15/02/2015 Chilli Warmth.

I have been growing chillies for two years now.

I did it my way...

I just kept the seeds out of shop bought chillies aside, planted them around December, January time and crossed my fingers and toes that they would do something.

They did: in such a way each times that I had the chilli glut. A bountiful harvest is filling an entire compartment of the freezer, along with the raspberries. The great divide goes 3/4 chillies, 1/4 berries: Enough to lift off a dining menu for an entire winter and more.
















Menu examples:

Chilli Con Carne.
Raspberries Triffle.

or

Jamaican Chicken Curry.
Raspberry Panacotta.

etc, etc, etc.

The list is endless. The tip of the iceberg goes as far as your imagination can go. Last year, I got myself a book full of Chilli recipes. I never found one dedicated to raspberries though, but I trust someone is passionate enough about them to shout about those little gems out loud, and it is out there.

Let's demystify the mystifying: chillies are easy to grow in the UK: just give them a window sill with plenty of sunshine. I put some plants outside which kept giving chillies until October, yet our Summer wasn't the brightest not the hottest on record. I grow  all my chillies from seeds and the outcome has been so rewarding that I will carry on doing so.

From the first variety I grew, I developed my range over the years. I am trying two new kinds this years: a Zimbabwean Black and a Hot Cayenne. Last years Jalapeños were a definite come back on the window sills as a reliable cropper.

The hot iceberg of a chilli is as deep as you want it to be from pot to pan.

How to deal with a chilli glut?

First stages:

-You can give the excess of growing plants to your friends and their mums. Spread the love: A growing chilli plant is a bountiful treasure, The plant itself looks lovely to be a drawing room feature. Full bloom or with its chillies, it is a winner.

Last stages:

- Take all the chillies. Do them justice. Store them, eat them, sow their seeds.

Storage comes in all sort of manner from freezing to drying.

Freezing allows your gluts to go a long way. For Chillies, lots of heat to add on to simple winter dishes or let them shine through bespoke ones, like the Jamaican Chicken Curry I had two days ago.

Drying them was an experiment to make Chilli oil. Big massive rewarding project.

Just allow your imagination to sing and thrive to their hot chilli pepper tune.

08/02/2015. House Plants: Home Sweet Home.

Sometimes when you have so many seeds waiting to be planted in March, April, and May, you are pinning for those months to come fast forward. Having put all my January seedlings in their propagators, February seemed like a long empty wait.

It is far from one.

First, the seedlings need tending. Not much, just keeping them at the right temperature, and at the right moisture level will do just fine. I tend to turn the pots as well so their stems get a good strength all around rather than just where the sun light was. Anyway that is the theory. Plants play the contortionist to grab the most sunlight, well not all but most. And here they are in the spotlights grabbing a bent stalk. I do not mind bent, but with a little manual work, I might just get that nice straight strong stalk I am after. Making sure the head of the seedlings  do not reach ground level is a must to prevent their young leaves to prematurely rot away. Gently firming the earth below the stem, making little mound, all help correcting its level and direction.

Then they are the early rewards. The tomatoes seeds are going for it. From the black Indigo Rose, RHS prized, a bit expensive, the three seeds I sowed gave me  three strong seedlings within a week. Within two weeks, I am very happy with their growth. To the 'Yellow Stuffer' , a beef tomato variety, yellow like it says on the packet, and big like I love them: three seeds gave three seedlings. I am looking forward to see those tomatoes and taste them as much as I do for the black ones. I planted some red 'Moneymakers' just in case I didn't have any success with my trendy ones. I grew them before with a fair success, which made them a reliant cropper in my books. Three seeds= Three seedlings, yet one wilted away in the second week: the Touching the ground thing. Just let the heads reach the sky: manual help required. A little surprise was the Artisan Bumble Mix cherry tomatoes I planted only a week ago, which I have 10 plants out of 12 sowed  out of a packet which  was supposed to have 9 seeds.  So it is a definite winner of a packet. I have no idea how many purple, pink and sunrise cherry tomatoes I will have in that mix but I plan to grow them in my hanging baskets this summer. In my dreams, it is lush thing, cascading down, it is hot outside not like right now. My fancy cherry tomatoes are ripe, and I pick them as I water the garden just as a treat...

