Sorry for being a bit slack on the blog front, but some news - not quite hot off the press, but I am now a fully fledged member of the 2015/16 year one BSc Herbal Medicine cohort. It has been a big, yet easy decision to make (if that makes sense) to fully immerse myself in this subject, having had an interest in herbs and healing plants for such a long time - now time to really learn about it and hopefully come out the other end with a great qualification in this field!
Enough about me - what about the garden (and Rosie too) Well some serious harvesting taking place, plums, blackberries, kale & chillis mostly!
So we have Hungarian Hot Wax - foreground, a large chilli, which is great for stuffing - pick when green (mild) to red (hot) - across the spectrum the hotter they get!
The small ones are Basket of Fire (insert pun) a fiery little devil - great for Thai food, imagine this in a dipping sauce...they are the hottest I think out of them all...
Now the other ones which are greener are from a little plant my good friend Laura gave me. Serrano - which are fleshy...and again be good stuffed, pickled and for spicing up anything! Thanks Laura <3
I wanted to get them off the plants as they had reached that stage... so I have dried them and blitzed them in a herb blender and we have chilli flakes for winter! I kept some seeds in the mix for extra heat. WARNING - chopping, processing and handling chilli is not to be taken without extreme CAUTION & CARE. The chopping surfaces, knives, handling items were so hot - you can feel the effects of even a tiny spot on you. Wear gloves to prevent burns! I dried in the greenhouse and for the fleshier ones dried in a very low oven - 50 degrees for several hours - worked okish but thinking of investing in a food dehydrator.
Kale time - did I mention I love winter veg. Cavlo Nero, lightly wilted, yum. Plums... waiting for crumble double yum. Kale really is easy to grow, plant them firmly, keep watered in dry weather to get them off to a good start. Watch out for those caterpillars...As I planted these later summer they haven't been too bad, (I just pick them off and dispose - if you have a bird table, great bird food!) No spray here.
So I've been thinking about upcoming herb work... I've been picking Lemon Balm, Myrtle and Balm of Gilead to make into my own pot pourri - will be posting how I go about this in near future!
Some Autumn colour from the blueberry, gorgeous.
Oh sorry Rosie, she continues to help me in the garden. We have a cat mint that is causing issues. In fact we have a new cat on the block called Rocky who is very fond of it - so we have to cover it up. He is a beautiful looking cat, but Rosie hates him - and he intimidates her. Think word has got out about our cat drugs. No Rosie in the picture, but a propagator cover, covering the cat mint - trying to deter the drugs baron Rocky. However this area now cleared of runner beans and courgettes is going to be a new herb garden. Plans being made in my head. But a good time to do the ground work and planting of certain plants now and in spring. I'm hoping to have a medicinal,culinary, fragrant and colourful herb plot!
