Seven Days

We were completely awestruck at the most incredible Aurora Borealis, viewed right from our very own front doorstep. Photographs, and adjectives can never truly capture this amazing natural wonder, so we only took a couple, and then surrendered ourselves to the moment.

I had a little potter around the garden, tidying up, getting ready for winter, and sitting dreaming and planning for next year. My sister brought me this cheery red thermal mug, and I have used it constantly.

We really enjoyed the TV show, Portrait Artist of the Year, on Sky Arts, and were sad when it finished. Now we have Landscape Artist of the Year, and it looks to be equally as good. It certainly got James inspired to follow along.

The car was in the garage for an MOT, and so I took the chance to wander in the woods nearby for a couple of hours. It was good to be among trees, and smell that autumn scent - so uplifting. 

I started cutting out the blocks for the quilts I am making to finish off James' room. I am recycling the fabric from the old window blinds. I have a plan, just need to see how it works out...

After a shopping trip to town, I stopped in at a favourite cafe, and indulged in hot chocolate, slice of cake, and a dip into my new charity shop book.

More wandering around this stunning landscape, enjoying the big skies, soaking up this golden weather, grateful for all the beauty around us.

Wishing you all a wonderful week ahead.

Around the croft

 I planted some spring bulbs on the grassy bank around the outside of the gate, and am so pleased that they are beginning to show.  I love seeing these little dots of colour, and marvel each time at how they have made it through this stormy winter. Not everything is looking so spring-like though...

...but we will draw a veil over the shredded polytunnel, the overgrown uncleared beds, the garlic shooting up from last year's unharvested cloves, and the wind-strewn debris scattered all over the place. Gloss over the fact that nothing has been planted or sown, and everything is all a little dispiriting. Yes, let's move on from the devastation of winter.

The primula are flowering

I have springtime on my window sill.

And there was one beautifully warm Tuesday, when I was able to dig out the deck chair and drink my first outdoor cup of tea this year. It was so uplifting sitting there in the sunshine, making plans for the new season. With the departure of the livestock, growing will be the focus of the croft work this year, and so plans and ideas will revolve around that aspect. The new cover for the polytunnel has been delivered, this year's seeds and tubers have arrived,  I am planning to put another, more convenient gate into that fence, and convert the cattle trailer into a garden shed, of sorts. I am enjoying this book, oh - and have ordered this one too. Who knows what will grow in this year's garden, but we can only try again, one seed at a time. xx

Around the garden

The garden has been a forgotten place over the last few weeks as we dealt with more pressing issues, so it was good to finally get my hands back into the earth and see what could be salvaged. It all seemed very disheartening as I looked around, but then, under a jungle of weeds, I found the strawberry plants growing away nicely - a good start.  After some vigorous but therapeutic weeding and mulching, it began to look more like my garden. The alliums are providing bright pops of colour in the flower bed, but the weeds have begun reclaiming the empty spaces again. One step at a time though... and at least we are able to harvest some of the autumn sown produce. Yes - it is garlic scape time again! I picked a few tender scapes and we roasted them along with some Scottish asparagus - delicious. I also dug up the shallots and hung them to dry in the sunshine. 

Son, Kenneth, and his partner, Louise are here this week and have been such a great help. Among other things, they removed some redundant fencing, that bordered the vegetable plot. It  has really opened up the space and makes access so much easier - it should help with improving the drainage too. I was quite surprised to see that is almost three years since we first put that fence up... 

I had planted a lot of seeds in the polytunnel and they were doing so well, but then were left to their own devices while we were away. Of course the weather changed and there was a lot of sunshine, so most of them didn't survive. Its a pity, because it would have been no bother for one of my neighbours to chuck a watering can around every couple of days, but it kind of slipped my mind at the time. Anyway - not all was lost - the broad beans look very strong and will go out into the bed soon, the tomatoes have made it, and most of the peas are ok. It's not too late to start again, either; already new trays of kale, broccoli and salads have been filled, and more seeds will be sown directly into the beds. 

