31st July: From Spade to Plate:

This week June, Kiyomi, Sarolta, Camila, Sayoko, Simone and Maria Jose joined me for the harvest and cooking session.

The weather was much better than last week, no need for raincoats and wellies. The sky is blue and we are ready to make a colourful dish.

The beetroot have benefitted from the rain and are growing well. Time to harvest them and turn them into beet burgers.

Beetroot burgers

Mixing the ingredients

making the burgers and frying them

500 gr grated beetroot

100 gr porridge oats

3 eggs

1 onion finely chopped and fried

4 tbsp chopped dill

2 tbsp chopped thyme

2 tbsp chopped parsley
1 tsp mustard

salt and pepper to taste

Mix, make into a burger shape and fry.

Raymond has a row of new potatoes that he would like me to dig up, so we got the forks out to reveal these treasures.  I expected little potatoes, but they were enormous, still nice though to have with  Must  a little bit of butter and mint is simple but gorgeous.

Sayoko, Sarolta and Maria Jose in action

The french beans I have been growing are low growing (dwarf french)  and climbing so nice to experience which is the easiest to grow and harvest.  We  blanched the beans, then added a little butter and lemon.

Sayoko picking dwarf french beans

Where are these beans?

Found them!

Miyoko found one too

Going back  home with our produce

For dessert, we had the blackberries we picked in the allotment with some yoghurt and blackberry paste (which we made last week). 

Most of all, we had a lovely time, sharing the work and the friendship

Figs - Victoria Road - Kirsty

If the figs are ready contact kh540@cam.ac.uk

From Spade to Plate: 24th July: Black Berry Jam and Courgetti with Spinach and blue cheese sauce

The season of black berries has arrived!  It seems to come earlier and earlier and this year the fruits are plump and sweet, perfect for jam, cordials, fruit leathers and crumbles.

And even better to show the dear friends from the Newcomers and visiting scholars the delights of the British hedgerows.

As the weather was bad I went out before the group came and harvested 1.5kg yesterday with Thomas and Mark, bringing back memories of blackberry pick with my mum as well as with my own children in years gone by.

Today I went again to pick the berries in Garden Walk. They were large and very juicy. Turned them into 6 jars of jam.

Andrea, came today with a 2kg bag of damson that she still had in the freezer from last year. We decided to make a selection of different jams.

1. Using the Dutch Gelei suiker, half zoet (500gr sugar to 1225 gr of black berries)
2. Using jam sugar bought from ASDA (800 gr black berries to 1kg sugar)
3. Using the jam sugar and a mix of black berries and damsons.

We also turned the berries and damsons into 10 bottles of cordial and some fruit leather.



In addition the courgettes and spinach beet are abundant in the allotment so I am planning  to try out the borrowed Spiralizer to turn it into a courgetti dish.

The Spinach and blue cheese sauce came from the Riverford website.

The healthiest way to cook courgetti, because no fat is involved. Simply put the courgette noodles into a sieve and pour over a kettle of boiling water. This takes the rawness out the noodles without breaking them down too much. Strain well before adding pesto, sauce or toppings.

Glo, June, Miyoki, Simone and Michaela, Andrea, Anne-marie and Sarolta will come to share the lovely produce into some tasty dishes.


I already look forward to this next session.

From Spade to Plate: 17th July Vegetarian Scotsch Egg

What to do with an excess of beetroot and eggs? Last week I went to the Farmer's market and had a Vegetarian Scotch Egg. It was delicious and went about looking what I had in the garden so I could replicate it. After a couple of trials, I think it would be fit for use at our Monday morning harvesting and cooking sessions.



We harvested the garlic and onions a couple of weeks ago so easy to get hold off. The beetroot is ready for harvesting as well as the parsley and chives. Looks like we have the majority of ingredients so let's see how our foreign visitors enjoy this twist to a classic British picnic ingredient. Scotch eggs.
 I have swapped the carrot for beetroot and added  1 tbsp Za'atar with the herb mixture. Rather than deep fat frying, I placed them on a baking tray and bake in preheated 190 C / Gas mark 5 oven until lightly browned, about 25 minutes.
Lovely with the sweet chilli jam that I made last week
We will also pick the Rocket and turn it into a salad, with  pine nuts and parmesan cheese.





     

As a desert we will pick the blueberries and make some Blueberry Pancakes I used the Telegraph recipe and we will add handfuls of delicious fresh Blueberries.