We're about to go away for a couple of days - to visit the Tate St Ives amongst other places, and so have been going through the fridge, in order to use up fresh food before we leave.  There was half a celeriac, not sure what to do with it so looked at the River Cottage website and this was what Hugh suggested:

Celeriac Soup

• 50g Butter
• 1 Celeriac, peeled and cubed
• 1 Potato, peeled and cubed
• 1 Leek, trimmed, washed and roughly sliced
• 1 Onion, peeled and roughly chopped
• 1 Garlic clove, sliced
• 1 litre Stock, chicken, vegetable or made from the bones of your Christmas bird
• Parsley & walnut pesto to serve
•  

Amongst the comments underneath were suggestions to serve the soup with:

• toasted hazelnuts, homemade croutons and parsley. 
• fresh sage 
• fresh parsley

I also saw on another site that they'd included some apple to spruce up the taste which sounds worth trying.

The suggestion for vegans was:  

dairy free Pure Sunflower Spread instead of butter

we used Knorr Vegetable Stock Pot 
we also sprinkled in some fresh sage as mentioned above
served with Focaccia and Olive oil/Balsamic vinegar dip.

December - tidying up the garden for winter

I don't put the garden to bed, but I do a brisk winter clean-up that takes me into spring.  And the hope is that these aerobic activities keep me, and my garden, in shape:

• Sweep paths and surfaces regularly. 'Open' gardens have to do this on a daily basis.  In winter I try and do all the surfaces visible from the house fairly regularly to avoid the deab, neglected look.
• Cutting hedges and overgrown shrubs down to size.  These creep up-, becoming more difficult. Sawing the thick stems back to just below the minimum optimum height is energetic work and makes annual maintenance far easier.
• Cutting back herbaceous - but only when they look scary.  I don't divide them (unless I need more).  I haveyet to find ohne that starts to die back int he centre of the clump, contrary to poopular belief.
• Adding mulch.  I have a huge heap of green compost which I apply thickly (150mm) everywhere I can.  It saves weeding, improve the soil and makes up for nutrients lost in the heavy rain.
• Washing the greenhouse.  The glass gets dirty with all the wind and rain, and if yours is anything like mine, every bit of extra light helps.  Make sure it's clean before spring.
• Gravel raking.  I freshen and redistribute the gravel ona frosty day as it's hot work.
• Turning the compost heap and spreading.  My compost has weed seeds unlike the bought equivalent.  It goes in places such as the bottom of planting pits and as mulch on my borders, or anywhere it's easy to spot and remove weeds.

Article is from Bunny Guinness in the Sunday Telegraph

Know your enemy

There are old enemies which have been around for many years, and there are newer enemies: a whole range of other pests, some relatively new in Britain, gradually spreading out across the country, and encountering gardeners for the first time.

Vine Weevil: one of the most troublesome pests, it causes damage to a wide range of plants in gardens, greenhouses or the house.  The adult weevils are active at night from spring to autumn.  They spoil the appearance of foliage by eating notches in the leaf margins. The grub stage is even more destructive as they eat roots and can kill plants, especially those in pots or other containers.
Leek Moth and Allium Leaf-mining Fly: both of these pests have larvae that mine the foliage of leeks, onions and related vegetables, later boring to the stems and bulbs.  Damaged plants are often killed by secondary rots that infect the damaged tissues.  Leek mother used to be confined to south east England but is spreading west and northwards.  
Viburnum Beetle: the adult beetles feed on the foliage in late summer but most of the damage is done by the larvae in April to May.
Cushion Scale: there are several special of scale insects that damage garden plants. Cushion scale is one of the more troublesome. It attacks evergreen

to be continued ....

Wholesome Pumpkin Bites

(from Allreceipe.co.uk)

These cookies are not only delicious and quick to make, but they are also packed full of protein, fibre and omega-3 fatty acids. Enjoy for breakfast, general snacking or picnics.

 

Ingredients

Makes: 14

·                                 20g granulated sugar

·                                 80g porridge oats

·                                 125g wholemeal flour

·                                 45g soya flour

·                                 1 3/4 teaspoons bicarb

·                                 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

·                                 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

·                                 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg

·                                 125g pumpkin puree

·                                 1 tablespoon oil

·                                 2 egg whites

·                                 1 teaspoon black treacle

·                                 1 tablespoon linseeds (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 180 C / Gas 4. 
2. In a large bowl, whisk together sugar, oats, wholemeal flour, soya flour, bicarbonate of soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg. 
3. Stir in pumpkin puree, oil, water, egg whites and black treacle. Stir in linseed, if desired. 
4. Roll into 14 large balls and flatten on a baking tray.
5. Bake for 5 minutes in preheated oven. DO NOT OVERBAKE as the cookies will come out really dry.

