Onions

I haven't managed to succeed with any onions yet, despite having attempted a variety of different sorts. I tried spring onions in 2009 which delivered nothing more than really thin grass.

I then tried red onions in 2010 which I bought as onion sets from a garden centre and most of them bolted and gave me ping pong ball sized onions, only slightly bigger than the set onions themselves...

I also tried cultivating leeks from seed in 2010 but without success and instead bought a tray of seedlings from the garden centre (most of these are still in the ground slightly bigger than spring onions).

So, this year I am determined to succeed.

Apache red salad onions, which should look like this:

Apache salad onion

Top: White Lisbon spring onions (below)     Bottom: Herbstriesen 2 leeks (far below)

White Lisbon spring onion

Herbstriesen 2 leek

Fingers crossed...

Chilli update

Having been sick (just a cold) since the New Year, I haven't really had the energy to update my blog, but quite a lot has happened. The boar have been back, which I find amazing - their snouts must be so incredibly strong to be able to plough through snow, ice and frozen earth...

But this entry is about the 2011 chilli season, which is now well underway. In addition to the four I planted in November which are doing really well, I also sowed the following on 14 January:

Aurora, Caribbean Red, Purple Tiger

Spanish Pepper (just appearing), Trinidad Scorpion, Ring of Fire

Thai Chilli, Aji Colorado, Purple Serrano (no show)

And these which I sowed (in kitchen roll because they're fussy) on 10th January:

Bih Jolokia, Hot Paper Lantern

Plus a Fatali that is struggling to surface. So far, the no shows are Purple Serrano, 7 Pod and Fish Pepper. I also had to help quite a few of the ones that did show as the seed pod was reluctant to budge off the growing seedlings.

Garden plans for 2011 & what's growing now

I've just got back from a week's skiing up in the Swedish mountains with a stinking cold, so I'm using the bed-bound time to trawl through seed catalogues. Such a hardship :)

I'm actually going to try and grow some flowers from seed this year. Now that I've been at it a couple of years, I should succeed with some at least. Seeds ordered: Poppy Lilac Pompom, Burning Bush, Dimorphotheca White, Cornflower Blue.

On the veg/fruit front the chilli season has already begun. The four plants I sowed on the 23 November are looking happy:

Two Serrano (Capsicum Annum) plants & two Congo Black (Capsicum Chinense) plants. Aged 7 weeks.

And I sowed another 8 seeds yesterday (4 Hot Paper Lanterns and 4 Bih Jolokias). This time I sowed them onto kitchen paper in freezer bags because the Bhut Jolokias (similar growing instructions) I sowed in November never appeared.

I've also got a box of button mushrooms growing in one of the bathrooms. Very exciting.

December's a busy month

Sorry for the absence, but who has time to write a blog during December? Now Christmas Day is over and the house is all quiet again, I have time to write a few lines and upload a few pickies.

It's going to be a long cold winter again...

I had a go at making ice lanterns this year.

They're really easy. First, pour water into a container, weigh down a smaller container inside it with gravel and then poke some leaves, flowers or other decoration into the water. Leave the whole thing outside overnight and you'll have an ice container in the morning. Plonk a tea light in the gap and voila!

I went down to pick some heather to decorate one of the lanterns with and this fat little madam was perched comfortably on the plantpot, taking in a little winter sun. :)

More deer photos

Poor little darlings, desperately searching for food.

The deer are back

I've really missed the daytime visits, but now that food is getting scarce they're back in the garden.

I should get upset about them eating my perennials but there's not much else for them to eat...

Which is why I also put food out for them

Everything but the boar...

So, they've been back. Apparently there are a few groups roaming the area and only one of these was scared off last week.

We have another hunter guy now who's been sitting on our terrace for the past four hours (8pm-12). He's gone off for a wander around with his shotgun under his arm before he calls it a night. No luck tonight, but he has seen deer and foxes in the garden.

Glad he understood our needs. Boar and only boar!

One wild boar less to worry about

About an hour ago our friendly neighbourhood 'jägare' (Swedish for hunter) felled a wild boar in the middle of our lawn. It was quick and hopefully painless.

I won't be posting a picture for obvious reasons.

Let's hope that's the end of our boar trouble for a while....

If I'm really lucky....

...some of them might survive.

Now I know I said I was sick of wild boar blog entries, but this is a little more uplifting...

This is what my winter veg raised bed looked like this morning (please excuse the shaky photos, it's really windy and raining hard):

And I'm really proud with myself, instead of getting all emotional (like I usually do...) I got my rain kit and wellies on and got to work trying to salvage what I could.

I got ABSOLUTELY drenched. I mean really really soaked to the skin.

But look what I achieved. It was definitely worth it! :)

And because the little blighters had shredded my poly tunnel...

 
I had to be creative and I found this fleece sheeting from last year in the potting shed :D

My little winter babies might just survive... :)

I made my own ramen!

Working from home and not having my own car, I have to rely on my husband to do any ad-hoc shopping on his way home from work (and I try to bug him with that as little as possible). I really need to do a big 'fill the cupboards' shop but just haven't got round to it over the past couple of days. So it's always a challenge to come up with something yummy for dinner with what's left in the cupboard/fridge/freezer/kitchen garden.

And last night I exceeded even my own expectations :D

The process usually starts with a wander round the kitchen garden to see what there is. Yesterday I found radishes, pak choy, choy sum, leeks and even a huge carrot! Perfect.

I then found a chicken breast and some broccoli in the freezer and some dried egg noodles (just enough for 2 people).

Now I've never made noodle soup before, and it didn't really start out to be that. I was just going to wok it all together.

I knew I had a bunch of chilli flakes I'd grown and dried myself and a few chillies drying out on the window sill, so I sautéed these with some lazy garlic (chopped & frozen in a zip lock). Took that off the heat and added the strips of raw chicken to let it marinate a while. I also bunged in a good dose of soya sauce (instead of salt).

Once all the veg was prepared, I simply fried it all in order of consistency (chicken first), then slowly added the water from the noodles (which I must admit I'd added some sesame oil to, to separate them), some chicken stock and soya sauce. Then I left it to bubble for about 5 minutes.

I chucked some noodles in the bottom of a couple of bowls and filled them up with the mix and liquid from the frying pan. Voilá. Ramen :D

I am completely incapable of following recipes. I'm an experimental cook (and usually not a very good one)  and only enjoy cooking that way, but if anyone does have a go at this recipe, please let me know. We thought it was absolutely yummy.