Busy Busy Busy!

Easter Came Early… And Spring Is Just Now Catching Its Breath

Springtime in Wales means lambs!  Back in March we had the opportunity to watch lambs being born on a friend’s farm. Now that’s a busy & hectic time of year!

We’ve had our own busy couple of months at the small holding. 

Here’s a look at what’s been happening….

New Chicken Coop Built & We Got 5 More Chickens

Plenty of work has gone into preparing the garden for planting.

Digging Over The Kitchen Garden

New Raised Beds Built

Seed Sowing

More Seed Sowing

Hardening off Seedlings for Planting

More Seedlings Ready for Planting

Pea & Bean Supports Made

Tomato Supports Put Up

The hydro-tunnel has been reorganised and the first crops are coming along nicely! There is a new watercress cascading system which we hope will increase this years yield. And there are two new additions to the hydro-tunnel this year – Okra & Micro Greens.

Waiting for Germination

New Watercress System

Mixed Greens & First Basil Crop

Tomatillo, Tomato & Okra Ready for Transplanting

Salad Leaves Almost Ready to Harvest

Micro Greens Beginning to Sprout

 

Here’s hoping May will bring Spring to life. We’ve had heavy frosts up until the end of April, historically the second week of April usually signals the end of the frosty weather, fingers crossed.

Let the planting continue.

Tricky Ingredients

KITCHEN GADGETS TO THE RESCUE

There are just some ingredients I can’t master cooking using traditional methods.

Rice… Was a problem, until we discovered a Japanese programable electric rice cooker that plays a cute little tune when you press the ‘Cook’ button.

Whole globe artichoke & okra (aka ladies fingers) are another two things that spring immediately to mind.

November in Wales means long, dark, wet and windy nights that cry out for some comfort food. What better than a Cajun meal? This week seemed to have a Cajun theme to dinnertime. First we had Etouffee then last night was Gumbo. I wanted to see if I could cook the perfect Okra to go in the gumbo.

The last time I tried cooking with Okra I was left with a slimy mess. So I turned to another piece of kitchen technology – the Sous Vide – and was rather pleased with the outcome. 

Sous Vide Okra
Preheat the water bath to 82 degrees centigrade
Trim the tops off the Okra
Place the okra in a cooking bag
Seasoning can be added at this stage, but I decided not to season as I was adding them to the gumbo
Seal the bag using a Vacuum Seal
Cook for 15 minutes in the Sous Vide
After 15 minutes place in an ice bath for 10 minutes
Remove Okra from the bag, pat dry and cut into bite size pieces
Add to cooked gumbo and stir until the okra has warmed through
Serve immediately.

I wonder…sous vide a globe artichoke next? If I can find one in the local supermarket. Or maybe we should consider growing our own next year. After all it meets all the criteria for deciding what to grow on our small holding.
We like to eat it
It’s relatively expensive to buy
It’s difficult to buy

Perhaps next year we’ll also experiment growing okra in the hydroponic polytunnel it being an ideal plant to grow in pots.