Flapjack Recipe

125g butter or cooking margarine
125g demerara sugar
5 tbsp golden syrup
225 old fashioned porridge oats
1 tsp ground ginger and/or raisins

1. 
   
2. Preheat oven to 190C.
3. Grease 20cm sandwich tin.
4. Melt butter and stir in sugar and syrup.
5. Add oats and ground ginger and mix well.
6. Using the back of a metal spoon press mixture evenly over the base of the tin and smooth over.
7. Bake for 20 minutes.
8. Cool for 15 minutes in the tin, then score into 8 wedges.
9. Cool completely, turn out and break into wedges.

Dried Fruit Compote

1/2 vanilla bean, halved lengthwise

1 cup water

2 cups wine

2 - 3 cups dried fruit, such as pears, peaches, apricots, prunes, raisins

Optional: cinnamon stick, 2 cloves, cardamom seeds, toasted peppercorns

1. Put all ingredients in slow cooker and cook on low for a long time. (times to follow when I've tried this recipe).

See also slow cooker recipes at:

http://www.bystephanielynn.com/2011/10/40-crock-pot-slow-cooker-dessert-candy.html

Reach for a helping hand
A disability doesn't mean you have to give up gardening, here is a selection of the latest in useful tools.

Those who can work in the garden without a second thought are very lucky.  Most of us are caught out by aches and pains at some point in our lives, but spare a thought for gardeners with more permanent problems.  In Britain alone, ther are more than 10 million disabled people, and one in three over-55s have a disability of some sort.  Whether the difficult is temporary  or more permanent, there are ways and means to carry on gardening and here are some ideas:

Peta Easi-Grip

Firm grip: Peta Easi-Grip garden tools, around £10, have soft plastic non-slip pistol grip handles which keep the wrist in a neutral stress-free position.  Ideal for gardeners with reduced grip strewngth and/oir reduced wrist flexibility.  Alternatively, transform existing tools using the Peta Add-On handles (£15 for two) that strap to the handles (01376 573476; http://www.peta-uk.com/acatalog/Assistive_Garden_Tools.html).


Lightweight tools: modern manufacturing methods and materials bring innovative new gardening tools to the market each year.

Darlac bamboo-handled tools

Fiskars' range of lightweight reinforced plastic/fibreglass tools is called Inspirations, from £4.99 (0115 927 7335; fishkars.com).
Darlac has launched a great range of 15 bamboo-handled tools with carbon steel heads, lightweight but extremely durable from around £5 for hand tools (01753 547790; darlac.com).

Wilkinsons Sword Lite Alloy hoe

Wilkinsons Sword offers a range of Lite Alloy tools, from £10, including hand tools and a long handled hoe (0845 894 1599; wilkinsonswordtools.co.uk).

Posture perfect: Choosing tools that fit the user helps to prevent aches and pains.  The new Fiskars telescopic spade and fork, around £40 (from January 2013) allows you to adjust the handle length to suit your height.

Arms reach tools: it's all very well having long-handled tools, but often you need to be at plant level to carry out the rest of the task.  Try these devisces for more convenient handling:
The Darlac Multi Pick, around £14, is great for picking  up all sorts of things around the garden and has suction pads for better grip;

Darlac multipick

The Snapper from Darlac, from £30, holds and cuts stems while you work, enabling you to work one-handed from a distance.  Ideal for light pruncing, fruit picking and deadheading.

Yeoman Grabrake

The Yeoman Grabrake, around £20 in autumn promotions, is a new product designed to make light work of clearing leaves and debris and reduce stooping (01905 791984; yeomangarden.com).


Cushion the blow: Think about the most comfortable position to work in.  Burgon & Ball's latest range of Kneelo knee pads are excellent if you struggle to kneel on hard surfaces.  Insorporating memory foam technology, the ultra-soft layers cushion and protect your knees while kneeling on stony or hard ground. It comes in six colours £17 and there is also a Kneeler cushion (0114 233 8262; burgon and ball).

Low-effort pruning: when it comes to pruning, just having sharp secateurs can make all the difference.  Tired, blunt tools require more elbow grease and can risk user injury.  For simple pruning, choose lightweight tools.  Ratchet pruners or geared pruners reduce the impact on wrists and hands.  the Wilkinson Sword Geared  anvil loppers £40, have lightweight telescopic handles and geared pruning blades for easier pruning.

The Burgon and Ball ratchet pruner, £18, has a three-stage ratchet that is easy to operate and ideal for pruning.