The Chillies are doing great: Hot Cayenne pepper, Jalapeños and the giant ones all showed up. I am expecting another glut of chillies this year, like last.  

The disappointment were the Zimbabwean black chillies which just failed to show up and the Tigerella Tomatoes: out of three, one showed up which wilted soon after.  Two years ago, I had been disappointed with a strong plant giving me just one tomato. I replanted some Tigerella seeds, not losing hope, yet compared to other tomatoes so far this one does not stack up for me.

Second, just take a look around the house. There were plenty of house plants screaming in their pots that they needed more space on my stroll in mine. Today was all about re-potting, re-positioning, and taking cuttings out of some to decorate some spaces in the house that lacked that bit of friendly green in their corners. I must say it is like giving a cherished plant a second lease of life. It makes you feel good. It made this Sunday afternoon very fulfilling.  Sometimes you have little gems, like my African Violets that keeps on giving year after year. Yet a change of pot, let them go on from day to day, year after year, from blossoming from strength to strength. All the African violets had their overall today.

Getting a couple of cuttings from a neglected 11 years old palm tree and re-potting a cutting from it of 5 years ago, which turn out to be a lovely straight little thing, along with giving a new bigger pot to the mother plant was the most charitable thing I had to do to living plants this afternoon. I carried those plants for so long from flat to flat, that they have a sentimental value. They live alongside me and I enjoy the sight of them. They are making my home a sweet home.

One of the massive palms in the hallway died from repeated cat attacks. Today, was the time to let it go and give one of my oldest plant a new big planter. Cramped in a dark corner of the living room, I noticed it kept growing no matter what.

Putting that plant in that planter, and giving it a prime position in the house made my day. The plant came from a cheap and cheerful combo plant mix of three which I bought from less than a tenner back in the day when I was living in Romford, twelve years ago. Seeing it looking so stately by the stairs, just by a single re-potting made my Sunday special. It gave my home that instant posh uplift. Yet it only costed just watering TLC  from my part all those years and a new pot today.

February = Make your Home the sweetest place for you.

01/02/2015. Bumble Bee happy.

Sometimes, there are a lot of things buzzing in your head.
Sometimes, you are going through tough times.
Sometimes, the day you are in is the birthday of someone you loved that passed away.
Sometimes, the best thing you can do is share their love of life to the grounding earth.

Grounding, just like planting a seed that will sprout to life and feed you later.
Grounding, just like carrying on no matter what.
Grounding, just like you are free to do what you want any old time.
Grounding, just like feeding seagulls on your window sill and let them love you forever.

Feeding a seagull until she becomes almost your pet,
Feeding the ground until it makes you hope for the summer,
Feeding your hopes with whatever it takes to keep you going.
Feed in your soul the seagull that will fly free for you....

Until your soul is free from all grounding matter...
Happy birthday to my RIP Pa,
Happy I am to have been yours.
Until our souls meet again, I am grounded and your are not...

Forgive my poem, it is my Pa's birthday, today.
I put a few seeds in the ground in his memory, for he was a dreamer.
I put a few seeds in the ground for he was just an unbeliever.
Forgive him for he knew how to grow things from science.

Forgive him for he will make me smile endlessly all my life.
For he loved it.
For his seagull is.
For I love it too, no matter how hard it is.

25/01/2015. I am Happy. First sowing.Today

Enjoying a full Sunday has been a thing happening far and few between. Today I enjoyed one fully with the prospect that: My future now means I will enjoy everyday as I wish and want. From this day onwards I am solely my own boss.

You can imagine my grin from one ear to the other: I am out of the rat chase, who ripped each others necks to get each others out of a job, or the other's job.

To settle to the bliss of being the boss isn't hard at all and went rather smoothly, I must say. First, I had to let go of the last few days and their sheer stress. The silence and total ostracism made it worst and easier. As they do not bother: I will not bother either: but hell, will they have to answer publicly. Heck, I am a publisher, after all. I shout with published words any wrongs done out loud.

Today was a busy day, after finishing writing a tense chapter, I went to clear the patio for the new year. Chucking the dead plants away that were a one off, clear as much of your space as your mind. It makes space for new growth. As a gardener, I have that many planters available, that much square metres of space as my leeway, so logistic is key yet the heart makes your garden your patch.

