Digging & Dreaming

Bringing Light

For many of us the depths of winter are trying times. The long, dark days can be difficult to deal with, especially when they are accompanied by dull, wet, cold weather. Though that on its own would be tolerable - it's the lack of sunlight that is horrible. But, looking on the positive side, these gloomy times do offer the opportunity to fill our homes with light in all different forms to create cosy, welcoming places to sit out the winter.

It's a time of year when I love nothing more than to fill the house with candles and wrap up in blankets until Spring arrives. Safe in the knowledge that each day is a little bit longer and that hopeful, warmer days are not far off.

Winter Baking - Focaccia

On days when we aren't out on the plot we're quite keen on a bit of baking in our house. Today was one of those days and the weather felt suitably cold outside to inspire a bit of bread making - the perfect activity for a winter morning when you're pottering around the house. Today I decided to have a go at making focaccia which is relatively simple to make and deliciously tasy to eat.

One of the joys of focaccia is that it doesn't require too many complicated ingredients to get started. In fact, if you've got a basically stocked store cupboard you will probably already have most of the things you need in the house. To make two large loaves you will need:

• 500 g strong white bread flour
• 10 g sea salt flakes, crushed
• 2 x 7g sachets of fast action dried yeast OR 18g fresh yeast
• 2 tablespoons olive oil, plus extra for drizzling
• fine sea salt, for sprinkling

And here's what you need to do to make your bread:

1. Place the flour and salt into a large mixing bowl and stir in your dried yeast. Make a well in the centre of the bowl and add the olive oil along with 300ml of cool water. If you are using fresh yeast you will need to crumble this into the water before adding it.
2. Use your hands to gradually mix the flour and liquid to create a dough. Massage the dough for 5 minutes then very slowly add about a further 100ml more water.
3. Work the dough in the bowl for around 5 minutes. Stretch it using your hands then fold the stretched dough into the centre. Turn the bowl 80 degrees then repeat the stretching and folding process.
4. When the 5 minutes is up, tip the dough out onto a well-oiled work surface. Knead well for a further 5 minutes.
5. Oil your mixing bowl and return the dough to it. Cover it clingfilm and leave to rise at room temperature for about an hour and a half or until the dough has increased to about 4 times its original size.
6. Gently tip your dough out onto a floured work surface (you need to try and keep as much air in the dough as you can). Divide the dough in two and put each half in a baking tray. Gently press out the dough, pushing it into the corners of the tray.
7. Leave the dough to rise again at room temperature for an hour or until it has doubled in size.
8. When it is ready place the trays into a pre-heated oven to 220*C / 425*F / gas mark 8. Just before doing this drizzle with a little more oil and sprinkle with fine sea salt, then bake for 20 to 25 minutes.
9. The focaccia is ready when it can be tipped out of the tray and the bottom is brown. Sprinkle with a little more olive oil and serve hot, or allow to cool and serve the next day. Once cooled wrap in clingfilm and keep for 24 hours - just before serving, sprinkle with olive oil and reheat in a 220*C / 425*F / gas mark 7 oven for 5 minutes.

Tabletop Gardening

When it's icy and cold it's frustrating to be stuck inside but there are still plenty of things that you can do to get your garden in order. On these dark winter evenings there's nothing better than settling down with a cup of tea and a couple of seed catalogues to browse and come up with big ideas for the months to come. So, on this theme, here are some of my favourite "tabletop" gardening tasks that will be keeping me sane over the coming weeks.

