Putting the fruit cage to bed for Winter

Our fruit cage is a bit of a pain. The folk who designed it seem to have decided that a lot of innocent fun could be had by installers, if the attachment points only had little arms to fit into the sockets of the top-tubes. Much hilarity could then ensue as the top tubes randomly detach and fall on the unfortunate person trying to put in the next component.... 

Pete battles the dastardly fruit cage.

Amazingly, despite its truly duff design, the fruit cage has stayed up for almost 2 years now. The jury-rigged bracing with washing line has done a grand job in keeping it together, but we still don't want to tempt fate, so like last year we decided to remove the top netting. If we left it on, there is a real risk that the whole thing could collapse, or at least be bent, if we have a heavy snow, as it can sit on the mesh if it's icy enough. As it is, it's a good move, because it allows birds to get in to clear up any tasty minibeasts that have designs on next year's crop. Alex and Pete did a great job with that, rolling the netting and attaching it along one side, ready to be redeployed once the bushes are at risk of the wrong type of attention from birds.

Austin, Mark and Chris de-weed

The next job was to give the cage a careful weed through. We also added a sprinkling of bonemeal for each bush and a thick layer of mulch to keep the weeds down, and help keep moisture around the roots of the bushes. (You do need to make sure the mulch doesn't sit around the actual stem of the plant to stop it trying to root into the mulch, though).

Austin learns the gentle art of pruning.

We took the chance to take cuttings from the blackcurrant as we were pruning it (Austin did a good job despite it being his first attempt).

The finished cage - all snug and wrapped up ready for winter    

The next job was to create a bean-trench. We have been saving our compostable stuff from the office kitchen at Groundwork, and from events here (in the compost tumbler), so Chris got to work digging down about 1 spades depth, spreading out the goey stuff and then covering it up.

Chris really digs making a bean trench...

This should have rotted down enough by late Spring to create a good moist root run for growing beans. Pumpkins and squashes should like it too.

Add compostable stuff and cover for a great
place to grow beans next year (good for
pumpkins and squashes too!).

Well done to the team - we got loads done and the weather was gorgeous.

Cooking - Windmill Style

It's been pretty breezy here over the last few days, as we get the tail end of the hurricane coming through, but at least we're getting the cobwebs blown away! We can't live on fresh-air alone though, so we really like cooking whenever we can at Windmill, especially when that means enjoying some of the lovely veg and herbs we produce. 

Today, there was an ulterior motive for the cooking. Tracey wanted to try out a very old technology, the hay box. Whilst the rest of the volunteers prepared the ground for our Jubilee Hedge (which will be planted in December - watch this space!), she got to work in the polytunnel, and made a paella. Ideally, the food would have been heated on the rocket stove, but we discovered last time it was windy that the fire can get blown the wrong way, so with today's exciting wind speeds, the table top stove was the better bet (at least for the cook who doesn't want to get flambeed along with the food!).

So - here is how to make no-hassle paella. 

First dice a large onion and 1 large stick of celery. Cook in a little oil or butter until the onion starts to look see-through. Add 1 diced red pepper and a finely chopped carrot. Cook for around 5 minutes more. 

In our case we then transfered the onion mix into a larger pan for the next part. Add 2 cups of brown rice and stir into the mix. Add a tin of chopped tomatoes, paprika, a pinch of saffron, and oregano and thyme to taste, along with 3 heaped teaspoons of stock powder. Add 4 cups of boiling water and bring the whole to the boil with the lid on, (though you'll need to stir it a few times to prevent the rice sticking to the bottom). 

The polytunnel kitchen in action

 Now for the clever bit. Line a cardboard box with a bag and fill this with hay or straw. Make a gap in the straw and fit in your pan.

Let's play "hide the pan"...

Cover the pan with more of the hay / straw and close the box and then leave to continue cooking at least 30 minutes.

A lucky dip with only 1 prize!

When the food has finished its cooking time, just dig it out of the hay. For the 1/2 hour that rice takes, it should be almost as hot as it was when it went in. In our case we then added some peas and some cooked prawns to finish off the paella (prawns get a bit small and tough if you cook them for a long time).

The proof is in the eating!

 The volunteers, fresh from their digging, enjoyed their meal (well at least everyone had seconds, which Tracey takes to be a sign of approval!). Even new volunteer Austin cleared his plate. Now we just need to repeat the exercise with the cooking part done on the rocket stove to have a really climate-friendly, renewably-fueled meal.

Having a Souper Time at Windmill...

We've had a grand plan for today for quite a while. We had just started growing sweet potatoes when Rudi came to run our Jamaican cookery session in the Summer, and he promised us that he'd come back when we harvested them to share one of his favourite recipes for sweet potato soup. We invited our friends from Gateway to Nature to come along and help with the preparation, and they were also interesed in learning how to make chutney, so we planned a big cook session.

Unfortunately, Rudi wasn't able to be with us, so he helped Tracey work out the recipe and she agreed to give it a go (though with all her fingers crossed as some of the ingredients were new to her). Fortunately the Gateway to Nature group were happy to take a chance, so we went ahead.

