Little Green Space
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Little Green Space |
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LITTLE GREEN SPACE Originally published in the Peak Advertiser on 22 February 2010
This
winter has been one of the coldest for years. Snow and ice featured
strongly throughout January, and things aren’t looking like warming up
anytime soon. The
chickens have been faring well despite the freezing weather. We have had
to keep a wary eye out for the fox, though – we’ve spotted him
skulking around the field several times. Foxes
get pretty desperate for food at this time of year, and are prepared to
take greater risks for a feed. Our hens range in a fenced-off area
alongside the house, but this is not enough to keep them completely safe. So
we have only let them out of their runs when we are sure we will be around
to chase away any opportunistic foxes. And Rich has had to venture out in
the snow to chase them off a few times – quite entertaining to watch
from my vantage point at the sitting-room window (by the fire, with a cup
of tea in my hand). Big Garden Birdwatch At
least the fox has been easy to spot in the snow. And so have the birds
visiting our garden. Alongside the usual birds that we would expect to see
at this time of year, we have seen redwings, yellowhammers and a nuthatch
in the garden, as well as a buzzard, a common snipe and a couple of
lapwings in the field. In
fact there was a constant flurry of feathered activity throughout January.
So it was with great anticipation that we settled down on the last weekend
of January to participate in the RSPB’s annual Big Garden Birdwatch (www.rspb.org.uk/birdwatch) We
spent an hour recording all the birds visiting our garden, but it was a
bit disappointing. The rarer species were nowhere to be seen, and although
we did spot nine of the more common garden birds – such as blue tit,
blackbird and chaffinch – there weren’t many of these either. The
bullfinches and yellowhammers arrived shortly after the hour was up, of
course. Maybe next year we’ll choose a better hour! Vegetable hide and seek Not
so easy to spot in the snow are my parsnips, which were buried for many
weeks under a foot of snow. Having gone without roasted roots for too
long, I eventually cracked and took to the veg patch with a kettle of hot
water. Soon
enough I had located the sodden leaves of a couple of parsnips, and with
the help of another hot kettle managed to prise the frozen roots free. And,
boy, did they taste good. The standard advice for harvesting parsnips is
to wait until after the first frost, but I reckon that leaving them under
a foot of snow for a few weeks is the best way to achieve outstandingly
sweet-tasting roots. Another
vegetable that is harvestable even in the depths of coldest February –
and one that I wouldn’t be without – is kale. Much
maligned for years, and thought only suitable for feeding cattle, kale is
experiencing a bit of a comeback, not least because it is so easy and
reliable to grow at home. One
of kale’s big advantages is that it is totally hardy. That means that
even when the weather is freezing, kale will be just fine. Just knock off
the snow, harvest, cook and serve. Kale
is also very versatile in the kitchen. Serve it up in place of cabbage, or
try using it as a substitute for spinach (see recipe below). It can be
sautéd in butter with garlic and onions and served over pasta, and is
fabulous in risotto. Seasonal eating Eating
kale from the garden is certainly helping us to stick to our new year’s
resolution: to reduce the family’s carbon emissions by 10% during 2010 (www.1010uk.org). It’s
easy to get into habits with the weekly shop, and with the meals we
prepare. I had a go at breaking these habits last week. I wanted to cook a
Thai chicken curry, to which I would usually add French beans, red pepper
and baby sweetcorn – all available locally in summer but air-freighted
in from places like So I
made my curry with mushrooms and shredded savoy and red cabbages instead
– all produced in the A quick look at the Eat Seasonably website (www.eatseasonably.co.uk)
gave me loads more inspiration for what to buy locally now, and how to
cook it. A good start to cutting our carbon footprint! Kale and ricotta
cannelloni Serves
4 For
the cannelloni: 3
small leeks 200g
kale 30g
butter 250g
ricotta 100g
stilton 12
tubes cannelloni For
the cheese sauce: 60g
butter 2
tbsp flour 400ml
milk 100g
cheddar or other hard cheese, grated Finely
shred the leeks and kale, removing any tough stalks from the kale. Melt
the butter in a large pan and sauté the leeks and kale for about 5
minutes until the kale has wilted down and is tender. Remove from the heat
and stir in the ricotta and the crumbled stilton. Mix thoroughly. Stuff
the mixture into the cannelloni tubes, pushing it down into the tubes with
your fingers, and lay the stuffed tubes in a shallow, ovenproof dish. To
make the cheese sauce, melt the butter in a small saucepan. Add the flour
and cook gently for one minute, stirring all the time. Gradually add the
milk, stirring continuously then bring to the boil. Lower the heat and
simmer for a couple of minutes, stirring frequently. Stir in about three
quarters of the grated cheese then pour the sauce over the cannelloni
tubes. Sprinkle the remaining cheese over the top, and bake at 180˚C
for about 30 minutes until golden brown. Penny at Little Green
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