Nettles. If you can't beat them, eat them!

The Veg Growers Group has now been meeting for six months and has gone from strength to strength. Each month we have a Vegetable of the Month, but choosing one for May was a challenge. For May is bang in the middle of the hungry gap. This year's crops are mere seedlings and small plants, only just going out into the garden. And stores from last year won't keep any longer. The potatoes are softened and have tentacle-like sprouts reaching out into the dark. Most of the pumpkins have been eaten or gone rotten and the onions aren't what they were.Having said that, I am already eating asparagus and rhubarb aplenty and I have beautiful fresh radishes, turnips and lettuces in the polytunnel. Jams and chutneys are always on tap and we have already taken honey from the bees this year. We have eggs coming out of our ears and can always treat ourselves to a chicken, guinea fowl or duck.

And if all that's not quite enough to keep us going, thankfully these days we have freezers. So even in the hungry gap visits to the supermarket are infrequent.

But there is another way to fill a hungry tum. For while we are still procrastinating over whether or not to put our tender young vegetables out into the big wide world of the veg plot, our native plants (also sometimes known as weeds) have been happily growing away for a couple of months.

There is one plant in particular which seems to do remarkably well on our fenland soil. I seem to be particularly adept at growing it. Fortunately it's an excellent plant for bugs such as aphids, which attract more garden-friendly predators such as ladybirds and hoverflies.

However there's a sting in the tail. For the humble stinging nettle crops up everywhere and takes persistence to control. As well as forming impenetrable patches, it bites when it's least expected, as you are peacefully going about your daily garden pottering.
But there is a solution. Bite back!
For nettles are indeed very tasty. They can be substituted into any recipe which uses spinach and have a pleasantly distinctive, almost nutty flavour.

233g of nettles

They should be harvested wearing thick gloves (and make sure your wrists aren't exposed, for however careful you are, you'll eventually get stung). Only young leaves should be used as the older, darker ones get a bit tough. Young leaves can be found when the plants first emerge early in the year, or taken from the top of each plant, but before the nettles come into flower. If you simply mow down your nettles though, you'll get a vigorous regrowth of fresh young leaves. This also leads those friendly insect predators to move to your vegetable plants to seek out aphids.

Now, you're probably thinking about hippy nettle tea and nettle soup. You may even have tried them and not liked them. All I can say is that I have four delicious recipes for you and urge you to give them a try. 

All nettle recipes start off with picking a stack of nettles. One portion is about half a plastic bag full. Wash the leaves thoroughly. I like to leave them in soak for a while with a little salt added to the water to help drive off the bugs. Don't be put off. This really is worth it.

After that, plunge the leaves into boiling water for 3 - 5 minutes, then drain and squeeze out the water, as you would with spinach - put them into a colander and press out the liquid with the back of a wooden spoon.

They are now completely safe to touch and can be used in any recipe.

The four recipes I have for you today are all carefully selected and adapted from the internet. They are: Garlicky Nettle Pesto; Nettle Gnocchi (or gnettle gnocchi if you prefer); Nettle Bread; and Sweet Potato and Nettle Soup. Give them a try, though you may have to mow your nettles first or wait till next spring.

Garlicky Nettle Pesto
Delicious as a light coating for pasta. If you make a double portion, you can freeze this in ice cube trays too. 

1/2 pound nettles
4 large garlic cloves, smashed
1/2 cup toasted pine nuts (I used walnuts, as that's what I had in)
1/2 teaspoon salt
Freshly ground pepper
1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 1/4 cups extra virgin olive oil
1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese (or cheap substitute)

Add the nettles to a large pot of boiling salted water stirring continuously, for 2 minutes.(This denatures their sting.) Drain into a colander and squeeze out the water. You’ll have about a cup of cooked, squished nettles.

Pasta tossed in garlicky nettle pesto.

Finely chop the garlic, pine nuts (or walnuts), salt and pepper to taste. You can do this in a food processor. Add the nettles, breaking them up as you drop them in, and the lemon juice and whizz until finely chopped. Gradually add the oil in a slow, steady stream, and process until smooth. Add the cheese, pulse briefly, and season to taste with additional salt, pepper, or lemon juice.