Recognising your dormant plants, fuchsias, begonias, jasmines, clematis and roses is a must, in a big clear out. Recognising your bare pots with your fancy tulips, irises, and saffron crocuses is key, for they are the ones that deliver  year after year constant joy, from visual to scent.

Today was the first day of sowing and planting. Always one to celebrate with a little glass of dry white wine from the Loire Valley which will keep you singing all Sunday... Beside it keeps you warm while pottering about outdoors.

Yep, my father did have an allotment. When he felled upon hardship, he used it to feed us. It was a lifeline, not for long for the skilled worker he was, was soon snatched away again to big engineering project to the next.

However pumpkin soup remained a souvenir that fed us for a month which we never found the heart to joke about ever after.  We found it tastier than the leek and potato soup that replaced it afterwards for a few days. We sailed through as a family our hardship.

A patch of veg and flowers tenderly cared for during weekends and evenings made it possible. If you see me looking after my few planters, it is because they do mean more than I can say.  It's kind of a legacy now: 'Tu peux etre autonome quand tu veux ma pupuce'.

'La Pupuce' a planté des tomates noires et jaunes, des rouges et des tigrés, et pleins de chillis et elle ne sait pas ce que cela va donner mais elle croise les doigts que cela va etre super cool à manger.'

Translation:

Pupuce: My dad's nickname for me. It does translate literally as the Flea-flea. As I was a copper headed kid jumping about him, I got stuck with being called 'Flea-flea'. Bugging him with plenty of questions made my nickname stick to my adulthood. I was forever his Pupuce.

I sowed my Indigo Rose black tomato seeds, yellow beef tomatoes and Tigerella ones, with the more red and normal moneymakers ones. I planted the chilli seeds too: Zimbabwe Black, Cayenne pepper, the giant ones and the Jalapenos.

Lots of hope went in that Sunday sowing.

Lets give all the seedlings their TLC so they turn out allright like the Pupuce.

24/01/2014. Digging up a Winter Gem: the Mooli Radish.

It was with great excitement this Saturday afternoon that I set to harvest the content of one big planter on the patio. As we had some harsh frosts, I thought I left the entire lot of those special radishes a little too long: aka an entire month.  This is according to packet reading, but as everyone knows for gardening, weather and environmental conditions obliging, it varies.

Mooli radishes were a big surprise from the onset. I never heard of them. Their little packet of seeds arrived free to thank me from my 'Sutton Seeds' order back in August. Any gardener would tell you about the sheer delight of going through the pages of a seeds and plants catalogue. It is just about dreaming of your garden next year, new projects, experiments, the reliable croppers that will never fail you, what will fill your pots then your pans ultimately. The order I did in August, was a birthday present to myself.  Something that will make me look forward for next year,  its every single season, month and day.

Opening the large packet of my future plans for the small amount of space I have was like ripping the paper of your presents as a child under the Christmas tree. Yet this time around I knew what I had like the latest trend of black tomatoes, I really wanted to grow, like three different kinds of mushroom kits as a window sill project, like fancy stripy beetroots for the planters etc, etc... No bad surprises, unlike a doll which I would never play with, when I just wished for an extension of my 'Playmobil' collection which kept me quiet all day happily playing. You know what I mean...

But there was the unexpected packet of seeds: the Mooli Radishes. Not something I tried nor would have ordered. After a Google quest which educated me about what they were, I decided to give them a good go.  In a condensed sentence, they would say, they are looking like horseradish which have a mild peppery taste. I planted them on my birthday, hoping for a surprise that keeps giving.

Indeed they did. The harvest showed a good crop for the space of the container and despite the frosty bitty nights we had. I could not resist trying one as soon as the all lot had received TLC Kitchen makeover. I could not be a Mooli virgin any longer. It had to be tried and tasted. It was delightfully a delicate flavour of pepper. It was not your heavy root vegetable from the midst of winter. It was tasty and light, just raw.

Those white gems gave me plenty of culinary projects:

*Mooli curry.
*Mooli paratha.
*Mooli and other veg pickles.

But also it gave me a new year resolution: at my every seeds order in the future, I will add that little wild card of the unknown and let myself be pleasantly surprise by it.

