garradóireacht/ gardening – One of these days…

October 21, 2013

Hot in her (apple) leather

I first read about apple leather on the Fox’s Lane blog a while ago (Northern vs Southern Hemisphere) and I just thought I have to try that. We have a very fruity apple tree but the apples get a bit spotty and aren’t all that appealing. Once peeled they are grand and we larrup them into crumbles with blackberries from the bottom-of-the-garden wilderness. We slosh them stewed onto delicious Irish pork chops and joints. We stir them semi-stewed into yoghurt. The apple leather has proven to be another hit and if I had an Aga or Stanley range I would make fruit leather 2 weekly. Apparently you can make it with any fruit that stews or purées to a thick consistency. As things stand it’s a bit of an indulgence that takes up the oven for a large chunk of time. The resulting leather is perfect for lunchboxes in a school where no sugar is allowed.

What you need:

Apples – the sweeter the better, it’ll save having to add honey or sugar
A large tray
Silicone baking paper (I’ve bought this in Lidl)
A day/ evening in

Preheat oven to 75C/ 170F
Line a large oven tray with your silicone paper. One recipe I read suggested using cling film as the oven doesn’t get that hot but I baulked at that idea. If you have a silicone mat now is it’s time to shine!
Stew your apples with a few tablespoons of water or juice of a lemon
Sugar or honey can be added to taste at this point. You could also add a spoonful of cinnamon
Either transfer cooled apples to your blender or use your handheld blender to get a really smooth sauce.
Spread the apple sauce as evenly as possible over the tray trying to avoid thinning edges as these will dehydrate too fast.
Stick it in the oven for 6 – 8 hours. I switched mine off and went to bed and took it out the next day while we used the grill so it’s not a fussy process. You are drying it out, not baking it.
When it is done it will no longer dent if you stick your finger in the middle.
Peel silicone paper off and, using a scissors or sharp, cut into strips or any agape you like.
Enjoy!

August 30, 2013August 30, 2013

Park. Life.

I have been following the developments in Granby Park with interest thanks to an invitation I received from Springwools to donate to their yarnbomb in their park.

In their own words:

Granby Park, is an urban, ‘pop-up’ park in a currently vacant site in Dublin’s inner city. It is made from up-cycled, recycled, donated and found material and features some of the city’s most talented artists, architects, performers, planners etc. It will have an outdoor cinema, a theatre made by kids from palettes, an education zone, exhibitions, a play area, a café, art installations, and lots, lots more!

Situated just off busy, commercial Parnell St. it is in a prime city centre location surrounded by some of some of Dublin’s iconic Georgian houses, social housing from the 50sish and swish new apartments which should make it a very attractive place to live, full of diversity. But with this enormous hole right in the middle of the community I imagine it’s a little difficult. So somehow or other the local community has commandeered this wasteland and turned it into a wonderland.

I was really happy to be able to donate some of the motif’s I found in my godmother’s house when we were clearing it out last year and I think she would be pleased they found an amusing end. I’m only sorry I didn’t donate more. Maybe I’ll pop over and bomb some more onto the railings! I would highly recommend a visit: it’s open from 8am til 7pm Monday to Friday and 10am to 7pm weekends until September 22nd 2013. Word to the wise: the coffee shop hadn’t opened by the time I left at 10am last Monday. Below are some shots I grabbed of the Nippers enjoying the various installations and areas in the park. There is also a library – maybe bring a book to donate!

June 15, 2011June 15, 2011

Wednesday WIP (Crochet & Garden)

It’s Wednesday which means it’s work in progress day. Since my last WIP I have been quite productive relatively speaking. For a change too the work I’ve done has been for me: I don’t want to fall into that trap of never making anything for myself. Lately I’m going to the other extreme.

When you crochet or knit or make things do you find you’re always giving them away too? It seems selfish or vain to make something for yourself but egotistical in equal parts to give it away. It’s like when someone says, “I’m in a band: here, listen to my demo.” But you can’t because your ears are bleeding from the pain of their music and you don’t know what to say. I wonder to people receive my gifts and think “Sweet lord, what am I going to do with this thing!” I think I’m lucky enough to have polite enough friends who will tactfully place the lovingly crafted object in a less-trafficked corner of the house. That said I recall the sting, after spending a few hours creating something that I think the recipient didn’t realise was handmade, when it was just flung to one side without so much as a thank you. But isn’t that rude regardless of the effort put into the gift!

