small charge of €3.00, groups by prior arrangement and refreshments are available.

Alternatively you could always stay in the gorgeous Georgian house and wander around the gardens at your own leisure, perhaps availing of the Aromaspa to perk you up, or settle down to a creatively cooked six course dinner.