Beans Etc.

My garden is flourishing, mostly things I haven’t planted, but it’s full of life!

Look at these beans, they are ones that seeded themselves last year and they are magnificent! There are so many bean pods on them. They are one of our favourite vegetables so we are very happy, not quite ready to eat yet though.

These are beans I sowed in the spring, they are doing very well too, so we will have a succession of them through the summer. As you can see we have a few corn poppies around as well.

The green house is looking good, here are aubergines, hot chillies and some sweet red peppers just coming through.

I also have more chillies, and a few tomatoes still to be planted up.

Even though I wasn’t able to tend to my garden as much as I would have liked, it is doing well and I have lots to be greatful for 🙂

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Pancakes for breaKfast

With the kids or on your own we can celebrate food over this strange time of lockdown. You can make pancakes for breakfast, especially at this special time of Easter!

2oz plain flour, 2 eggs and a little milk makes 6-7 small pancakes. Double that for more, halve it if you are on your own (give left overs to the birds) 🙂

I use gram flour as I can’t eat wheat but use any plain flour!

mix it up together with a fork squashing any big lumps, little lumps don’t matter.

Turn on the pan on a high heat and add a tiny bit of oil (we are cooking them not frying them) and spread it out over the pan. You might have to add a little more during cooking all the pancakes but remember a teeny tiny bit!

put a large spoon of mixture into the pan.

Your pancake needs turning over with a spatula as soon as little craters start to appear like the ones I’ve ringed around.

Only leave it like this for a few seconds and then put on a warm plate and make the next one.

Note: When the pan looks like it’s smoking, don’t panic, just turn the pan down a little but not a lot, you need it hot.

Then you can put them on the table with all your chosen toppings 🙂 You can use savoury toppings if you prefer.

Note: in your enthusiasm, don’t forget to move the pan safely of the heat.

For the more fussy among us, just jam is ok 🙂

Happy eating!

 

Shiny Greenhouse etc.

it’s a really beautiful day today, if a little chilly, but it encouraged me out into the garden. I love being out in my garden and doing things to make it look nice. I knew one of the things I had to do was to finish cleaning the green house, so I got on with that first. Now it’s not only is it shiny on the outside…..

…..it’s (mostly) shiny on the inside. Which means I can actually see through the glass 🙂

I did some cutting back and sweeping up

and tidied up the rose arch.

I took a sneaky peak at the seeds I sowed about three weeks ago and there’s signs of life.

I love to see things growing, I find it such a blessing, I can’t wait to sow some more 🙂

Preparing for New Year

We were having a few sunny days so I decided I need to wash the green house, the glass is getting very green with lichen and such like. But there was a necessary job beforehand which was to get all the debris that had accumulated around it during autumn and winter. Now it is all nice and clear 🙂

It was too late in the day to start washing the green house, so that’s a job for the next sunny day. It was good to get outside, put my washing out…

and dig up the last of my carrots. They are enormous but very sweet and delicious 🙂

Broad Beans

My little Almanac also tells me I can sow broad beans under glass so I’ve now done that.

I love broad beans so I was eager to start them early to lengthen the growing season. I know a lot of people don’t like then but grown yourself and picked young, they’re delicious.

I’ve sown two types, one I got from the market sold to me by the 1/2 pint and a dwarf variety I got on Line. I’ve never sown them this early before so we shall see what happens.

I did have company while I was doing it 🙂

A small issue that happened yesterday because of all the rain we’ve had. Fortunately this doesn’t happen often!

Chilli Harvest Part 1

I haven’t been very successful in my green house for a couple of years but this year has been good. Below is a photo of part one of my chilli harvest from my four super duper chilli plants.

I’m so pleased and there’s more to come! 🙂

Single Use Plastic Bags

I recently had a revelation after looking at the recycling corner in my kitchen – just how many plastic bags I had, even though I usually remember my cloth bags when I go shopping! I’m sure we all occasionally acquire one for some reason or another, but I thought this was ridiculous. I then realised most of the bags were from loaves of bread! Well, maybe we shouldn’t eat so much bread for a start but I was quite overwhelmed for a moment. I remembered from seeing on TV they are the sort of bags that get sent overseas and can just be left in piles with nothing being done about them and nobody taking responsibility. It’s made me think I must do something!

It’s very difficult because bread is very convenient in our busy lives. Bread is one of those things that you buy at a convenient moment and it’s so difficult to change your habit… but I’m now going to try. Our local baker in Fakenham will give you a paper bag for your bread if you ask. While that does mean I might need to make a special trip, we do in fact go into town from time to time and so could manage it. I bought some today, so lets see how I get on. 🙂

My other problem is that I need to eat GF bread because I have an intolerance to wheat. I know that there is a bakers in another village that bakes their own but it means a drive. I could make my own I suppose but I haven’t found a good recipe yet. Any ideas?!

A Small but perfect Harvest

I do love growing things, it makes me very happy. Here’s an example of my small but perfect harvest 🙂

Me and Mr O. love broad beans so they are a must. I’ve never grown the yellow beans before and they have done really well.

Delicious cucumber, really sweet,

and my first ripe chilli is being used tonight in dinner!

News From My Greenhouse

I just realised that I haven’t reported on how things are doing in my green house. Well they are doing grand!

I have two lovely aubergine plants with fruit and more flowers,

four chilli plants doing amazing, full of fruit,

and twelve tomato plants, several different varieties, performing quite well.

I am so enjoying growing. All my plants are being fed with organic seaweed plant food. 🙂

Tomatos and Chillies

Over the last month, as you know, I’ve been starting to sow my seeds.
I went down to water them today and not only did I have cayenne chillies and aubergines sprouting which I knew about

….I have a Roma tomato

and a birds eye chilli as well!

I just love it when everything starts growing 🙂