Friday, July 06, 2007
Regulitis
Interested to see a peice by Simon Jenkins on regulitis in the Guardian. A nicely expanded and embroidered version of one of my own! Ironic that it should be the Guardian that publishes it; I should imagine that there is a strong correlation between reading said paper and likelihood of developing acute regulitis. One point that he makes is that because cats cause an allergic reaction in millions of people - probably costing the economy more than fags do - they will be the next thing to be banned in public spaces. Not a bad thought. They will find something to ban and I can't think of a better target for the moment. Unless, of course, they veer back on the hunting tack and get stuck into coarse fishermen. They will have to leave the other sort alone - partly because the people who do it are mostly posh and partly because doing it is an art form and therefore cultural and historic if not heritage. Something for our shiny new minister for culture to fight the corner for.
Quite windy today, rather than rainy. Two large lumps down on the way to the baker and the broan beans plants are starting to look a bit battered in places. That said, we have had a really good harvest, running down now, but we must have had more than 100 pounds of the things - in their pods that is. Supposing that they are £1 a pound to buy, contrary to early burblings, this part of the allotment is clearly in profit given that the outgoings are, say, £10 for seeds, £10 for spray and £15 for their share of the rent.
Plus the aesthetic appeal of a well laden broad bean plant. Maybe three or four strong stems on the one plant, each stem carrying maybe a dozen well filled, bright green pods. Not a bad return for one plant. And given that it does not seem to be necessary to feed the ground that they are in, the things must have been staples in the olden days. Give or take the labour cost of removing black fly before chemicals cut in.
Taken another couple of pounds of blackcurrents, big ones from the small plant and little ones from the big plant. Maybe the latter needs pruning. They all get tray frozen - presumably for speed - and wind up in tarts and the like through the winter.
Thinned out the apple crop as far more apples had set than the trees could bear. Too much of the fruit at the end of stems - reflecting, I think, the lack of winter pruning - not having liked to do much cutting with the trees so badly weakened by the deer. But with that problem now in the past maybe I shall start.
Dug some more Desiree. Crop continuing quite reasonable although this particular row was infested with some tall weed with yellow, daisy like flowers. White tap root about three or four inches long and quite easy to pull up. Managed to spear rather a lot today - maybe ten - and so decided, rather than chuck them, I would keep them back for today's evening meal. So I get to scrape them and found that they gave off something which quite irritated the airways. Not something that I had noticed with the Kestrel. Maybe I can have allergies too.
Discovered a new way to use left over new potatoes and leef beet. Thought of the potato and spinach dish you get in Indian restaurants and had a peek in our one Indian cook book for it (a gift from a collegue from Gildengate Square in Norwich). Didn't find it but did find a recipe for doing something spicy with potatoes. All far too complicated for this occasion, so chose four spices from the recipe, more or less at random, and used them. Black pepper, cumim seeds, pale cardoman pods and termeric. Melt butter and add pounded spices. Fry for a bit. Add a large, finely chopped onion. Fry for a bit. Add coarsely chopped cooked potato and finely chopped cooked leef beet. Leave on heat, stirring occasionally, until heated through. Serve with a hint of jus de cassis. Quite a good variation on bubble and squeak.
Same book has an excellent recipe for Ragan Josh (I think). Being a goat curry, it gives me an excellent excuse to pay a visit to Balham.
Quite windy today, rather than rainy. Two large lumps down on the way to the baker and the broan beans plants are starting to look a bit battered in places. That said, we have had a really good harvest, running down now, but we must have had more than 100 pounds of the things - in their pods that is. Supposing that they are £1 a pound to buy, contrary to early burblings, this part of the allotment is clearly in profit given that the outgoings are, say, £10 for seeds, £10 for spray and £15 for their share of the rent.
Plus the aesthetic appeal of a well laden broad bean plant. Maybe three or four strong stems on the one plant, each stem carrying maybe a dozen well filled, bright green pods. Not a bad return for one plant. And given that it does not seem to be necessary to feed the ground that they are in, the things must have been staples in the olden days. Give or take the labour cost of removing black fly before chemicals cut in.
Taken another couple of pounds of blackcurrents, big ones from the small plant and little ones from the big plant. Maybe the latter needs pruning. They all get tray frozen - presumably for speed - and wind up in tarts and the like through the winter.
Thinned out the apple crop as far more apples had set than the trees could bear. Too much of the fruit at the end of stems - reflecting, I think, the lack of winter pruning - not having liked to do much cutting with the trees so badly weakened by the deer. But with that problem now in the past maybe I shall start.
Dug some more Desiree. Crop continuing quite reasonable although this particular row was infested with some tall weed with yellow, daisy like flowers. White tap root about three or four inches long and quite easy to pull up. Managed to spear rather a lot today - maybe ten - and so decided, rather than chuck them, I would keep them back for today's evening meal. So I get to scrape them and found that they gave off something which quite irritated the airways. Not something that I had noticed with the Kestrel. Maybe I can have allergies too.
Discovered a new way to use left over new potatoes and leef beet. Thought of the potato and spinach dish you get in Indian restaurants and had a peek in our one Indian cook book for it (a gift from a collegue from Gildengate Square in Norwich). Didn't find it but did find a recipe for doing something spicy with potatoes. All far too complicated for this occasion, so chose four spices from the recipe, more or less at random, and used them. Black pepper, cumim seeds, pale cardoman pods and termeric. Melt butter and add pounded spices. Fry for a bit. Add a large, finely chopped onion. Fry for a bit. Add coarsely chopped cooked potato and finely chopped cooked leef beet. Leave on heat, stirring occasionally, until heated through. Serve with a hint of jus de cassis. Quite a good variation on bubble and squeak.
Same book has an excellent recipe for Ragan Josh (I think). Being a goat curry, it gives me an excellent excuse to pay a visit to Balham.
# posted by Jim @ 8:36 AM 
