rhubarb

's the oxalic acid that can be toxic in high doses. You'd have to actually eat a lot of it to harm you though! The traditional folklore about rhubarb was that if you plant a piece of stem with your brassicas, it prevents club root. They did a study on it at Edinburgh Uni but sadly, the results were that it doesn't do anything of statistical significance. So still a no to your question I'm afraid as far as I know.

If you are harvesting your rhubarb and planting the last few potatoes at the same time, you could try a traditional deterrent for the cabbage root fly. Instead of employing brassica collars planting the potatoes through a membrane , chop up the rhubarb leaves quite finely and layer them into the potato trench or planting holes. It's said to work a treat.

Yeah they are but if you mix them with 350ml of water and boil them.Then strain the liquid it controls aphids on roses if applied through a sprayer.A useless bit of trivia there.

Some slow cooker recipes

As it's now winter, the slow cooker's come out of  hibernation and I've been looking around for recipes.
I've often seen punnets of plums* on sale in the supermarkets and have never thought of actually buying them.  Perhaps it's because in the past we've had them literally 'growing on trees' and so, like rhubarb, I view them as free fruit - and not something to pay 15p each for.
But this year is different as, whilst I was looking up a recipe for cooking salmon in a slow cooker, I saw this recipe, and couldn't resist trying it. 
Incidentally, the salmon recipe is written below.

Easy plums in the slow cooker
500g plums
125g sugar
1 tsp vanilla essence

1. Weigh the plums, quarter them, discarding the stone.
2. Put in the slow cooker with the sugar, add the vanilla extract.
3. Cook in the slow cooker for about 12 hours.

Slow Cooker Poached Salmon

Serves 4 to 6
1 cup dry white wine
1 lemon, thinly sliced
1 shallot, thinly sliced
1 bay leaf
5-6 sprigs fresh herbs, such as tarragon, dill, and/or Italian parsley
Salt and peppercorns
Lemon wedges, coarse sea salt, and olive oil for serving

2 cups water

4 - 6 fillets Salmon

1. Combine water, wine, lemon, shallots, bay leaf, herbs and peppercorns in the slow cooker and cook on high for 30 minutes.
2. Season the top of the salmon with salt and pepper and place in the slow cooker, skin side down. 
3. Cover and cook on low until salmon is opaque in color and flakes gently with a fork. Start checking for desired doneness after 45 minutes to an hour  (salmon can be held on the warm setting for several hours.)
4. Drizzle salmon with good-quality olive oil and sprinkle with coarse salt. Serve with lemon wedges on the side.

31 July 2015

... and today we had Bet's Sausage Casserole 

(from Betty Sands of Luckett, near Callington in Cornwall)

650g sausages, cut into thirds

1 lb sausages, sliced thinly

3 oz red lentils

1 bay leaf

1 garlic clove, crushed

1 clove

12 oz chopped onions

1 pint chicken stock

1. Fry sausages gently.
2. Put all ingredients in layers in slow cooker, ending with layer of potato
3. Cook for several hours
4. Put crock put under grill to brown the potatoes, then serve.

Another slow cooked sausage recipe: 
http://allrecipes.co.uk/recipe/29593/slow-cooked-sausage-casserole.aspx

Slow cooker chocolate dessert recipes - because life is beautiful:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/slow-cooker-chocolate-dessert-recipes_5626dc49e4b08589ef49a642

* from: http://www.thekitchn.com/recipe-slow-cooker-poached-salmon-recipes-from-the-kitchn-196453

I went on a trip to the Republic of Ireland in 2000 - and ever since, I've been trying to get round to going again.  Every morning I looked forward to the soda bread, which was served up with our breakfast: (http://www.donalskehan.com/2014/03/wild-garlic-irish-soda-bread/) 


I loved watching their cookery programmes, showing simple hearty food, none of the type of recipes we often get here in the UK, using exotic ingredients which are difficult to get hold of.  And when you do track the ingredient, you use it once and find you don't like it.  Then you're stuck with a nearly full container of something you don't like anyway, which has probably cost a lot of money!

Here's an interesting site of Irish recipes, such as Irish Colcannon, Steak & Guinness Pie, Green Beer (for St Patrick's Day), Guinness Cake,  : http://www.food.com/slideshow/traditional-irish-foods-14


Also see: http://www.weekitchen.com/search/label/Irish%20recipe
and
http://www.irishamericanmom.com/2011/11/04/irish-guinness-beef-stew-crockpot-recipe/

St Patrick's Festival: http://www.stpatricksfestival.ie/

Did you know that pumpkin leaves are edible?

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