Do you like my new plant labels? Every year I fail badly at labelling seed rows and trays, and spend too much time scouring the garden looking for fallen plastic labels, struggling to read the disappearing writing, and trying to remember if those seedlings should go in the flower bed or with the salads.  I collected lots of razor clam shells (spoots) on one of our beach visits, and thought they would be ideal for the job - big enough to see in the raised beds, sustainable, and pretty too. I used a laundry sharpie to write the plant names, so hopefully that will survive the Hebridean weather.

Happy gardening xxx

Around the Croft - January

After what was possibly the wettest, stormiest month ever, in these Isles, it was so good to see blue skies today. We seized the moment, as you must here, and spent a good few hours outside catching up on some work - and some sunlight. We were lucky not to sustain any damage to our property, in the gales, but there was a fair bit of debris lying around, so it was mostly clearing up, and sorting out the recycling.

The livestock were enjoying the fine day too - and it was a relief to see them with dry coats for a change. All the cattle and ewes are in the field outside the house just now, and it is very handy for feeding, and keeping an eye on them. The down-side is that they expect food every single time we appear outside the house: then there is a veritable stampede of cows and sheep following us up and down, trying to attract our attention in the most unsubtle of ways. I swear they can actually tell when we begin to put our coats and boots on inside the house.  Och, all right  - it's not really a down-side...

The hens haven't been laying during these dark and miserable days, so it was good to see them basking in the already strengthening sun. Some of these girls are getting on a bit for laying now, so I am hoping to refresh my stock soon. The surprise chicks that hatched just before our holiday, sadly, were not there when we returned. We'll never know what happened to them, but I suspect it would have been the crows. Hopefully now she has hatched a brood, the mother will have another go in the Spring.

The garden has survived the onslaught of the gales reasonably well, although parts of it are a bit waterlogged.  There are some pretty seedheads still attached, and some very early and welcome signs of new growth.

We have had a good supply of vegetables from the beds all Winter. I like to ensure we have plenty of fresh leafy greens on hand. The chard has been a star - especially the yellow variety. It is getting a bit bedraggled now, so I have been cutting it fairly drastically, as I harvest. I am confident it will come up again and by the time I have picked all the current plants, new leaves should be coming up, and keep us going in the hungry gap. The kales have been great too - and that straggly looking broccoli that I left in has actually done well - giving us two or three servings of small side shoots over the Winter. I have a good crop of January King cabbages, growing away nicely under their mesh cover, and carrots and beetroot are still happy in the ground.  The leeks have been casualties though - scorched and de-flagged by those cruel winds. I will definitely add some enviromesh covering over next year's leek bed, as it really makes a difference.

So, there we are - still standing, still harvesting and still planning. Another nice day is forecast for tomorrow, so I hope to get out into the polytunnel  (also still standing - phew!), and start work on the new raised beds that I want to put there. Then there is the seaweed collecting, the manure spreading, the propagator to be filled.... The Crofting year begins again!

Tomato Talk

I planted a lot of tomatoes this year. Far too many. There are around 40 plants crammed into growbags in my polytunnel, all at various stages of ripeness. It happens every year - I get so excited drooling over the seed catalogues in the Winter, and no sooner has a new calender been pinned to the wall - than the propagator is dusted down and plugged in. Well, slight exaggeration, but not much.
I dream of Summer evenings sitting down (outside, of course) to salads of huge red tomatoes, dripping with sweetness, served on good bread; of bushels of ripe fruits being borne into the kitchen. I envision myself slaving away in the Summer heat, preserving this bountiful harvest - passata, ketchup, dried in oil, bottled, soups and sauces....

But Summer is as far away as it ever could be, and realisation dawns that I don't actually  live in Tuscany. My poly tunnel still abounds with unripened fruit of various sizes. Admittedly many are turning pale orange, which is hopeful, but since I can now see the approach of November without my glasses on, the dream is fading.

