Glorious Technicolour

You must excuse the self-indulgence of this particular post, but I simply had to show off our sudden brilliant corner of wildflowers.

For much of the year so far our garden has been a determined, thriving, but rather steadfast and dull green. There was a burst of lilac from the clematis and the fuchsia contributed perfect teardrops of white and pink, but for the main, it was green. We scattered - more in hope than expectation - a corner with wildflower seeds, as much for the butterflies and bees as for us and a way to break up the verdant monotony. Nothing happened. For months all we had were more green weeds. We had no way of knowing if they were even the wildflowers or whether we should get on top of this sudden weedy outbreak. Then, last week, a few daisies started to come through, and from then on there's no stopping them. There are poppies and cornflowers, daisies and some rather nice yellowy ones, all next to a sudden sunburst of nasturtiums - and now there's more colour than quite seems seemly. Even the miniature hydrangea is blossoming pink and perky. So this is my indulgence. A positively Jackson Pollock-esque splotch of colour - just from weeds.

Wings and other things

It's been a while since my last post and Summer seems to be sadly settling down into something more normal. But we soldier on - and I have to admit the garden is loving the rain - next post I promise some pictures of our curiously sudden Wildflower Corner with a plethora of brightest orange nasturtiums - suddenly, suddenly we have colour in the garden and it's ultimately cheering.

Anyway, back to what's been going on... The garden is springing along, with the second crop of rocket and spinach coming along. We're now digging up potatoes, cropping cavolo nero and picking green beans. The kale looks almost ready too. The pak choi sits there dispiritedly wondering if we're ever going to release it from its bed of pain. Sad, but we still can't get to it. Ooh and we have lots of orange tomatoes, which will stay thus and so could adorn a bacon sandwich on Sunday morning.

So, I'm still not buying any veg but I have made a discovery of a Farmers market in Penge just down the road from the Sibling (new character everyone - brace yourselves...). And whatever you can't get there, there is a really excellent butchers just round the corner. I bought some truly good chicken liver pate from Tom's Chickens as well as the most enormous wings you have ever seen - almost pterodactyl in size, but meatier and obviously less leathery... 8 to a pack and barely a couple of quid.

So what did I do with them? Well, for a start we could only manage 3 each but I heartily recommend them for lunch the next day so cook as many as you can fit in a tin. Cover with hearty amounts of olive oil, salt and paprika and roast for 40-45 mins at about 200C. Meanwhile, make a dressing of handful of parsley and sprig of rosemary, finely chopped with garlic. Stir in juice of a lemon, a drizzle of sherry (dry please) and enough olive oil to make it pourable. Chopped chilli, (about a tsp, but as much as you like, bearing in mind the paprika), salt and pepper and leave to sit. When the wings are golden and sticky, spoon over the dressing and leave for 5-10 minutes to cool. (I say this in retrospect - I have no fear of molten food but MCD squeals like a girl if anything is above room temperature, so burnt fingers were a minor issue last night).

With it: runner beans cut into aesthetically pleasing diamond shapes, lightly cooked, then turned in a dressing of finely chopped shallots, red wine vinegar and olive oil, all piled on top of shredded sorrel.

A verdant ray of light on a gunmetal grey day...

The excitement. The very excitement. I came home last night, after a mammoth 2 1/2 hour slog (I'm sorry but really I have very little patience with strikers), tired to the very bone. Shuffling into the kitchen, I see on the kitchen table a lone broad bean pod. Now this is curious. I bought a small bag of broad beans at the weekend, as I'd checked ours - rather cursorily I admit - and they didn't seem to be giving forth. Why, I pondered, would MCD have removed a single broad bean pod from the fridge? For educational purposes... compare and contrast... an alternative instrument to unblock the loo... anything was possible. This is not a man known for voluntarily tackling anything green. When questioned, his little face shone like the morning sun and he beamed 'It's ours.' 'I know that, dear, when you exchange money for goods, ownership does tend to pass into your posession' was my weary reply. 'No, no, it's ours...' he maintained and light did indeed dawn.

He had been out pottering in the veg garden and a flash of something had caught his eye. Upon further inspection, lo, the lower echelons of the broad bean plants appeared to be covered in bright green pods. Masses. So tonight the plan will be - and luckily he's off to a Darwin symposium so he won't be helping (btw he's not sure he knows what a symposium is, but hey-ho it's a night out) - me shelling broad beans and freezing what I don't plan to eat over the next few days.

So tonight, broad beans with some creme fraiche and ham; tomorrow, broad beans with parsley and lemon to go with our fish and chips; Saturday more broad bean hummus.

Ooh and to add to it all, our very first pebble-like new potatoes were smashing.

PS: Just to add a note - those broad beans with the creme fraiche. Here's what I did: I got home, found, not the colander with a few pods in but half a stock pot full - MCD had been busy. I poured a glass of wine and went into the garden and left them there... No, not really. I decamped to the garden and podded the beans. It all came to about 2 handfuls - no wonder they're precious. I popped a big handful into a pan with a little butter and a slightly-too-large splash of white wine, added some shredded Parma ham and simmered very gently until they just started to pop through the outer casing and there was a hint of bright green visible. I stirred in creme fraiche, lemon juice and parsley and poured this ragout next to a sizzling pork steak, seasoned with a little lemon juice. Back out into the garden with more white wine - it was blissful and quite extraordinary to be eating the produce picked that morning and prepared a couple of minutes earlier.

Another thing of beauty....

A quick update on the old veggie garden. Those at the back are broad beans (thank God they freeze), potatoes have come through and have been rather professionally 'earthed' (We still have no idea what we're doing - is this right? Have we earthed too high?), then the onions (nope still no idea when they're ready), then easy-pick rows of rocket, spinach, lettuce and the rather weedy weeds in the middle are the undoubtedly ill-fated cavolo nero.

But we're rather pleased with it. The rocket is of the straight edged variety rather than jagged, which made us somewhat doubt what we had planted, but those lettuces look almost professional!

And on the right next to some rather delicious clematis are our runner beans - as you'll see from the length of the canes, they have aspirations.

My Veg Garden

Welcome to my veg garden. You might be struck by the peculiar banner - it's a Happy Birthday banner - the whole thing was built by Pa as a surprise for my husband's birthday. And we love it....

So far we're growing broad beans, potatoes, onions, rocket, lettuces, cavolo nero, kale, runner beans and further up the garden in a sunny spot, courgettes and tomatoes. It's a little exercise in The Good Life (I do long to be Barbara sometimes) and I'll keep you posted on our trials. So far you can take to the bank that spinach hates to be replanted. MCD swears it's growing - I swear it's keeled over with exhaustion.