Growing Celeriac

We love our celeriac in this house and have been growing it on the plot since the first year; always Giant Prague and always with the happiest of results. It amazes me that these vegetables aren't more popular in supermarkets and restaurants, its high in fibre and low in calories, but I guess we can change that, fellow growers!

picture taken from seed parade where we got ours

Okay, they aren't the prettiest of veggies to look at and uneducated people may see them and think it's a really ugly turnip and maybe slightly diseased. In some causes they are known as 'turnip-rooted celery', it would be an easy mistake to make. They are knobbly and swollen and smell like celery (not what you expect if you think it's a turnip!) but oh, they taste so good and are an all round unsung hero of the larder! You can eat the leafy tops and of course, the root and they keep well after harvesting and are freezable if blanched :)

* The seeds are tiny... plant 2 in each module with rich soil and pull out the weaker one when they are seedlings. It only takes 2-3 weeks before they look like proper plants and for us the germination rate is usually 100%. This should be done in early spring in the potting shed and later hardened off in a cold frame.

there they are bottom left ;)

* We are at the planting out stage which is done in May and June. This bed was marked out for them back in Autumn and thus given loads of good old horse poo and compost, they are hungry plants (hungry for nutrients, water and sunshine) and general purpose compost a week before planting out isn't a bad idea too!

Here's Andrew showing us how he likes to plant them... about 20cm apart in a line without burning the crown, you want the soil right up to base of the stems. Our second row is a good trowels length apart, so about 30cm; some people like to do them much further apart.

There that was easy enough, now to look after them....
* So whilst they grow you must keep the area weed free and mulch them if the weather gets hot (to keep the nutrients in) and as with all veggies, remove those side shoots and old leaves.
Keep an eye of those blasted slugs - grrrr.

We'll return to this later in the year when we harvest and eat ;)

Hugs and love
Carrie

Focus on.... Jerusaleum Artichokes

It's been a bad day. I swear if I hadn't a skeleton, my body would still be upright and workable ~ my muscles are so tense and I am running on adrenalin. I'm a tiny bit of a mess. Still not sleeping much these nights (that's almost 12 weeks now!) and therefore the double vision is worse and the depression and the anxiety and I've been crying; my brain is fried.

I do want to learn about these Jerusaleum Artichokes though, so I'll get one or 2 of our new Christmas books out and  try to unravel the mystery of these tasty tubers. I just need a doze first, please Mr Sandman.....

Ah that helped and Andrew is home and we're settled on the sofa together - bliss.

*****

So, Jerusaleum Artichokes then. We did have 2 here on Sunday but they were chopped up and put in a gorgeous stew before I could take a photo. Not that they are very exciting to look at...

* They are low maintence, prolific perennials, best planted out between January and March
* Their knobbly tubers can be harvested between October and March (that's a great harvest period!)
* They are tall wind break plants, produce lots of compostable material and have very lovely sunflower-like blooms in the late summer.
* I can also testify to their super tastiness - something like a nutty earthy potato and according to my book 'Veg Patch', they are high in potassium, iron, fibre and lots of other vitamins and minerals.

Sounds great, eh? It gets even better when you realise that they just need plonked into the soil 15cm down and 60cm apart and left there!!! All you have to do is wait until harvest time and in the meantime enjoy them growing up tall and showing off their flowers, they even like frost. Leave them in the ground and only harvest as needed; they store best in the ground. Lastly, you get around 2kg for each tuber planted, just leave some behind for next year and let the joy perpetuate.

They can be treated just like a spud (except they'd be crap baked and stuffed with cheese - too small!); mashed, chopped in soups (and risottos), roasted and baked to make lovely crisps.

I urge you to grow, harvest, eat and enjoy! xx

Focus on...the Allotment

It's Friday which means a 'Focus on...', which usually involves a wee write up on one of our humble friut or vegetable varieties. Today however I am going to talk about something much more vital than mere food. I talking about good mental health.

I am not in the best of places at the moment (even though I have been going through a better week so far) as I have had to see both my Psychiatrist and my Social Worker in the one day. You would think this is a good thing and you would be right, up to a point. I am very lucky in that my mental health care team is made up of very nice individuals who do seem to genuinely want to help me.

