Unintelligent Design

...well, ok, that's not strictly true. For the most part, they're replacements for the plants that didn't survive winter. But still, definitely looking forward to their arrival in the next couple of days. :)

( Herbs. Mostly edible ones. Mostly. )

I now have a kiwi plant. ('Jenny')

The next job is to actually set up somewhere that it'll be happy - it's a climber, so this mostly involves adding vertical posts and horizontal wires along a garage wall, to give it a frame that it can be trained to.

I'm optimistic. But possibly not terribly competent. We'll see how this goes. Hopefully, in a year or three, there will be many small but tasty kiwi fruit.

I have space for one more tree. Just one.

Or, more accurately, when the annoying tree at the end of the garden has been removed, I'll have room for one more tree. But not quite so close to the neighbour's garage this time.

...so what should it be? I have apple trees, a damson tree and a quince already.

The current shortlist is a bit random - apricot, peach, medlar, mulberry, elder.

Medlar is tempting. Reliable crops, not really available in shops, looks nice (the tree, not the medlars...) tasty. :)

Peach and apricot are a bit of a gamble, even with varieties that will crop in a British summer. They'd probably do better closer to the house...

Mulberry has all the same plus points as a medlar. But can be eaten straight from the tree. The downside...? No fruit for several years.

And elder...? Well, I can find uses for it. Many of them. But if I really want elderflowers or berries, they're pretty easy to find wild near here.

Hmm... just as well I've got ten months to think about it! :)

Up until a few minutes ago, I'd pretty much forgotten that today's V-day; a couple of posts from friends reminded me.

I'm single again this year and, well, not generally that fussed about it right now.

Which is a bit of a change from various previous years when I've been attached (and wondering what to do to make an event of it without simply following the script...), recently single (and uncomfortably conscious of the date) or not actually attached but caught up in Things and Stuff of one type or another...

This year's much more relaxed. No valentines sent, no valentines received. Not even a dead rodent received from the cat (yet).

But not bad for a Monday, nonetheless. :)

'Rice pudding with Frambozen' :-)

Today's the day that Dora Saunders, my mum's mother, would have turned 100.

The family's scattered across the country today, but we're all raising a glass of something suitable in her memory (whisky, in my case).

Well, I'm not bad at growing pumpkin. And I'm certainly quite good at eating it. Possibly need a bit more practice cooking it, though...

Yesterday's project was pumpkin and chorizo soup. Home grown pumpkin, garlic, sage and chilli, plus homemade chicken stock (...which also included some veg & herbs from the garden).

The only things straight out of a shop were the onion and the chorizo. Quite happy about that bit.

A little less happy with the end result, which was perhaps a bit thin and lacked a certain oomph. Not sure if the stock needed to be reduced or the pumpkin simply wasn't sufficiently flavourful.

I suspect the latter - more chicken (or more chilli and garlic, for that matter) might just have overwhelmed it.

So, time to do something else with the other half of the pumpkin. Something that may bring the flavour out a little more... I think it may need to be roasted (or pan cooked) and served up with some sausages... :)

...and then, of course, I've got a whole heap of pumpkin seeds to use. A bit of salt, a splash of water and a few minutes under the grill. Nom. :-)

My attitude to the garden is, generally, a fairly simple one: I want to fill it with things I can eat. And then I want to eat them.

Fond as I am of gardening, I don't actually have the motivation to stick with it unless I get some treats out of it. So fruit, veg and herbs are generally the focus of it all.

...and sooner or later, that was going to mean more trees, wasn't it? This may sound a little odd to anyone who's had to help me destroy the existing trees in the garden but, basically, they were the wrong trees and in the wrong places. The new ones will be dfferent.

More specifically, the new ones wll produce edible stuff.

I've already got a 'Vranja' quince tree which should - hopefully - start fruiting next year. The latest additions are:

• Damson - 'Farleigh'
• Apple - Peasgood's Nonsuch
• Apple - Blenheim Orange
• Apple - Orleans Reinette

...the problem with apples being that the variety I really wanted (the Nonsuch) isn't self-fertile, so multiple trees were required. Still, I've got space for them (they're all on semi-dwarfing rootstock) and they should give me a decent variety of fruit.

The choice of varieties is very much Nigel Slater's fault - 'Tender' recommends Peasgood's Nonsuch as the best apple for a great tasting cooked slush and Blenheim Orange is his preference for apple tarts (and anything else where the cooked apple needs to hold its shape). To complete the set, Orleans Reinette is meant to be a rather tasty/fragrant eating apple.

I see apple crumble in my future. :-)

As for the damson... well, frankly, if I want to eat damsons without raiding Borough Market or somewhere similar, I'm gong to have to grow my own (much like the quinces). And I quite like the idea of eating damsons now and then.

For anyone who's strugglng to picture these in my garden - apple trees down the left side, by the fence, opposite the lawn (close to the house, before the raised beds start hogging all the space). That puts them to the exposed side of the garden, but they'll just have to cope. The damson's going on the right, close to the house, sheltered from the north wind.

Of course, this does mean that it'll be a few years before I get fruit. And that if I sell up and move out before then, it's all wasted effort. But that's the nature of the thing, isn't it? If that does happen, I just hope whoever moves in appreciates them!

For some odd reason, I always wanted to grow marrows in the garden, not just courgettes. I'd never really planned beyond the 'growing them' stage, mind you.

Last year I got one marrow. Just one. This year I got four (so far - might get one more before frost kills the plants...).

...which leads on to the question of "what do you do with a marrow?". More than one cook book suggests that the answer is basically "shrug, walk away and cook something else" - as if marrows are a lost cause...

This hasn't helped me to find interesting ways to use them. However, Sarah Raven and Nigel Slater are both, thankfully, made of sterner stuff. :)

Mr Slater's 'Tender" has a recipe for baked marrow with spicy minced pork. Lots of mint, dill and lime. Plus a fair bit of chilli (with the pan-fried mince). It's good. It has a certain kick to it. Definitely autumn food.

Last night's attempt was a little different, though - chicken stock, marrow and coconut milk (plus ginger, basil, mint and onion) as the basis for a soothing, gently warming soup. And half a marrow fed four - including seconds - which is never a bad thing...

Next, I think, it's time to try Nigel Slater's veggie stuffed marrow recipe. Let's see how this one goes... :)