Wigwam of sorts and some green things

Okay, I admit its been a while since I written about progress in my garden plot, containers and pots. So here's a little up-date.
On Monday morning, taking advantage of the public holiday and the dry skies. We did some work in the garden. D built me a couple of pea wigwam with sticks we picked up on our travels around the Scottish countryside. I was erring whether to put the peas in the ground as its hardly that warm, but took the decision to do so. We are due to visit family soon, so while we are away some of these growing seedlings and plants will just have to fend for themselves. So the sooner I get them into the ground, the sooner they will be able to stand up for themselves in the Scottish changeable weather.

My baby carrots in a container pot have emerged. Hopefully this container is high enough for the horrid carrot fly to just pass on by.

On the left is my garlic planted in two long containers. They seem to be doing okay so far. The cluster of starry white flowers is from the wild garlic plant I lifted and transplanted in my garden border about a fortnight ago. It seems to have taken okay. I think being located near the water feature is helping, it is the damp part of the garden. If I am still living here next year, I may get to enjoy some of my own home-grown wild garlic, but if not - I have an idea where to go to pick some for free. And finally, the tight crimson buds of the chives that I had neatly lined in the border are starting to peek through. I look forward to seeing their lilac heads soon, as well as eating.

Above image is a picture of my wild alpine strawberries that I carefully lifted from my mothers garden in Wales and transplanted in pots. These tiny strawberries can only be described as little bullets of flavour. I am so looking forward to eating them when pottering about in the garden. I am not sure what variety the strawberries below are, as I had inherited these when I had an allotment. What I do remember though is that they are fat, red and juicy. Everything you would want in a good strawberry.

This is the 3 by 3 plot with a variety of lettuces, salads and radishes. I also put in a Gold Rush courgette plant bought from a garden centre. You can see it on the bottom left. It is beginning to flower, but it is not happy there. I think part of the reason is drainage. This weekend, I will transfer it to the other plot where the ground is established.

We've enjoyed eating some of our own home grown lollo rosso this week. Looking forward to these little ones bulking up. Home grown salad leaves taste so much superior than supermarket vacuum packed ones. The sleepy herbs such as the mint, including this particular one called black pepper mint is finally starting to come through. When I had my allotment one of the herb plants that I really cherished was a lemon verbena. It took me so long to find one. When I finally acquired my own lemon verbena, shamefully I had neglected it, leaving it out in the cold. I thought it was gone and was ready to put it in the compost bin, then miraculously it came back to life. I was ever so delighted and ensured I took care of it, giving it special treatment and attention, moreso than any of the other herbs. Then sadly I lost it with many other things in the allotment fire. Anyway, the point of all this, fortunately this weekend I found another lemon verbena. I will do my best to safeguard it. The scent is so enchanting.

On the window sills inside the flat I have a number of trays with seedlings. This is beetroot.

This is strawberry spinach.

And Swiss chard in its many different colours. I also have 4 chilli plants and 2 Golden Queen tomato plants growing well. In fact one of the tomato plants is actually starting to flower. Even though we may not harvest the same amounts of tomato as we did last year, I am very happy in the knowledge that I will still get the opportunity to taste some of our own.

Happy Growing my fellow readers. I do hope you get the growing bug and enjoy it as much as I do.

Rhubarb and rosemary cookies

After a bit of gardening and enjoying the rhubarb and ginger pancakes for brunch, late that afternoon I decided to carry out another cooking experiment with the rhubarb. Of course I could have made my usual muffin frenzy this time flavoured with rhubarb and ginger, but I actually fancied some with a bit more bite and crunch. Rhubarb flapjacks, no I remembered the Drooling Vegetable being disappointed with them. Biscuits, nah I didn't want to be fussing to much over them. Cookies, yeah why not. I could do with some good homely cookies, but was I going to bake some rhubarb and ginger cookies. Of course not, I wanted to be a bit different and decided on replacing the ginger with some some lovely rosemary growing in the garden. I had no doubt that these flavours would work, as I remembered the Rosemary, lemon and parsnip tart I made last year being quite a hit too, so what could possibly go wrong here?!

