Note to Self

Note to self: Just because there are 1500 lettuce seeds in a pack, doesn't mean you have to grow 1500 lettuces.

You don't eat that much lettuce. You just don't.

No. You won't.

These are the little gems growing on the allotment. There are more in the home garden. Many, many more. So far, one bagful has gone to waste, and several bagfuls have gone to friends and family. Thank goodness for friends and family!

But I just haven't been able to use them fast enough, and now some of the most cramped ones are starting to get some mildewy-looking disease. Doh. Station-sowing next year and no excuses.

The weekend's work

This weekend saw even more flowers appearing on the allotment; the borage and the potatoes are flowering, which means baby spuds soon! Yum!

We did a ton of weeding on Sunday, particularly clearing the carrots and onions again. A lot of my onion leaves have been looking yellow for some time now. Dryness or disease? I have pulled out a few with white rot but the remaining ones are all firmly rooted and seem otherwise healthy.

And I decided to plant out our diminutive butternut squash (in the space where slugs felled a pumpkin plant) to see if a change of soil and a bit more space would encourage it to DO SOMETHING.

We found these eggs on a leaf while weeding - anyone know what they are? I'm thinking shield bug. I hate finding things like this and not knowing whether to destroy them or tuck them carefully next to the nearest colony of aphids...

And we watched this newly-emerged tortoiseshell butterfly drying his wings...

...before climbing the compost bin to take off for the first time.

Nom Nom Nom

Take that, blackfly!

And that! And that! And that!

Flowers and Fruits

Aah, June. The warm weather, the heavy showers, the mild nights. It's always June when everything goes crazy on the plot, the weeds take over, and we run out of steam. It's always June when I abandon the blog.

Not this June.

I don't know why so many things are so behind this year (I could blame the cold winter and late spring, but I see on other blogs that many other people are not so affected) but they are certainly getting a move on now.

The first tomato flowers are opening...

The peas are finally flowering...

The broad beans are starting to appear...

The french beans are getting ready to flower...

And we have our first tiny cucumber beginning to swell...

Our first tiny courgette...

And our first tiny pumpkin...

I have finally harvested enough strawberries to call a snack, not just a nibble - though not from the plot where frost nipped the flowers, but from this tub in the garden...

The sorrel flowers look beautiful, even if I am a bit bitter about not having any leaf now...

And the bees are loving the comfrey, as well as all the veg flowers and nasturtiums dotted about the plot...

Aah, June.

Spinach Gnocchi

I first saw it this recipe on Oliver Rowe's 'Urban Chef' programme a few years back, and rediscovered it saved in my computer documents recently! Oliver set out to open a restaurant in London sourcing its ingredients only from inside the M25, and it was a really interesting series, although I do remember watching the bit about the mushroom farm under a motorway and being more than a little concerned about environmental pollutants...

Anyway, this recipe was somewhat more time consuming and fussy than most dinners I make, and I had a small issue with the consistency of the mixture, but it tasted so, so good - really rich and indulgent and classy. Will definitely make again. Not too often though - it's packed with vast amounts of cheese, butter and cream!


Spinach Gnocchi with Mushroom Sauce
(serves two)

• Steam 250g spinach, refresh in cold water, and squeeze the water out. Do not rush this step - get your hands in there and make sure it's as dry as you can get it!
• Chop the spinach finely, then add to a pan with 15g butter and 150g ricotta cheese over a lowish heat. Let everything soften and mix it together well.
• Take it off the heat, add 50g parmesan, an egg and 2 tbsps flour, and season.
• Spread the mixture out on a plate and chill in the fridge for half an hour.

• Meanwhile, finely chop 250g mushrooms, a couple of shallots and a couple of cloves of garlic.
• Fry the shallots and garlic gently in 15g butter of butter until soft, then add the mushrooms and seasoning, and stir in.
• Add 75ml white wine, increase the heat, and simmer a few minutes.
• Then add 100ml double cream and a pinch of nutmeg. Leave simmering gently while you make the gnocchi...
• With generously floured hands, mould the spinach mixture into tablespoon-sized dumplings and set them on a floured plate. (This is where I started running into trouble - the mixture was much too wet to work with easily. My immediate thought was that there should be more flour in the mix, but in retrospect I probably just didn't drain that spinach well enough!)
• Place the dumplings, in batches, into boiling water for 3-4 minutes until they rise to the surface. Then lift them out with a slotted spoon and place on an oiled baking tray.

• When they're all cooked, drizzle a little melted butter over the dumplings, sprinkle with parmesan, and place under a hot grill. (I had to reshape mine somewhat at this stage too, but hopefully if your mixture isn't so sloppy they will hold together better!)
• When they brown on top, remove from the grill and serve with the mushroom sauce on top. I recommend some crusty bread to mop up with as well!