Leek Planting and Water Butt Dipping

 Such a glorious day for shrimping and planting!

A chance discovery of Pond Shrimps, in the communal water supply at the allotment, provided an afternoon of enthusiastic water butt dipping for the girls. As we have refused to purchase fish for the pond they have been creating the shrimps provided them with alternative pond occupants.

Hopefully the rather bumpy ride, from butt to pond, in a wheelbarrow won't have been too traumatic for the troupe of shrimp and they will thrive in their new habitat.
It would be an awful shame if the "lobsters" that we have acquired, were to die of shock before they were big enough to eat!

While the girls busied themselves with their pond project Marcus and I planted out the leeks. We employed the same technique that we used last weekend for the shallots.

The seedlings are so tightly packed together (like a clump of grass) that they need to be completely saturated with water to separate the dense network of fragile roots. 

First we popped the seed pot into a shallow tub and filled it with water. After allowing it to soak for few minutes we gently agitated the water around the roots so that the compost came away without snapping them.

Next we used a dibber (pointy tree stake) to make holes about 5 inches apart and 3 inches deep and popped a leek seedling into each. 

Each hole was then filled with water; this makes the hole fill itself in and wraps the leek in lovely wet soil. 

Hey presto, the leeks are planted! 

It's great to see our crops beginning to take hold. The beetroot, parsnips, broad beans and chard are all looking good as are the onions and garlic. The shallots still look like straggly blades of lying, limp on the mud but Marcus assures me that they will stand up soon. 

We have masses of red and white currants and gooseberries so definitely need to get them netted before the blackbirds spot them!  

Many Hands make light scones!

Having successfully reduced our sugar consumption during the week our weekend consumption has started to gain an almost ceremonial status. We look forward to Saturday's and Sunday's with a sense of family camaraderie; planning the bakes and puddings that we might indulge ourselves in and setting time aside to enjoy them. This has resulted in a rather pleasing and well received family pact:

We, the family of Cross-Broome, will endeavour to sit down together for a cup of tea and cake on Sunday afternoons.

The girls completely embraced this new addition to our family agenda and threw themselves into scone and jam production with huge enthusiasm. The saying, "too many cooks spoil the broth", initially sprang to mind but turned out to be unfounded.

We used my Mum's scone recipe that requires sour milk, of which we had none, so had to make! 

Souring the milk provided a bit of intrigue and some exclamations of "yuuuuck, that's gross" as the curdled liquid came into being.  

The many hands, well the six hands, worked together like one big baking machine to produce some yummy scones, whipped cream, jam,

 

lots of laughter and a big, floury, smiley mess! 

Foraging in our Garden

As we carefully nurture our seedlings and tend our allotment; guarding against late frosts, regularly potting on, watering and weeding, it always amuses me how bountifully our weeds grow! Left to fend for themselves they are already lush, green and prolific. A few weeks ago I was rejoicing in the availability of nettles, well now it is the turn of Ground Elder.

On the whole, this is considered a pervasive and troublesome garden weed that aggressively out competes most other plants. It is pretty tricky to get rid of once it has established itself and will spread either by seed or by its rhizomes (long, horizontal underground stems). These can spread by as much as a metre a year and are rather brittle. If broken they will easily regrow and generate an even wider spread of ground cover. As it is so tricky to get rid of I reckon that the best solution is to embrace its abundance and eat it!

Flavour wise ground elder is rather tasty and nutritious ( a good source of iron, manganese and vitamin C). Like so much 'wild' vegetation, it works well when used as a spinach substitute, the youngest leaves are also good eaten raw in salad. It has a slight tang and a more aromatic flavour than spinach. Our Monday evening meal this week was 'pie'. We had a fair amount of leftover chicken and plenty of gravy from our roast as well as a couple of pork burgers left from a barbecue on Saturday. With just a couple of leeks and a few handfuls of ground elder these ingredients became a mighty fine pie.

Rough puff pastry is a big favourite with the girls so I tend to opt for this as my pastry of choice for pies. I can usually smuggle all manner of ingredients under the pie lid without too many complaints!

Having lined the pie dish with pastry I use the scraps to make an extra rim around the edge of the dish. This helps to raise the pie lid and gives the pastry more of a puff.

Chicken and Ground Elder pie 

(Clean Plates 4/5 - two of the tasters were hesitant about 

the ground elder but only when I brought attention to it!)

Filling

Leftover Cooked Chicken (we usually have a leg and some breast)

2 pork burgers/any uneaten stuffing (a sausage meat one would be ideal)

2 Leeks

25g Butter

1 Tbsp Fresh Tarragon

Nutmeg

400ml – 500ml Gravy (or chicken stock)

1 Tbsp Flour (only if using stock rather than gravy)

150ml White wine

50ml Double Cream

Salt and Pepper

2 Handfuls of Ground Elder

Rough puff pastry

300g Plain Flour

150g Cold Butter

150ml – 180ml Cold water

Chop the butter into cubes around 6 mm squared.

Add the cubed butter to the bowl of flour and toss until all the pieces are coated with flour.

Gradually add the water to bring the mixture together into a firm dough.

Tip onto a well floured work surface, shape into a rectangle and roll in one direction until you have a rectangle about 2 cm thick.

Fold the far third towards you and the nearest third over that to create three layers.

Give the pastry a quarter turn and then repeat the rolling, folding and turning process 5 more times.

Wrap the pastry in cling film and chill in the fridge for at least half an hour.

Finely chop the leeks and tarragon and then melt the butter in a saucepan. Keeping the heat low, gently sweat the leeks until soft.

Strip the meat from the chicken carcass and break the stuffing into bite size pieces. Add to the pan with the leeks and a grating of nutmeg.

If you are using stock rather than leftover gravy add a tablespoon of flour to the leeks and meat and cook for 2 minutes.

Pour in the wine and gravy or stock and allow to simmer for 15 – 20 minutes.

Add the cream, boil for another couple of minutes then taste and adjust the seasoning with salt and pepper and maybe a bit more nutmeg.

Remove from the heat and roughly chop the spinach or seasonal greens. Stir them into the pie mix and set aside while you roll out the pastry.

Pre-heat the oven to 200C. Divide and roll out the pastry in 2/3 and 1/3 sized pieces to line and top a pie dish. Fill the lined dish with the filling, top with pastry and crimp the edges all round. Brush with beaten egg, make three knife slashes in the pastry top to allow the steam to escape.

Bake for 35 – 40 minutes until golden brown on top.