The problems lie in -

1: Having to go over the same painful issues time and time again (with a cacophony of Psychiatric Senior House Officers who I generally only see once or twice each) and then it's a three month gap till it all happens again
and

2: Constantly being told that there isn't the funding or the resources available that they need to help me (e.g. NO Psychologists!!!!!)

Thus, I am left in limbo land, trying to sort my own head out- which is very ironic and not at all funny; my head and thoughts being the thing I need to work on but also the thing I would need to have a good grasp on in order to help myself work on them. A bloody vicious circle if ever there was one. Complicated further by the fact that I'm on medication at the same time!!

As my very own Social Worker said this afternoon, "the Mental Health Care in Northern Ireland is sh1te". Not very professional she professed but truth is all that matters between us.

This, my friends is why I am so passionate about my Allotments. Ecotherapy is something that has just landed on my lap, out of the blue - due to having a Husband who loves to grow stuff. I cannot emphases enough the benefits that growing fruit, veg, herbs, flowers (and even weeds, if they're pretty) can have on your health (or, let's face it- the health of someone that you love).

Today's Focus on - if you would like a food topic is.. Cake, Chocolate, Ice Cream, Wine, a Take Away - whatever makes you have a happier, relaxed Friday night and gets you ready for gardening tomorrow!

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the Allotment/Garden/Patio Containers/Window Boxes - grow, harvest, eat and enjoy!

Focus on... Potatoes

This is going to end up being massive if i'm not careful. The basics will be discussed here and links profided (as usual) for those of you who can't get enough spud knowledge!

I'm Northern Irish so to me it just makes sense to begin with what was the end for many ancestors - the potato famine and then i shall talk about wider history and nutrional facts. By the way the potato over there > is a Maris Piper, my favourite.

Info today comes from:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/victorians/famine_01.shtmlmine_01.shtml

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potato and

http://www.britishpotatoes.co.uk/ (brilliant for all things spud related)

So the Irish (or Great) Famine lasted from 1846 to 1852 and lead to the deaths of approx 1 million people in Ireland due to starvation and disease. Even compared to modern famines it can be said to be more destructive as it lasted for 4-5 years (!) as opposed to the more common 1 or 2 growing seasons. Around one eight of the population of Ireland suffered and 2 million had to emigrate to survive. Of course we are all aware that the devastation was caused by potato blight - or to give it its proper name, the fungus Phytophthora infestans. Which we still get to this day and indeed our allotments suffered from it this summer, though cutting back the stems at first signs seemed to halt the problem.

According to the British Potato Council (they 'love potatoes') our humble spud was an exotic gift brought back from Peru by the Spanish conquistadors in 1534. It had been cultivated there for approx 6,000 years. Their popularity then spread through France via Germany and then on to America again, to complete a circle. There is much more to this, but I'm bored and I'm sure you don't really mind me skipping head to nutritional values....

Tatties are a carbohydrate which in this case means mainly Starch, not easy for the body to digest so, essentially it acts as Fibre. It 'provides bulk, offers protection against colon cancer, improves glucose tolerance and insulin sensitivity, lowers plasma cholesterol and triglyceride concentrations, increases satiety, and possibly even reduces fat storage'!!!!

It also has healthy benefits in the form of but not exclusively: Vitamins C , B and B6, Potassium, Folic Acid, Iron and Zinc. Plus they are low in fat and Calories - hoorah!! And Holy Moly I didn't know it but it's the UN's International Year of the potato (IYP). Surely we must celebrate?! You know I heartily recommend the British Potato Council's website there is so much info and recipes etc.

Now I leave you what a caution - potatoes can be TOXIC! I know it's scary, but read on...

'Potatoes contain glycoalkaloids, toxic compounds, of which the most prevalent are solanine and chaconine. These compounds, which protect the plant from its predators, are generally concentrated in its leaves, stems, and sprouts. Exposure to light, physical damage, and age increase glycoalkaloid content within the tuber; the highest concentrations occur just underneath the skin. Glycoalkaloids may cause headaches, diarrhea, cramps and in severe cases coma and death; however, poisoning from potatoes occurs very rarely.'

That's why you have to keep earthing up your plants - keep off the light. So keep an eye on the ones you eat and avoid green ones as it can indicate toxicity.

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the Potato - grow, harvest, eat and enjoy!