• Go through your seed stores and make sure that you aren't keeping stock that is out of date. All seed loses fertility year on year so there's no real benefit in keeping any for longer than three seasons.Check the date on your seed packets and get rid of any that are past their best. As heartbreaking as it may be to do this with seemingly healthy seeds it's not as disappointing as spending time planting and caring for seeds that don't germinate. An exception to the three year rule are carrots and parsnips that only last for one season so if you buy any new seed this time round don't feel bad about planting the lot!
• Once you know what seeds you've already got you can start drawing up a list of what you want to grow and what you need to buy. However, as hard as it may be, resist the temptation to buy everything that catches your eye. Be realistic about how much space you've really got and how many different varieties of each crop you actually want or need. Having said all this, I attempted to grow six varieties of pumpkin last year, five varieties of courgette and eleven different tomatoes (that all got blight!) so I don't always practice what I preach...
• Not sure where to buy seeds from? This year I ordered most of my seeds from Real Seeds in Pembrokeshire. They're great advocates for seed saving so no hybrids here, and each pack of seeds comes with great tips on cultivation. Their website is also a mine of information on saving your own seed if you want to give that a go. Seeds of Italy offer a wonderful selection of traditional Italian seed stock. They're great for tomatoes, salad leaves and an amazing selection of courgettes. The Organic Gardening Catalogue is where I go to fill any gaps that are left after I've made other orders and are a realiable supplier of organic seeds. Finally I make a selection of seeds from the Heritage Seed Library - it's always a surprise to see what I'll end up with but I've got high hopes for bagging some exciting tomatoes and beetroots from the request that I've made.
• Next I like to make a plan of what I'm going to plant when. I have a notebook where I make a month by month plan of what can go in when. This may seem a little military to some people but if you're growing more than a couple of different seeds it's a good way of keeping on top of things. I also find it the best way to manage succession planting so that we get the longest possible season of eating delicious, allotment fresh produce.

So there you go - tabletop gardening in four easy stages. And if this conceptual gardening isn't enough to cheer you up on a cold, winter's night don't forget... it's only a couple of weeks before you need to start getting your chilli seeds planted so the real life gardening can commence again very soon.

Snug as a Bug in a Rug

We have a wormery in our garden which is a brilliant way of using kitchen waste to create super rich compost and liquid plant food. Normally there is very little that you need to do to keep the worms ticking over. Just make sure they've got a good supply of food that they like (ours don't like too much onion, orange peel or anything too strongly flavoured) and keep them in a sheltered position in the garden that doesn't get too hot, cold or wet. Dead easy you see?... Though of course we've had exceptionally cold weather over the last couple of nights that could prove a really threat to the health and well-being of our worms so we've had to carry out some evasive action to make sure that they're able to keep warm.

Firstly we moved the wormery up as close to the house as we could so that it benefits from any residual heat from the fabric of the building. This also means that it is now in the corner of the garden that gets the most winter sun so the worms will have the help of the sun to keep them warm and frost free for at least a couple of hours each day. We have also made sure that the worms have plenty of insulation within the wormery so we've added lots of nice fresh food and cardboard to make sure there are no opportunities for cold, icy spaces to form. Finally we have wrapped the whole wormery in a couple of old towels and plastic bags and topped it of with a waterproof cap to keep the whole thing as snug and dry as possible.

This may seem a slightly excessive endeavor on a freezing cold day but we love our wormery and want to do as much as we can to make sure that its residents make it through the winter. Here's hoping they'll be warm enough in their newly improved home.

 

Winter's Nearly Here

 

Today I worked on the plot until three o'clock and the light was already to starting to fade by the time I was packing up and heading home. I hate it when the days start to get really dark and gloomy but at this time of year I can cope with it because the plot has still got so much produce to offer.

The picture above shows the fine harvest that I took home today to put into storage in the shed. The last three summer cabbages will have to be eaten fairly soon but they're the exception to the rule because everything else in the barrow will last all the way through the winter months if looked after properly. They'll join the bags of onions that we already have stored safely for winter and that I am confident should take us right through to Spring. Judging by how full the shed is we should have lots of good cooking to come over the next couple of months, and there's nothing much better than eating a hearty meal in the depths of winter and knowing that you grew it all yourself!

On top of all the veg that we've got in the shed at home, there are also quite a few things still in the ground on the plot. The winter cabbages are doing beautifully and should be ready to start eating soon. We've also got a great selection of kale, fresh crisp chard, tasty leeks and some delicious brussel sprouts (that will be picked just in time for Christmas). And to top it all off, the parsnip and swede crops are looking good so fingers crossed for bumper harvests of both of those this year. In fact, it's been a pretty good harvest all round so here's hoping for a nice, cold winter that gives us plenty of time to get the plot perfectly spick and span in anticipation of plenty of great growing to come!