Stinging Nettle Gnocchi
Something a little different. Go on, give it a try! For this recipe you do need to use a floury potato (I used King Edwards), to avoid using too much flour in the recipe. It is possible to freeze the uncooked Stinging Nettle gnocchi (after they have been shaped and lightly dusted in flour to stop them sticking) for a week or two and then cooking them from frozen.

Ingredients

For the gnocchi:
600g potatoes, peeled and cut into even-sized pieces
150g well-washed nettle tops
2 egg yolks
Salt and pepper
120g plain flour

For the Sage Butter
75g butter
2 garlic cloves, peeled and finely sliced
12 sage leaves, finely shredded

A Little Extra Topping
50g freshly grated Parmesan cheese (or substitute)
Few chopped nuts of your choice

Boil the potatoes, drain and mash really well.

Put about a centimetre of water in the bottom of a large saucepan and bring to the boil. Add the nettle tops and cook for 5 minutes and then quickly cool them under cold running water. Tip into a sieve and squeeze out all the liquid with the back of a wooden spoon. Place in a food processor and chop finely then stir them into the potatoes.

Add the 2 egg yolks and season well.

The dough for the gnocchi

Add most of the flour and quickly mix it in. The secret of good gnocchi is to use sufficient flour to hold the mixture together but not too much that they become heavy. If the dough does not feel too sticky, break off a piece and roll it into a ball, drop it into boiling water to test. If after a few minutes it floats to the top without losing its shape, then do not add more flour. To shape the rest, break off individual pieces and roll them into a ball (about 2cm across) with floured hands, placing each finished one on a floured plate.

Nettle Gnocchi and Garlicky Nettle Pesto ready for the freezer

Drop half the gnocchi into a large saucepan of boiling water and cook until they have all floated to the surface. Leave them to cook for a further 10 seconds, then lift them out with a slotted spoon on to a hot plate lined with kitchen paper. Repeat with the remaining gnocchi.

While the gnocchi are cooking, place the butter, garlic and sage in a small saucepan and fry for 1-2 minutes. Divide the gnocchi between four plates, pour over the sauce and sprinkle over the parmesan and nuts. Serve immediately.

Instead of sage butter the gnocchi could be served with a simple tomato sauce or floated on a bowl of delicious soup, such as the recipe below.

Fragrant Nettle and Chive bread
Ingredients to make two small 1 lb loaves

100 g nettle leaves
 a pinch of freshly grated nutmeg
 2 tsp unsalted butter
 2 heaped tsp finely chopped
 fresh chives
 500 g strong white bread flour
 2 tsp salt
 7 g (1 sachet) fast-action dried yeast
 270 ml  water
 salt & freshly ground black pepper

First wash the nettles thoroughly, wearing rubber gloves. Add the nettles to a pan of boiling salted water and blanch for 2-3 minutes. Leave to cool, roughly chop the leaves, season with salt and freshly grated nutmeg, and set aside until later.

Melt the butter in another pan, then toss in the chives and stir. The aim is not to cook the chives, just to warm them – this really brings out the flavour. Put the chives aside.

Combine the flour, salt, chives and prepared nettles in a bowl. Then add the yeast and mix in. Make a well in the centre. Add the water to the well and bring together into a dough with your hands or with a spatula. Turn the dough out on to a clean kitchen surface and knead for 10 minutes.

Place the dough in a lightly oiled bowl, cover with a damp cloth and leave to prove until doubled in size
(60-90 mins). Turn the dough out on to a clean surface and knock it back. Divide into two equal portions, then shape it into loaves and place in two lightly oiled 1 lb loaf tins – or flowerpots. Cover and allow to prove again for 60—80 minutes. The loaves should come to just below the rims of the tins or have increased by two-thirds.

Preheat the oven to 220°C (425°F/Gas 7) and put a roasting tray in the bottom. When ready to bake, place the loaves in the oven and steam by adding cold water to the tray. After 20 minutes remove the loaves from the tins, then return them to the oven and cook for a further eight minutes, until golden-topped and the base of the loaf sounds hollow when tapped.

Sweet Potato, Nettle and Chickpea Soup

This is a soup with substance, a filling bowlful of hearty satisfaction. Pepped up with the warmth of some aromatic spices it is perfect for those evenings when the sun dips a little too fast leaving the seven o’clock air with a surprising, biting chill.

