Edible But Beautiful

At this time of flus and colds I turn to my Czech neighbour's cold remedy. Like Lily The Pink's medicinal compound the remedy is most efficacious in every way. It soothes sore throats, acts as a cough medicine, boosts energy and vitamin c levels, and makes you mellow.  There are four main ingredients: elderberries, rum, coffee, and sugar. I don't know the proportions. I just pick a load of elderberries. Make sure you remove the stalks and leaves, as these contain cyanade. Place the berries in a cafetierre, add a small amount of boiling water and then press down the plunger. The extracted juice is added to a saucepan in which are a load of sugar, a teaspoon of vanilla, and half a bottle of rum (gin or vodka will also do). The mixture is heated until all the sugar is dissolved. The last ingredient is a small cup of black coffee. If necessary sieve and pour into sterilised bottles. Store ready for the cold and flu season, if you can wait that long.

Celtuce is an oriental vegetable. It starts off as a bunch of upright leaves, which can be eaten in a salad, but are a bit bland. The plant grows quickly and easily, forming a statuesque shape in the border. Then all of sudden the stem starts to grow. At first sight one might think it is bolting, but do not worry it is just going into its next stage of growth - forming the edible stem that gives it one of its names. I added a feed of home-made nettle tea to help it in its swift growth.. If the leaves were unremarkable, the stem is delicious. I used it in a stir-fry. I removed the remaining lower leaves, which were showing signs of age, to reveal the creamy coloured stem now over an inch thick. I cut it off at the base and made my way to the kitchen. The stem needed peeling, but that was easily done with a potato peeler. It held its structure and slightly nutty flavour well in the stirfry. I can see me using it other non-oriental dishes. The mistake I made aesthetically was to pl

Having spent a lot of time in the Czech Republic, I love foraging for mushrooms. In fact I love foraging for fruit as well. There is something very special about reaping nature's bounty both in the garden and in the wider landscape, which I want to celebrate. So not only will foraged plants play an important part in my new diet, but also will feature in this blog.  My most recent foray took me to the Forest of Dean. It was a bit late for some of the popular mushrooms, which had been turned by the frost into black mush. But I came across a yellow larch boletus near a picnic spot. The Czechs call larch boletus "ne prace" or "no work", because once you find one, you will soon find more than you need. Sure enough, I looked around and soon found so many that supper was sorted - a delicious mushroom soup.  My mushroom soup recipe: First remove any pine needles, earth, slugs etc.  Then remove the sponge layer underneath. This can be eaten, but it goes t

One of the successes of my first season has been chop suey greens. It is an easy plant to grow from seed (mine was grown from an out-of-date seed packet bought for a few pence in Tewkesbury market). Chop Suey Greens has the added bonus of not being attractive to the garden's large population of slugs. The young leaves and stems of this lovely plant add a fragrant crunch to salads or can be steamed like spinach. Even the flowers can be eaten - the Japanese use the petals in their pickle kikumi. My son is experimenting with pickling and preserving, so I must remember to save some for him next year. Of course once the flowers come out, the plant takes on a different purpose in the garden - one of decoration. It is also known as chrysanthemum greens and behaves very much as a relatively hardy chrysanthemum, surviving the recent frost to offer much-needed food to the local bees. I have been deadheading the flowers in an effort to keep it flowering as long as possible, but I mustn&

About a year ago I had a heart attack. Not a bad one, but enough to act as a warning. As is common the attack was followed by depression, partly as a side effect of one of the drugs and partly as a result of realising that my life had to change. But change how? My answer has been to start growing my own vegetables. My garden is hardly large, as I have a terraced house. The garden had flower beds filled with overgrown flowering shrubs. If I was to grow vegetables the shrubs would have to go, but I didn't have the money or the inclination to remove the flowerbeds, which curved around a central paved circle. I decided I would act within the existing garden layout. Most importantly I wanted the garden to still raise the spirit by being beautiful as well as edible. So I have been on the lookout for vegetables and planting layouts which please the eye. I was (and still am) a complete newbie to vegetable growing, but hey what the heck!  I said to my husband I would give it a go, see