Half of our sweet potato harvest

First we began by chopping scallions (onions or leeks also work) and coco yam which we began to cook in oil. Then we harvested the sweet potatoes, which had made a small but reasonable crop considering the poor weather. We only used the biggest one of them, as we are hoping to use the rest to grow our own sweet potato plants for next year. We'd bought spares just in case the there was no crop so we still had plenty. 

Starting the preparation - first dice scallions and coco-yam

Cook them in a little oil for around 10 minutes.

Preparing the sweet potatoes (+ the thing that looks like a
large green pear is chocho waiting to be prepared)

We also added diced pumpkin and then chocho at the end. The soup also had vegetable bouillon, coconut milk and thyme. Tracey added fresh ginger by mistake, so it wasn't completely authentic, but it still seemed to work! A final Jamaican touch was to add traditional Jamaican dumplings, or spinners. These are made from seasoned flour mixed with water to form a stiff dough, and then small blobs of the dough are rolled to make rolls like thick pencils which are cooked in the soup.

Making spinners (Jamaican style pencil-shaped dumplings)
to go in the soup.

So how's the soup?

It tastes pretty good...

Soup all round then!

The next stage of the day was to make green tomato chutney. This is essentially a "chop everything up and boil it" recipe, so very easy. You'll find the recipe below. Tracey was delighted, because everyone helping to chop meant that preparing the ingredients took very little time compared to when she has to do it at home.

Tracey explains the basics of making green tomato chutney

Starting the chutney on the rocket stove

Getting ready for Winter and a Good Nosh

This week has seen us trying to get the garden and also the polytunnel into something like good order for the Winter. We have to admit, it's not the best organised poly ever. Partly our problems stem from not yet having a covered space big enough for a class, so we keep the middle of the tunnel empty, which means we waste the middle bit of crop-growing space. (Still, the good news is that we are fundraising for a shed and have just got some of the funding we need.)

Alex gets ready to tackle the weeding

We also got a gift of some tulips, so Mark and Mia helped us to plant them in big pots to cheer up the entrance in the Spring.

Mia helps dad Mark with bulb planting

Anyway - back to the polytunnel - excuses over! We spent a lot of the sessions clearing out the beds and putting up the internal plastic which is supposed to fit on a roller-system to create ventilation. Then we found that some of the parts we need don't seem to be in the kit, and that we didn't understand the manual! (Tracey has now spoken to a very nice man called Mick at First Tunnels, and is hopeful that she understands how to fit the stuff - watch this space to see if she's right!)

We welcomed another new recruit - Mhairi, who we're certain will fit right in because she got stuck into work straight away and, as she's a Scot, she should know all the Scots words that Tracey keeps using that no-one else understands!

New volunteer Mhairi 

Pete and Mhairi get on with clearing the polytunnel beds

We also did some work at the entrance. Hopefully getting through the gate without being grabbed by the dog-rose should be easier from now on, thanks to Sybil, who also got her first experience of pruning and was undetered by it constantly grabbing her hat! She did a great job, and picked us loads of rosehips too, so we'll have a go at making rosehip syrup shortly. An added bonus is that the prunings have made a great addition to the barbed wire along the fence line by the gate - ouch!

Sybil gets to grips with the dog rose.

Chris brought along some chicken, rice and and a few other things, so we used it to create a rather good lunch with onions, parsnips, herbs and spices we'd grown on site. Cooking what we grow is definitely the best bit! Next week will have a lot of cooking too, as Gateway to Nature will be coming to help us harvest and cook our sweet potatoes, and also we're hoping to teach them how to make chutney, if our green tomatoes last that long. Finger's crossed...

Pumpkin Carving on Halloween

In Autumn, the good folks here at Windmill start thinking about PUMPKINS! We are still learning how to grow them really well, but we are very good at cooking with them, and starting to get really good at carving them. Carving is great because you can scoop out lots of lovely pumpkin flesh to cook into delicious dishes.

Volunteers from our group did wonderful pumpkin carvings for the Pumpkin Day at the Dig In Community Allotment in Stapleford last week (have a look here and here for pictures), and we also had our own little event on Halloween itself. Have a look at the pictures to see what we got up to with the Nottingham University Samworth Academy transition group and some member of the Killisick young people's group. Every one also got to sample Tracey's famous pumpkin pancakes - and once again we proved that these taste great - even to folk who don't like pumpkin.

NUSA group members hollowing out pumpkins

Carving the face with a special pumpkin saw
(much safer than a knife)

Yikes!

Even better with a glow

Another great design

A hi-tech pumpkin face

Eyebrows make all the difference!

Lotsa teeth!

The whole gang

 



Killisick group carving in the dark, by candlelight
 

A finished result - beautifully done

Lighting the candle

Finished design - very ghosty!

Rudi tried carving one of our shark's fin melons, with great results

A jack skellington face - brilliantly scary.



Tracey shows how a fancy pattern can look