Burgon and Ball ratchet pruner

The Handy ratchet lopper from Darlac, at £18, weighs around 500g but cuts up to 35mm stems with ease.
Look out for the new Fiskars Quantum bypass pruner that has a lovely geared action to reduce user input.

Raise the bar: move your garden closer to working height with the new range of Forest Garden Accessible gardening products (from spring 2013).  There's a trough and cold frame on legs that can also be used as a potting bench, pllus a raised corner planter, from £100. Forest Garden also offers as assembly service for around £60 (0844 2489801; forestgarden.co.uk).

The horticultural charity Thrive works to help people living with a disability or mental ill health to transform their lives through gardening (0118 988 5688; thrive.org.uk).

Today it's Sunday so I thought it would be a nice change to make a pudding.

Found some rhubarb in the freezer and also some raspberries.  This seemed like a good combination.  However, when thawed, the 'squashed raspberries' turned out to be 'beetroot soup', so that was a lucky escape!  

Then saw half a pineapple in the fridge and wondered if rhubarb and pineapple would make a good combination.  Somehow I wasn't too sure, so looked it up on the 'net.

Some sites advised against it, such as : http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2006/feb/24/foodanddrink.features112, whereas, other ones had recipes combining these ingredients, see: http://low-cholesterol.food.com/recipe/stewed-rhubarb-with-pineapple-224744 and http://www.theimpatientchef.com/desserts/rhubarb-pineapple-crumble/.

I wonder if the advice not to combine rhubarb and pineapple more refers to advice which was given, see this interesting page: http://www.thepoisongarden.co.uk/atoz/rheum_x_hybridum.htm

Have decided to make two crumbles - one pineapple, one rhubarb, this saving any problems!

Crumble recipe:
4 oz sugar, 5 oz butter, 7 oz sr flour, some wheatgern and bran.  Serves 6.

Another idea is to make the excess raspberries, plus their juice, into a jelly using gelatine (vegetarian or otherwise) and a little icing sugar.

Also I love making what the children used to call PINK PUDDING - because of it's gorgeous colour.  It needs two bowls which is rather a fag but it's worth it to enjoy the putting; sooner rather than later as it doesn't keep.

1/2 lb raspberries
2 egg whites, whisked
2 oz sugar
4 fl oz double cream, whipped
1 carton natural yoghurt

Mix all the ingredients together, serves 4 - 6 people.

As you can imagine, with selling the house and passing on the allotment plot, I haven't done so much gardening this year.  But what I have noticed is a plague of large huge slugs, large snails - and bindweed!

Perhaps it's the  record-breaking spring (May and June were the wettest since records began) - and wet July or perhaps it's because it's so often damp conditions that we actually see them lounging around enjoying themselves.  No cartoon pics here of slugs and snails - as they are definitely not their friends!

The other plague this year has been bindweed (convulvulous) and the pity is that the slugs and snails shun the bindweed in favour of more delicate morsels, like lettuce and hostas.

http://apps.rhs.org.uk/advicesearch/profile.aspx?pid=241

See: http://blog.riverford.co.uk/category/pennys-gardening-blog/

Bulb planting is satisfyingly creative, nothing happens for months and then suddenly these papery brown bulbs will turn into beautiful spring flowers. Here are 20 best bulbs for 2013:

Schilla mischtschenkoana AGM

1  Scilla mischtschenkoana AGM: not easy to spell and it doesn't look like ascilla either.  The bult forms mounds of starry grey-blue snowflakes that nudge through the bare earth with the snowdrops.


2  Scilla sibirica AGM: Cobalt-blue bells are held on darkish stems above bright green shiny leaves in March and April.  Tolerates shade well, but likes a bit of moisture.  It does self-seed, but not aggressively so.  Excellent with the acid-yellow Euphorbia polychroma, or with minature yellow narcissi.


3  Crocus sieberi subsp. sublimis 'Tricolor' AGM: 'Tricolor' refers to the jaunty arrangement of egg-yolk yellow, white and lilac-blue.  It's willing to open wide, very early in theyear and can even pop up in snow.  There is no floppy neck in heavy weather either, as can be seen in theself-seeding C. tommasinianus.



4  Fritillaria imperialis 'William Rex': A burnished bronze-red with dusky shading to flower and stem, holding its bells tightly downwards with a goodtopknot of green foliage above.  Plant the enormous bulbs in fertile, moisture-retentive soil and try to get them a good 12" (30cm) deep.  Good on rish soil  Once planted, leave well alone.  If they likeyou, they'll live for ever.

5  Crocus 'Yalta': smaller version of 'Vanguard' has a bright orange stigma that forms a feather duster.  The bulbs proved irresistable to voles, so plant a little deeper.