Actually nothing went wrong. The taste was wonderful and there was something quite warming and therapeutic about the rosemary, but these cookies were far from perfect. I had added a little too much rosemary and this was competing too much with the rhubarb flavours. So I've adjusted the recipe below reducing the rosemary from a teaspoon to half a teaspoon. Please do give it a go. I think you will be pleasantly surprised.
The leaves of the Rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis) are widely used in cooking, but as I mentioned earlier I also 'felt' its therapeutic qualities or maybe that was just me unwinding from a long day of gardening and cooking. Who knows, but you cannot ignore some of the traditional uses of rosemary. It has been used to relieve muscle pain (those long hot bubble baths with a drop of two of essential rosemary oil) and support the circulatory and nervous systems. I have even found myself soaking a handkerchief in with a droplet or two of rosemary essential oil to sniff and ease my blocked nose, so it does have some medicinal value or healing properties.

I have also decided to submit this baking experiment to this weeks Weekend Herb blogging. WHB as it is fondly known was started by Kalyn of Kalyns Kitchen. It is now organized by organized by Haalo of Cook Almost Anything Once. I think this is a great way to get food bloggers to cook with what is in season and growing locally. This weeks WHB challenge #232 will be hosted by Lynne from Cafe Lynnylu.
As my oven is quite small, I had to make these in four batches. This had an knock on effect on our meal on Monday which was a public holiday in the U.K. So instead of sitting at the table at around 6pm, it was gone 8pm, but that was okay as it was a light evening meal, just the cabbage, parsnip and apple pie no accompaniments. And of course one or two of these cookies.
Rhubarb and Rosemary Cookies
Makes about 24 cookies
Ingredients
350g rhubarb, chopped, cooked and drained of its juices. I usually bake my in the oven with a drizzling of sugar until soft, but use whatever method works for you.
125g butter
120g light brown sugar
1 egg
270g plain flour
Pinch of salt
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
½ teaspoon rosemary, finely minced
50g white chocolate buttons
100g pecans (optional)
Method
Cream the butter and sugar together. Add the egg and beat until light, then stir in the rhubarb. Stir the flour, salt, soda, and rosemary and toss until thoroughly mixed. Stir the dry ingredients into the rhubarb mixture until the two are blended, then combine in the white chocolate. Drop the batter by the tablespoonful onto greased baking sheets about 1 ½ - 2 inches apart. Press in the optional pecan nuts if using, and then bake in a preheated oven at gas mark 5 for about12 minutes, until lightly browned at the edges. Transfer to a wire rack to cool and harden off, before storing.

It cabbage pie time!

Dinner this evening was easy, as I had made this pie yesterday afternoon. We enjoyed half of it late yesterday evening and the other half today, it just had to be reheated in the oven.

I made the shortcrust pastry from scratch. I had some scraps left over and suddenly felt the urge to decorate the top. Do you like? Even the pie hole for the steam to escape is strategically places above the letter 'I'. This is the same shortcrust pastry I used for the Swiss chard and black olive quiche last month, its extremely light and crumbly.
This pie was made with the cabbage I picked up at the farmers market at the weekend. The filling has the right amount of sweetness from both the parsnips and the apple. In fact, if I had added another apple you'd have thought you were eating 'apple pie', and that would not been a good sign for something that ought to be savoury.
D adored this pie and after eating it yesterday and today, declared it 'Delicious!'. He doesn't use the word 'delicious' lightly, so it sure was a compliment coming from him.

Cabbage, Parsnip and Apple Pie
Serves 4 -6
For the Shortcrust pastry
Recipe here

Ingredients for the cabbage pie filling
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
30g butter
1 medium onion, finely sliced
350g parsnips, peeled and sliced
1 teaspoon plain flour
300ml vegetables stock
1 bay leaf
1 dessert apple, grated
Salt and pepper to taste
180g green cabbage, shredded

1 teaspoon dried sage
Method
Heat the oil in a wide pane. Add the butter and when foaming, add the onion and fry over a low heat until soft and golden brown. Add parsnips to the pan and fry for about 10 minutes until starting to soften. Stir in the flour and cook for a couple of minutes. Add the stock to the pan, along with the bay leaf and season to taste. Bring to a boil, then add the shredded cabbage and sage and cook for 20 minutes or until the veg is tender. Remove the bay leaf and stir in the grated apple. Set aside to cool.
Preheat oven to gas mark 5. Roll out pastry to fit the pie dish. Spoon the cabbage mixture into a pie dish. Brush the rim with water then lay the rolled out pastry over the pie. Cut away the surplus pastry with a knife. Press the edges together and mark a pattern with a fork or crimp with your fingers into a raised border. Shape the remaining pastry trimmings into leaves if you wish. Make a small hole in the pastry lid for the steam to escape. Brush the pastry with milk. Bake in the preheated oven for 30 minutes until the pastry is golden brown and the filling piping hot. Adapted from Leiths Vegetarian Bible.