Focus on POPPIES

I'll be away on Remembrance Sunday and on the 11th November - going to Poland for the week. So I thought I would Focus on the humble Poppy, a beautiful flower, favourite of many and one with powerful symbolism. I will, hopefully, be growing some next year on the plot, for my own enjoyment and for the seeds - for me to eat, or maybe the birds I haven't decided how greedy I'll be yet.

So today's information comes from the ever reliable and informative Wikipedia at : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poppy and the extremely informative pages of

The Royal British Legion at :
http://www.poppy.org.uk/index.php/remembrance.html

The Poppy is one of the showy-est flowers there is, especially in it's most well known colour of bright red. It can however be found in an abunadance of colour varieties - just showing how popular it is. These include white, yellow and even blue (Himalyan). They are grown for their glorious flowers and seed heads but are also beloved by Bees who use their pollen, Bakeries for the gorgeous seeds and Drug lords for the Opium (a Narcotic formed from sap released by immature seed pods of Opium Poppies [Papaver somniferum] DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME!)

Poppies have long been mentioned in Greco-Roman myths in relation to death and sleep or indeed, both - eternal sleep. But they also connected them to the promise of resurrection. In Commonwealth countries the Poppy has been adopted as a symbol of remembrance - for those who died in the 1st World War and all other conflicts since then. Paper or plastic Poppies are worn on the lapel, (or attached to little wooden crosses or made up into wreathes) up to and including the 11th November when the end of the 1st World War is marked with a minutes silence. Having ended at 11 o'clock on the 11th Day of the 11th Month 1918.

On the British Legion website http://www.poppyfactory.org/history.html there is a short but very interesting background to the 1922 factory of disabled ex-service army men and women who assembled rembrance poppies and in fact still do to this day. However we can not take credit for the idea as it came primarily as a result to Colonel John McRae’s poem “In Flanders Field”, leading an American lady to start the trend in 1920. (The poem can be found on the Wikipedia page).

It's the Corn or Field Poppy that is used at this time, as it grows best in poor, untended soil. After the horrific battles of the 1st World War, poppies were found to be growing all over the trenches and battlefield scars of the fields, a sign of life after such carnage and also of blood, which would have soaked the very soil they grew in.

Poppy seeds can be eaten, think of the lovely poppy seed cake and bread crusts topped with seeds. However, beware, unconfirmed experiments suggest that eating a lot of the seeds can lead to false positive drug tests for opiates!

Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you the Poppy. Grow; cut and put in a vase if you like; eat the seeds maybe; enjoy. And remember.

Focus on PUMPKINS

Well what other choice was there but the Halloween Pumpkin to focus on this week. Unfortunately we had a spectacular failure with ours this year, so no pictures from the lottie, but by gum, next year, I want my own pumpkins and butter nut squashes. So good in risotto or just roasted - yum.

Today's information comes from the trusty people at:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pumpkin and another cool site:

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/417217/nutritional_health_benefits_of_pumpkin.html?cat=51mpkin.html?cat=51

In Ireland (and many other countries which have their variations) the carved out pumpkin with candle inside is meant to represent the Ignus Fatuus or Fool's fire. Stemming from the wonderful folklore story of Will o' the Wisp. There's a great write up on this on http://irelandsown.net/willothewisps.html, a story that is well known to many here in Ireland, though we never had pumpkins - we used turnips. Believe me carving and hollowing out a turnip, is not the most fun, at least pumpkins are soft!

Anyway back to the humble pumpkin. It is a squash-type vegetable but there are some differences between the two. To get technical the squash has a softer, rounder, flared stem as opposed to the pumpkins hard,rigid, prickly, square-ish stem. There's so little in it at times, that the names are interchangeable. They're both in the Cucurbita family (which also contains cucumbers). A pumpkin can be many varying shapes, textures and colours, we usually think of them as orange but blue, grey, green, white and red are also found, some are a mixture of the above like a beautiful painting that has run in the rain.

Most parts of the pumpkins can be eaten, the flowers (of which there are male and female on the same plant), the seeds and of course that gorgeous flesh - the orange-ness of which is a perfect indicator of it's antioxidant properties and presence of Vitamin C. Again, the science part ; this colouring is due to lutein, aplha-carotene and beta-catotene which convert to Vitamin A in the body.

