GRRR Slugs

Ate all my outdoor courgette plants. I am sooo pissed off. Eben is delighted as he won't have to eat courgettes. Oh yes he will I've just soaked 10 more seeds.

My Garden

Things are growing really well, the nettle forest is enormous and I hope we will leave them long enough to collect the seeds; We ate loads of young ones cooked. Today I made a flat bread of sunflower seeds and nettle but that is still in the dehydrator. The nettle kraut got really stinky and I threw it out. It tasted odd, not off but not really very appetising. I'm sure I'll try again one of these days.

My website now has loads of pictures and detail of what is going on in the garden at the momment so please check it out.

http://wildgreencuisine.com

Web Site

Wild green cuisine is about food. Food I can find wild and food I can grow. Its about making the most of every square inch of available land so that it can both nourish me and mine and be nourished it self. In order to write more deeply about this project than I can in just a blog I have created a website too. http://www.wildgreencuisine.com

So much food!

I'm back home after a month away and there is just so much food in my garden. I've started some nettle sauerkraut and could quite easily eat my fill of greens from the garden without even sowing anything. I did plant some lettuce  and radishs so am eating them too along with the more bitter wild greens. Another discovery is cabbage flowers. They are really sweet and good to nibble on. I just grazed in the greenhouse this morning for breakfast. Blissfull!

Snow and Fruit trees

Yesterday I bought 5 small fruit trees. They were on special offer so I'm delighted. I've seen more mature trees for sale but I got 5 trees for less than the price of one of those. I have a peach tree that I'll put in the greenhouse and for outside an apple, a pear, a plum and a cherry. They will join the trees we already have in the garden, BUT I can't plant them out yet as it is sleeting. It really seemed like spring time. The wild geese and cranes that come over twice a year at migration time are on their way north and we have sleet, I don't believe it. On top of that we don't have much wood in so I'm going to have to get out and get some pretty soon!

Dandelions

Dandelions are popping up all over the place at the momment. Most people collect the blanched ones in mole hills but I pick the green bitter ones now. Sometimes I make a dressing for them with honey in or at others I cut them up fine and add to another salad. Last night I mixed them with spring cabbage, olive oil, balsamic vinegar and ginger. It was a tasty mix. I also made sunflower seed paté which I served with tomato, cucumber and celery. It not the season for tomatoes and cucumber yet but I just fancied something different.

Nettle Juice !!!!

There are fresh young nettles shooting out all over the place, definately wild definately green!

I have juiced them for the first time. The juice was dark green and very strong looking. The first sip was okay, maybe even quite nice, the second I thought 'YUCK'. I then offered some to Griff who took a swig said it was great before hiding a grimace. He then said he never tasted anything that felt like it was doing him so much good!

I knocked back the rest and it has a odd flavour almost salty like seawater. I guess it is due to the high mineral content.

Overall it was a good experience that I will try again but there was a lot of waste and the pulp was still very very green, which means it is still packed full of chlorophyll. I have soaked it all in water and I think I will either blend it and strain to drink or make it into a green smoothie. Must get myself a VITAMIX !!

Wheat Grass

In the absence of wild greens at the momment due to snow I have been juicing wheat grass. Wheat grass juice was a creation of Ann Wigmore. It contains 92 different minerals, beta carotene, vitamins B, C, E, H and K. It has 19 amino acids, lots of enzymes and is 70% chlorophyll. It is extremely good for. Taste wise its a bit strange but I think its worth it for all the good it is supposed to be doing. I use a manual juicer it works extremely well and I am very happy with the result. Once I start juicing wild greens too then I might upgrade to something like this. Champion juicer . Wheat grass and other juices can also be added to smoothies or diluted in water to make them more palatable.

A diet for a planet

My belief is that if we covered all the worlds cultivated lands with first fruit or nut trees then fruit shrubs or perenial tall greens and followed by greens on ground level then we would have enough food for all to live a healthy life. In the absence of interested farmers then all people with gardens could start on this and feed themselves.

Snow

Well my first nettle smoothie of the year was yucky, it was far too strong in flavour. I've made ones withbought lettuce and they where yummy. Since then we've had snow so I don't suppose much new stuff will grow for a while.

 

New Beginings

What a great day for starting my new website and blog. The sun is shining, the birds are singing and although it is only the end of January the first nettles are poking their heads through the ground and I saw some new leaves about to open on the raspberry plants. Why would anyone be so pleased about nettles in their garden I hear you say and I'm sure my other half would agree with you but I love them. There is so much goodness in a nettle despite its spiky appearance and actions. When I was pregnant last year I drank loads of nettle and raspberry leaf tea, I blended them in both along with other greens from the garden in water which I strained and drank and I added to nettles to green smoothies. Today I have picked young nettles for my first wild green smoothie of the year. Its so exciting.

Last year as I learnt more and more about the power of greens I saw them everywhere. A walk was no longer just a walk but but a study in the greens around me that I could eat, along with the nettles there are dandelions, horsetails, plantain, cleavers, violets to name just a few. This year I plan to find more and try them and write about them and how they make me feel.

I have also discovered fermentation, not just wine! I have started making saurkraut and kimchi and hope to try more things and combine the fermentation with the wild greens. And guess what? I have a receipe for nettle saurkraut!!! Watch this space!