Ingredients
2 large sweet potatoes, peeled and diced
A baking potato, peeled and diced
Two onions, sliced
As much garlic as you wish
Spices: cumin, cinnamon, coriander, cloves, star anise – take your pick
Lots of fresh nettle tops
A tin of chickpeas
Vegetable stock, about 3 pints

Fry off your chosen spices in a little oil until they in turn start to release their oils. The smell will change, just take care not to burn them else you will add a bitter note to the soup. Crush them in a pestle and mortar then add the garlic.

Fry the onion until soft then add the potato (both sweet and regular). Give it a little colour then add the spices and garlic before covering with stock. Leave to simmer until the potatoes are cooked then blend and pass through a sieve to remove and rogue crunchy spices.

Wash and pick over the nettles. Cook in plenty of rapidly boiling, salted water then leave to drain in a colander or sieve. Chop the nettles then add to the soup along with a can of drained chickpeas. Heat through and serve with nettle bread or gnocchi.

Some of the Veg Group enjoying a nettle feast.
Quote of the night "It looks worse than it tastes"!!!
Many were more positive though.



Sad news

One of our goslings died this morning.

It was quite healthy last night, but when Sue got up this morning something was clearly wrong. Within ten short minutes it peacefully slipped away.



The smaller of the two, at the back, sadly passed away this morning.

We don't usually get attached to our livestock, but when they're hand reared and such characters it's impossible not to feel a pang of sadness.

It was always the smaller and less active of the two, so maybe there was something inherently wrong with it, but apart from that there was no obvious cause of death.

Although it was only a short life, it made a lasting impression on us.

Gosling news

It’s been a fascinating week with the geese. Our two goslings, hatched in the incubator, have proved more charming and endearing than I ever imagined. They spend most of their day pecking at anything they can find to peck at inside their heated home, all the time emitting cute whistles and trills. They've grown tremendously in a short time.

 

Just occasionally they come out for a cuddle, which they seem to genuinely enjoy.

 

 

 

 

But most exciting of all is when they get to go out on the grass. They clearly see Sue and I as their parents, as I discovered when I walked away only to find them desperately trying to keep up, their clockwork legs whirring round and their stumpy wings vainly trying to flap.

 

 

 

 

 

Yesterday I brought a coop and run down from the chicken pen so that the two goslings can spend some of the daytime outside.

As soon as the two male Embdens heard them, they came running over doing the comical run that only geese can do and squawking for England.

 

Their calls brought one of the females off the nest and she too came out running and honking.  The goslings then spent quite some time, probably terrified, suffering the close attentions of three giant white geese. The hope is that at some point I can get the Embdens to adopt the goslings and take over their care.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Meanwhile over to the Embdens’ nest. All three girls have been sitting tight for quite some time now.  In fact, too long. Their eggs should have started hatching by now but there is nothing. Just occasionally they honk excitedly and the boys hurry back to the stables. They are clearly expecting new arrivals, but just as was the case last year it’s proving a very frustrating experience for all concerned. I can’t work out what the problem is, for even if the white geese are firing blanks, some of those eggs are from the Giant Dewlap Toulouses and we know that they are fertile, even if not all of them.

 

The boys are still vigorously defending the nest!

At least  with three girls sharing sitting duties it does mean that they can take it in turns to stretch their legs and graze. I can’t help thinking that it’s precisely because three of them share the same nest that is causing the hatching problems. Maybe they are disturbing the eggs too much.

If that’s the case, then maybe we’ll have more luck here….

 

For one of George’s girls finally decided to sit. She has twenty eggs underneath her and they are due at the end of May.  I won’t need to cut the grass if all twenty hatch!

Swifts, Swallows, Yellow Wagtails, Grey Partridges, Little Owls and a Hawk Moth

Getting any work done outside today has been a trial. At times the showers have been so frequent that someone forgot the dry spells in between.

But as I was unloading bagfuls of horse muck I was delighted to note a trio of Swifts scything through the air. It was only yesterday that I saw my first of the year along the North Norfolk coast - a very successful journey in search of lambs - more later. Swifts are the last birds to arrive back from their wintering quarters. They arrive en masse and suddenly the skies seem full of screaming devilbirds. True masters of the air, they only land to nest, even mating on the wing.
And so they wheeled over the veg plot, briefly mingling with the Swallows which are ever-present now that they are building their nests in the stables. These two species mean that summer is on its way, not that you'd know it right now.