But did you know that the seeds are also extremely good for you not to mention, very tasty indeed, especially when roasted (though this lessens the benefits a little). Apart from the cartoenoids, they also contain healthy fats and zinc which is great for bone strength and protein and fibre too. In its oil form (available from health food shops), it has been known to ease the pain of arthritis due to its anti-inflammatory properties, being a humble seed, there are no nasty side effects. Hoorah.

But never mind all that - basically it tastes great, it's good for you and there are hardly any calories (it's 90% water) or fat. So eat as much as you want - yummy.

I give you Pumpkins Ladies and Gentlemen. Grow, harvest, eat, enjoy!

Focus on GARLIC

Garlic has long been a favourite in the Gault household, it just adds that little something to a dish. Though both of you have to eat it, you know, cause of the smell, which lingers in the mouth and can be smelt through the pores in the skin if you eat too much.

Today's info comes from:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garlic and
http://www.garlic.mistral.co.uk/ (otherwise known as 'The Garlic Information Center', how apt).

Firstly what we all know - Garlic keeps away Vampires! But it also seems to be considerably able in the fight against such things as - bacteria, fungal infections, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, impotence, diabetes, stomach complaints and the Cold. Not to mention recent research on its action against Cancer!

Not known as traditionally English; Garlic was highly revered in the Ancient Egyptian and Greek worlds. Eaten by those constructing the pyramids, by Roman and Greek soldiers, sailors, Olympians and it is still used by the Cherokee Indians as an expectorant for coughs and croup. In Religious terms it has been key to the appeasement and creation of Ancient Greek/Roman Gods. A Christian myth tells of it growing in the ground where Satan's left footprint was to be found and in Taoism, 6 cloved black garlic endows immortality and intensifies Chi. It's association with the fight against evil spirits (e.g. Vampires, Werewolves) could have some basis in fact - in that Garlic does have the ability to fight infections that may lead to mental health problems (or 'going mad'). In both Hinduism and Jainism it is thought to increase ones sexual desires; Jainists avoid it (and the Onion family) because of this.

Unwelcome side effects of (particularly overly modest amounts of ) Garlic are quite wide ranging. It can interact with blood thinning and hypoglycemic medications as it has these proprieties itself; bad breath, nausea and indigestion are also known to occur. During Pregnancy caution is needed (in very high doses) it can lead to excessive bleeding during pregnancy and child birth. However it is also said to possibly reduce the chances of pre-eclampsia and baby-growth retardation.

So the key is (as with most things in life - but not laughing) moderation as the key. If you are like me, have garlic regularly but don't over do it, especially if you take supplements too. And have a chat with your Doctor if you have any fears. This is only a wee fun write up on some of the vast quantites of info out there - remember, Garlic has many good qualities and it tastes yummy!

I give you Garlic ladies and gentlemen. Grow, harvest, eat and enjoy.

Focus on BEETROOT

Last night I watched River Cottage Autumn which I think is a great programme, with a lot packed into each episode so far. I was particularly interested in the segment about Beetroot, my new favourite vegetable. Hugh quite rightly pointed out the same issue as I have discussed in the past - Pickled Beetroot is evil and ruins the discovery, the glory of tasty fresh beetroot.

He did mention some of its benefits to the body but unfortunately my memory isn't that good, so I have spent a little while looking up info in this most humble yet wonderful veg. The following facts come from

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A11454491 and

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beet

Believe me, there are many more..

Beetroot is rich in magnesium, iron, antioxidants, Vitamin C (in the root) and A (in the leaves) and fibre - yet contains no fat and hardly any calories, hoorah! A superfood indeed. It also has been linked to those most wondrous of foods - the Aphrodisiacs and there is evidence of reverence to it on the brothel walls of Pompeii - worth a try anyway, haha. It is also a laxative and can help lower blood pressure. Unfortunately it can also be seen as a cure all and recently was prescribed by the South African Health Minister (Dr. Manto Tshabalala-Msimang) as a treatment for AIDS, over 'toxic' anti-retroviral AIDS medicines. (Not too sure about that one)

Lastly (for me anyway, the websites are bursting with loads of info on history, biology and recipes galore), I was pleased to read that I am not a freak and Beeturia (or Pink pee to you and me) is quite common in relation to the digestion of beetroot; about 10-14% of people have this - I'm one of them and I can tell you, it's a little unnerving the 1st time you notice it.

I give you the Beetroot, ladies and gentlemen. Grow, harvest, eat and enjoy.