But - I probably I protest too much here.  In fact, there have been some lovely salads, plenty of passata too, and anyone who follows me on Instagram or Twitter will still see the daily appearance of cherry tomatoes in James's lunchbox. Many a Sungold has been nibbled as I wander around the plants. Just not huge amounts - considering the amount of time and attention they have had.  Some have done better than others, and I'm glad I had this year to suss out what works and what doesn't. It has been my first year growing tomatoes up here, and my first year growing under plastic, so lots of learning to be done. I planted eight varieties in all, grown from seed. let's see how they did.

Top row: Lylia Cerisette, Golden Sunrise, Gardener's Delight, Sungold.
2nd row: San Marzano, Burpees Delicious, Costoluto Fiorentino, Black Krim.

Well, all those in the top row were fantastic. I have grown Lylia Ceristette for many years and it never disappoints - Sungold likewise. I would be hard pressed to choose between them - both are gorgeously sweet and they just keep producing their little orbs of sunshine. Gardener's Delight was late in starting to fruit, but it is making up for lost time now. very welcome since the Sungolds are almost at an end. A new variety to me was the medium sized, Golden Sunrise, bought when James secretly dropped a packet into my shopping basket at the garden centre last year. Slightly more acidic than Gardener's Delight, but not overly so, and in terms of production of fruit that ripened, well, it was a star performer. I will definitely be growing that one next year.

Moving down to the second row, and we have a more mixed set of results. San Marzano is a tomato I have had trouble with in the past - usually blossom-end rot, due to my slapdash watering habits. This year, however, I worked hard at this, and it has paid off. I have a decent crop just ripening now, hopefully all at the same time. It is a very late crop though, and I am impatient for it to be ready, as I want to prepare the tunnel for Winter. If I do grow it next year, there will only be a couple of plants at the back of the bed.

Burpees Delicious was a let down. They were the first to set fruit, but then completely refused to turn red. The one pictured was the only ripe fruit from three plants, and even then it ended it's career on the window shelf. it was very small too.

I had high hopes for Costoluto Fiorentino. A beautiful tomato in the seed catalogue and magazines, and indeed it set fruit quickly and profusely, but then the problems began. It seemed to have a habit of growing wildly out of shape,which made it difficult to harvest, and had a detrimental effect on the rest of the crop. If you look at the first picture, you will notice how it grows up and over the stem. This meant that in picking it, the stem was damaged, and nine times out of ten, the unripe tomatoes growing below came away too.
Now I am all for knobbly fruit and veg - no supermarket uniformity here, but I found CF just a bit too crazy. Many of the bobbly bits ripened and began to rot before the rest of the fruit was ripe, and they tended to go soft quite quickly. It wan't a massive problem, as I just cut those bits out and served them up anyway, but it would put me off growing it again.

Black Krim was a similar story - huge fruits which began to  soften and rot long before they were ripe enough to pick. I still have a few unripe on the plants, which, as the light levels plummet, I have all but given up on.

I think the problem is that, even under cover, it is just not warm enough here for these big tomatoes to grow successfully.  It is probably also the fact that I am growing under plastic, which doesn't allow the same amount of light though as glass. Such a shame, because the bits that we did eat were delicious.

As were these, picked just yesterday. While the wind howled and the rain lashed, I was snug and warm, harvesting all the fruit that had ripened over our holiday. It would seem that small and medium sized tomatoes are the way forward here.

Anyway - with all the passata and soup bases tucked away in the freezers to brighten our Winter menu, I thought I would try something a bit different - Peat smoked tomatoes! Definitely a winner. I love my stovetop smoker and used it extensively over the Summer, smoking fish, chicken and sausages. It transformed our beach barbecues, - so much easier and much more effective to whip of the lid after 15 minutes, and reveal smoked langoustines,scallops, or mussels - perfectly cooked! So, out it came again and with some black peat crumbled into the bottom, salt, pepper and sherry vinegar thrown over, these end of season tomatoes ascended to new smoky heights, full of flavour.