Another harbinger of summer comes in the form of the delightful, always busy Yellow Wagtail. Most summers a pair nests in the crops and spend much of their time in the pig enclosure. Occasionally they encounter Swallows collecting mud for their nests.
One summer visitor we've not heard back yet is the cuckoo. One usually turns up most years for a few days, but they're having a hard time of things at the moment and numbers are falling.

With all this talk of summer's visitors, I mustn't forget some of the farm's regulars. The Little Owls have been more showy of late. They probably have young to feed and so are forced to be active during daylight hours. If I get up really early in the morning, they too can be seen using the posts around Daisy's enclosure as hunting perches.
More surprising, about a week ago, was a sudden announcement by several grey partridges, conspicuously calling and chasing each other about for a whole afternoon and evening. I guess it was males full of bravado, but goodness knows where they came from after an absence of well over a year. And true to form, I've only had two brief encounters with them since. Still, it's very nice to know they are still about. Quite a rare bird these days.

And finally, summer brings other surprises too. The spring seems to have been a good one for butterflies, with tortoiseshells, brimstones and orangetips in good numbers, but this creature is no butterfly. It spent a day perched on one of our window frames. It is a Poplar Hawk Moth. Not rare at all, but still very nice to see.

Nuked

So far it's been a very good year for the bees. The weather has been kind and the girls have been very busy. I'm hoping this is good news for the fruit trees.


Earlier in the year the bees actually made it out and about
while the almond blossom was still on the tree

Certainly the almond has fared very well and our harvest should increase from the total of three nuts which we have had in the last two years!

Almonds!!

One of the queens failed to come through the winter but the other two colonies are buzzing. Sue has already taken a little honey.



This is as close as I dare approach and this is early in the morning,
before most of the bees are active.

Unfortunately the girls are rather defensive. They used to be nice, peaceful bees, but a few changes of queen seem to have changed their nature. Especially on days when Sue has annoyed them by opening up the hives, it's not unusual for me to get harassed as I work in the veg plot. The important thing, as a honey bee repeatedly bashes against your head angrily, is not to panic. I have developed a technique of bravely freezing. If that doesn't make the bee lose interest, I run for it. A 50 yard dash normally does the trick

Anyway, about that colony which has no queen. There are just a handful of bees in there and without regeneration they won't last long. So on Sunday Sue set up a nucleus. This involves taking several frames from a more successful hive. Five frames does it, as long as there is plenty of brood and eggs, adult bees, honey and pollen. The frames are transferred to a nucleus (nuke) box and all the bees are locked inside for a few days, just long enough to settle in and treat the new place as home. In theory they should realise there's no queen and begin to make a new one. Hopefully, she'll be a quiet, well natured lady.

Some very angry buzzing
was coming from inside this box!!

Green Woodworking At The Great Fen

We look on as Alistair demonstrates the use of the shave horse,
 then the group have a go.

 

When I was younger I used to dream of living in the woods, coppicing, maybe running a charcoal kiln and green woodworking.
The dream never came to anything and my dreams have moved on. But when the Cambridgeshire Self Sufficiency Group organised a talk on green woodworking I was very keen to attend.
So on Thursday evening we headed down to Ramsey Heights Countryside Classroom, part of the ambitious Great Fen project which is reversing centuries of drainage to link and expand the last tiny areas of wild fen.
We started off in the classroom, where Alistair gave us a slide show and let us handle some of his precious tools - precious as in loved and cherished that is. He certainly was enthusiastic. Before it got too dark, we headed out to his 'den', where a glowing fire warmed us as we took the opportunity to work the pole lathe and the shave horse. The shave horse is for taking the bark and outer layers of wood from the raw branches. Apparently, as long as you keep your elbows tucked in, it's impossible to chip yourself in half while using it!



Having a go on the pole lathe.

The pole lathe is basically a foot powered lathe. Traditionally the tension is provided by a sprung pole, but for health and safety, our version used bungee cords instead.I really enjoyed using this. It was therapeutic and addictive. The little workshop in the woods really was a special place, made all the more enjoyable by the friendly bunch of people who are the Cambridgeshire Self Sufficiency Group. I'm sure there will be plenty more about this group in future blog posts.