Make your life an adventure.

23/01/2015. The bitter side of Lemon: don't be too sour: Get the Zest out of life!

I had a dream to grow a lemon tree from scratch...



I tried again and again... Some years I was more successful than others.
Never giving up despite the cold, winter, unpaid bills in a bad spell of hard time, I finally got a tree. Carried from room to flat share, attacked by bugs, yet blossoming this spring, my tree made a lemon. Just the one, which turned ripe and yellow in the middle of winter.





I wonder how, I wonder why...

Some said it was not possible to grow lemon trees in England on a window sill. I replied nothing just carried on growing a single little pip in a pot.

My tree saw my hard life on its window sill and as I never forgot to bring that dream of him along with me wherever I went, I think he decided to just blossom alongside me.

When I am starting to be fruitful in my own way, having published two of my books this winter, he gave me a lemon. Just a big fat yellow one, that says to me: Don't ever give up, despite however bitter it is out there, you will get there in the end.

Up and downs, we all go threw them. Keep walking when down, chin up and look ahead. I just saw my lemon tree blooming last year. His lemon is ripe this year to harvest. This took years of TLC from many up and downs and never giving up. :) Feeling very Zesty now. Vitamin C in my steps.

It is just another lemon tree...

Nop, it is mine. He got the TLC: The Dream fertiliser that grows in your heart and mind, the stamina to fight its bugs and make it happen anyway.

He is my yellow lemon tree and I am proud of him.

Start with a pip and let it grow.

The limit is not the outside world but what you do set for yourself. Don't be bitter, go Zesty!

21/01/2015. Winter Warmer.

When everything looks bleak outside, when it is grey, cold and maybe snowy, nothing beats a Winter Warmer Number.

Sometimes January brings a spell of saving money after the big end of the year festive splash out. Some would say with a sarcastic giggle that it makes  new years resolutions of dieting ten times easier to follow: Let's eat the leftovers, let's eat the peanuts...

One of my new year resolutions, (yes, even one that love life as I do, do have them, once in a while for three weeks) was to try a diet that boost my intake of vitamin A, C and E in order to improve my asthma. The daily cod liver oil spoon made me poke my tongue out every single morning. Getting vitamins from food, fruit and veg sounded more palatable, and soon more appealing by the day rather than the spoonful of the 'Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious' fish oil. In came the heavy cavalry of winter veg and fruits: kale, broccoli, cauliflower, sprouts, carrots, beetroot, cranberries and oranges. But also they came with the big massive question of  what to do with them to jazz them up?

I would not deny that I am hit by hard times and on a budget, which made me revisit classics to feed you for a while yet with a smile on your face each time you do so.

Tonight special was:

Broccoli and Cauliflower and cheese with a Twist.

The balance between the two veg was 70% cauliflower/ 30% Broccoli.
I ran out of cheddar, but I had plenty of leftover Stilton to use up, so the cheese sauce was flavoursome to the taking your socks off point.
I always have pancetta cubes in my fridge or bacon cubes, for they can jazz up quickly any supper: Say an omelette, a ragu, a risotto, a salad and 'et voilà', it's fantastic. ;)

So the pancetta cubes gave the meat part to that dish which swing with the broccoli, cauliflower and Stilton and made them sing the jazz altogether which I was after.

Then came the last twist in the pan. A good Cauliflower Cheese comes with a crust of some sort, make it cheesy or 'breadcrumby', it has to have that extra layer of delightful crunchiness. For mine I used the leftover of potatoes boulangére from a Tom Kerridge recipe that was too good to discard two days later. It was a cut everything with scissors love affair from onions to potatoes, to butter fry them with the pancetta to a golden crisp fifteen minutes of TLC.  This crusty layer worked wonders, lifted the cauli-dish to heaven or 'I am going to sleep like a baby tonight'.

I will strongly recommend the blue cheese twist for it gave awesome flavour. However be creative use the cheese you prefer, adapt that classic to your taste bud. My use of broccoli was part of my diet, yet I think it just worked: overall a nice cheap and cheerful Winter Warmer.


As it provided me with a couple of lunch boxes, for anyone on a budget, I would advise to look at that classic recipe and funk it up to their own palate.

Fight the bleak, warm your heart.

Cheers,

Cordelia