But we're not quite over yet. I have hope that their will be another couple of pickings before these plants come out to make way for the new raised beds. Christmas tomatoes from The Outer Hebrides, perhaps? 

Garden Notes 2013

So - Summer is over. The first of the Autumn gales have been forecast for the weekend, and it is time to batten down the hatches. But, before we do that, I want to have a look and see how 2013 went for this garden on the edge of Europe. It was a late starter for us, due to the very cold Spring, the diversion of the polytunnel construction and the fact that not all the raised beds were in situ until June. But, we got there in the end, and I can now share some of the results of our Summer labour.

Chard is always dependable. Such a good crop here - beautiful big glossy leaves - which taste sweet, even when they run to seed, and can last until next season's seedling are ready to go in!  I do find that the ruby chard seems to bolt much more than the yellow and pink, so when my (seemingly never-ending) packet of Rainbow mix is finished, I will order single colours.

The beetroot has been a great success this year too. In previous years I have always had trouble getting a crop at all, so these tennis ball size globes are such a bonus. This year I grew the Beetroot seed collection from Sarah Raven. Amazing result, and we have lately enjoyed several platters of 

incredibly trendy looking, three-beet salad. I would say though, that there were very few of the golden beet seeds, so I will need to order double of that variety for next time. Happily there were plenty of the red and pink, so saving a bit there.

In other veg news, the carrots (Autumn King) are fattening out and can really stay in the ground until the end of the year. I will cover them with fleece to keep the worst of the winds off them. The kales and cabbages are nice and snug under their enviromesh cover and we will harvest them as we go. Cauliflower and broccoli have been cut, eaten and some of it even frozen! I did leave the broccoli plants in the ground, and have been picking little shoots now and then - just enough to add to stirfries and salads.

Potatoes did well, considering how late they went in (end of June). I planted Accent, which was a first early, and Charlotte, a waxy salad. I am almost at the end of the Charlotte now, and as I worked through the bed, discovered a courgette plant and a large nest of hens eggs hidden beneath the foliage!
The Accent were large white potatoes - very easy to over-boil if you took your eye off the pot, and they were really soft in texture. I found them to be a bit bland, but the rest of the family seemed to like them. I thought they were tastier cold rather than hot, so better for salads. Charlottes are always good, and I will definitely grow them again. Next year, I will be more organised and get them in earlier and even try to grow a maincrop as well.

Beans were mixed. The broad beans did really well - a mixture of Super Aquadulce and Stereo. The Stereo grew really tall and suffered a lot in the windy conditions, but the beans were superb. Aquadulce are always good performers, and we like the big fat beans and the furry pods. I have several bags in the freezer, and we enjoyed them in a lot of meals over the last two or three months. Broad bean hummus is definitely  the taste of Summer for me.
I had also planted dwarf French beans ( Cantare and Aguillon) and climbing beans ( Borlotti and Blue Lake) but  - failure here. I never can grow dwarf beans - they are always tiny, shrivelled little specimens. Even in my previous garden, much further south, I only ever harvested enough for maybe one or two small portions. I just don't think it is warm enough here.  I am still going to try next year, but in the poly-tunnel. The climbers?  Well, Borlotti is very far from home up here on the Western Isles, so a few stumped empty pods and wind-scorched leaves were the result here. I had hoped for more from the Blue Lake, as I have had good harvests in the past from this variety. Again, though, it was those old South-westerlies that did them in. Sustained moderate breezes are just as drying as hot sun, without the growth promoting qualities.

Although -  look - right down there at the very bottom of the bean tower -  maybe half a dozen decent looking pods!  A lesson there then - more protection.