A friendly bunch of people.

Meanwhile, I look forward to the day when my woodland is mature enough to set up my own green woodworking hideaway. I reckon another ten years should do it!

Our First Goslings

Remember those eggs we stole from George and the girls? Well Sue's been looking after them in the incubator for the past month and two days ago a couple of them started rocking around and pipping. We did put six eggs in, but the whole venture was pretty speculative and we are more than happy that two have come through. Goose eggs are notoriously difficult to hatch, so these two adorable little critters have done very well.
Meanwhile, close approach to the Embdens in the stables is not to be advised as their eggs should be hatching within the next week. I'm not holding my hopes too high though, as last year they failed to hatch any of the eggs they were sitting on. And over in the other goose house, one of the Giant Dewlap Toulouses has finally decided to sit. So, in theory at least, we could end up with an awful lot of geese.

But nature, or fate, has a strange way of balancing itself out. I noticed yesterday a crow in the long grass near the chickens and thought nothing of it. They often hang around. I think maybe they find the guinea fowl eggs, which appear all over the place. Not much later I went to give the chickens their early evening feed and noticed Elvis agitatedly walking up and down on the wrong side of the fence. One of her chicks was back in the pen with the other birds. The others were with Elvis, having just grown too big to squeeze through the gaps in the fence. But I could only see four of them. Then I noticed, in the long grass, the body of the missing chick. Sadly, it was the brown one, the only pure female Cream Legbar which we had hatched. I felt a pang of sorrow, but I am hardened enough now to accept these things. I could keep them cooped up in safety, but I'd far rather see them wandering and exploring, even if it means that they are a little more prone to the big wide world. Of course, if this happens too frequently, then the balance of my decision may have to change. In the meantime, the incubator's free now and the children at Sue's school would love to see some blue eggs hatch out!

Polytunnel intruders

More on this character later.

 

This tale starts off with some very frustrating news, but don't worry, it gets cheerier.

 

The polytunnel has proved invaluable for starting off my flowers and vegetable plants, as well as growing early crops of carrots, lettuces, radishes, turnips and beetroot. We had a bit of trouble with voles, but the traps seem to have worked and I rarely catch one now. The mole (I'm sure there's more than one in reality) occasionally upsets the soil on its underground wanderings too.

But this week we had some much less welcome intruders. For when Sue got up she noticed that one of the refuse sacks had mysteriously moved overnight. Then some temporary fencing displaced, then the polytunnel door open. I quickly checked and there was no obvious damage. My garden tools were still there and nothing seemed to be missing. Well, that was a relief, but still slightly unnerving. I decided that the tools, though they are not particularly valuable, would need to be moved to a locked area. A pain, since every time I want to use them I'll have to make a journey.

However, when I went to investigate the intruder's obvious escape route, I noticed a glass jar in the long grass and realised that this used to have herb cuttings in which I was trying to make root. I went back to the polytunnel and, sure enough, my tray of jars had gone. What a strange thing to bother to take! The only annoying bit was that five lemon grass stalks which had nicely taken root would need to be started again. It had taken me about two months to get those inch long roots and I had considered potting them up just a few days previous.

I then did a thorough check of my seedling trays and realised that one had gone, the one with home-made paper pots containing about thirty young dwarf bean plants. Again, what a strange thing to take!


I hastily sured up our defences with whatever was available, mainly a large pile of brushwood which would make a very good obstruction at the entry point they'd used. But in the next few days I will work on adding to this. Needless to say, everything is now safely under lock and key. It's a shame we have to live like that.

And that was that... until yesterday when I noticed that the lemon plant had also gone. This was the most annoying thing to have been taken as it is less easy to replace.

So if anybody happens to notice a lemon tree, some lemon grass and some dwarf bean seedlings for sale in the next few days, please do apprehend the vendor!

So now onto some more welcome intruders. That character at the top of this post is a honeybee-lookalike hoverfly. Eristalis pertinax to be more precise. Or Tapered Drone Fly to give it a common name. Any hoverfly is most welcome in the polytunnel as it forms part of the army I employ to fight off the more harmful bugs. Here's some more piccies of it.

Easily mistaken for a honey bee

 

Here are a couple more members of my defensive army. These intruders are more than welcome to visit or even to set up residence.