I know I mentioned on the Rosie View when we were talking about The Great British Bake Off that I could completely understand why the contestants got so upset: sure I was at home sniffling for them because I know the pain of putting your heart and soul into something only to have it flop.

However there was a lesson to be learned from the winners of that series: persistence. Malcolm Gladwell would have us believe that it takes 10,000 hours to become an expert or a genius at a skill.

But the difficulty is that by the time we realise this or at the very least realise the truth in this we no longer have 10,000 hours to spare. Not in one block anyway. That’s why a hobby that you can try, try again in short snatches allows you to build up those 10,000 hours. So maybe by the time I’m actually a total granny I’ll be amazing at crochet.

So on to the WIP. Below you can see the business card holder I whipped up not last Wednesday but the Wednesday before to match my iPad holder so it would be easy for me to find while I was networking at dotconf the following day. It’s a bit of a joke but I do love the cheerful colours. It and the iPad cover go with nothing at all though!

I also started the top I described in my last WIP post. It’s going well although the tension isn’t quite right probably because I’m not using the specified wool but it’s just too expensive. I’m worried therefore that this central panel will be too wide thus making the whole top too wide. It is pretty though and I love the colour. You’ll see below that there’s a lot of green in my life at the moment!

And Himself has been busy too and we’ve finally been enjoying the fruits of his incremental 10,000 hours. I wonder if we’ll ever have enough strawberries ripe at the same time for a bowlful each? Nipper 2.0 keeps sneaking out into the garden by himself and finding the ripe ones and shnarfing them before anybody else gets a chance. I beat him to this one here and it was delicious. In the second picture you can see Himself planting some cauliflower and turnip seedlings given to us by our neighbour. In the foreground carrot, onions and beetroot can be seen. Our first batch of potatoes should be ready soon as well.I’m really looking forward to more beetroot brownies: my favourite way to make my pee a funny colour!

I”ve already made loads of the rocket into pesto with parmesan, olive oil and pine nuts.

June 29, 2010

Crop swap

We will soon have a bumper crop of beetroot and potatotes followed by carrot, parsnips, red onion and er spring onion, all from our garden here in Dublin. While I like my veggies I certainly won’t be able to eat all of those we have grown. Especially the lettuce… Himself and I got to thinking that we are probably not alone in this situation but there might be other gardeners out there with bumper crops of other vegetables. Would you like to swap some of your peas for our beetroot? Or cabbage for our potatoes? (I’m probably totally displaying my ignorance about vegetable growing times here but you get my drift…)

No money need change hands. All we’ll need is a public venue, indoor or outdoor, where a group of home gardeners can get together and swap their crops. August would probably be the best time in terms of harvesting right? Or am I being ignorant again?

Please leave your comments below if you’d like to get involved or if, indeed, this is already happening somewhere in Dublin and I’m just slow on the uptake.

April 19, 2009April 19, 2009

Slugfest

I’m not prone to profanity on this blog as a general rule but strictly speaking it is not incorrect to call slugs BASTARDS!

Not one single carrot shoot survived since I last wrote about my foray into veggie gardening. It’s unfair of me to blame the slugs really; I’m so inexperienced that if you told me that it was Huckle the cat whodunnit I would have no grounds to question your possibly superior knowledge.

The onions have yet to make an appearance which is, as we say in Irish, ag teacht idir mé féin is mo chodladh.

I think that I have spotted some bean shoots and knowing the ignominious fate of all my bedding plants I do not want to see the onions and beans and the next batch of carrots go the same way. So what should we do? Are there any tried and tested slug repellents out there?

On the upside the rhubarb is looking good and generally all the shrubs and trees are blooming and marvellous. I picked up a sage plant yesterday; our sage did well last year until we went on holidays and the rain in August did for it. Himself is giving over what little time he has for the garden to nurturing the parsley and basil which are both doing well.

On Easter Sunday it was really brought home to me (if you’ll excuse the pun) what a joy it is to own your own patch of grass. Cup of coffee in hand, lounging on the lawn, Middlebro, his wife, Himself and I looked on as the Nippers, ably assisted by their cousin, the older Frog Prince, searched high and low for their Easter eggs as the sun warmed our welcoming skin. Bliss.