I am pleased with the bulb fennel, which I only planted last month, under fleece, and the stems are just beginning to swell. I have planted a comfrey bed, so that I can make my own liquid fertiliser. We are all waiting and hoping for a late strawberry bonus - just a couple of more sunny weeks - please! I had forgotten to sow any peas this year, so I bought some plants at the Crofter's market last month. Of course, the beds were all full and I had nowhere to plant them, so they went into the flower bed. We have had a fair few pods from them, but now they have been discovered by the hens. What I want to know is - why they can't peck at the creeping buttercup as well - then I might not mind so much. Ho hum...

...at least there is still time to smell the flowers..

...oh yes - there should always be time for that. ♥

Around the croft and kitchen

As usual, so busy up here with the crofting tasks. Moving cattle back and forward between the fields where they are strip grazing, a la Joel, waiting on a new calf to arrive sometime in August.

Oh - and dealing with an udder abscess which suddenly appeared on Celia. That was a learning experience if ever there was one - and a bruising one too! But we now know a lot more about cattle than we ever did, and Celia, who never actually seemed to be ill with this, is now happily back with the others. I'll write more about this another time.

But for now, my focus is on the garden. The flower bed is beginning to really show some colour. Those huge allium flowers are stunning, my Gertrude Jekyll rose is looking very promising - such a beautiful pink, and I love the cheery faces of those pansies. We are picking sweet peas every day now, and the dahlia's are budding.  I believe I can see my dreamt-of cottage garden beginning to emerge!

We have not had the hight temperatures of the Mainland heatwave here, and it has been quite a dull and dismal week. But, the sun is on it's way, starting today, I believe, and we may see temperatures in the high 60s! Just perfect for me, and hopefully some colour will appear on all that green fruit that is just waiting to ripen.

In the vegetable plot and polytunnel, harvesting is starting to speed up just a little bit more now - it's not exactly a glut, but we manage to eat from our land every day. I planted many things later than I normally would, as it was such a cold Spring, but things are catching up nicely now. The courgettes (zucchini) are really taking off, and I wonder why I panicked earlier on and planted so many! I guess some recipes might find their way here over the next couple of months. This week, I want to share with you, a favourite delicious, quick and nourishing food, picked straight out of the garden.

We have just begun to harvest our garlic scapes. For weeks i was watching for them, and then, suddenly there they were, twisting all over the bed. We have enjoyed them is all sorts of ways, especially loving them drizzled with oil and roasted, or barbecued in a foil parcel with oil and sea salt. But my most favourite thing to do with them is to make soup. Spanish garlic soup with bread and poached egg is a regular and welcome lunchtime meal for us, so I decided to give my usual recipe a wee Summer makeover. A quick saunter round the garden with a basket yielded some garlic scapes, a few plump pods of broad beans, and a handful of bean tops. The nest box in the hen  house provided the eggs and I had made a large pot of chicken stock the day before. I only ever make enough for the number of people who are there at the time. it is not one of those that you would keep for leftovers, like the Scotch broth - and it is a really quick dish to prepare. The amounts given here are for 3 people, so feel free to increase as required.

3 or 4 garlic scapes, chopped
A handful of broad bean tops
6 broad bean pods
3 or 4 teaspoons of smoked paprika
3 eggs ( 1 per person)
3 slices sourdough or thickly sliced bread of choice
Chicken stock (2 ladlefuls per person)

Pour a good amount of olive oil into a heavy pan.
Fry the garlic scapes until soft, but not brown
Add 3 or 4 teaspoons smoked paprika ( I used 3 dulce and 1 piccante, but use what you have or prefer)
Allow to foam in the oil for a few seconds, then add a couple of ladlefuls chicken stock for each person.
Simmer for a few minutes then add the shelled broad beans.
Put a slice of bread in each soup plate.
Crack an egg for each person into the simmering soup and poach for a few minutes until softly set.
Lift the egg out  of the liquid and place on the bread
Add the broad bean tops to the soup and stir in briefly.

Ladle the soup over the bread and egg.

Savour the moment when you break the yolk and watch it ooze into the liquor

Then tuck in.

Real Fast Food...mmm!