Flowers, foraging and other fumbles

As we enter week 5 of lockdown (or is it 4? Or maybe 3...who knows!) all sense of modern society seems to be slipping quietly into the background. Nature, however, doesn't pay even the vaguest attention to the ways of Man and the lack of cars, noise and pollution seem to have given Spring an extra boost as it bursts out in every garden and every side-walk.

Here, in our rural-ish corner of Essex, everything is in blossom and my garden is an unmitigated delight. In the last week, the apple tree, the crab apple tree (more about this wonderful tree another time) and the flowering cherry have put on the most glorious show. A visual re-affirmation that this too will pass and the seasons will continue to turn.

The birds are equally delighted by the coming of the warmer weather and a pair of blue tits are settling into the nesting box outside the kitchen window. It remains to be seen whether they manage to raise a family. In past years, the sparrows (those very cute thugs of the bird world) have harassed them mercilessly and forced them out, so fingers crossed..

But its not all blossom and birds. I continue the relentless task of digging the garden that is getting drier and harder with each day. The weather has been beautiful - but lack of rain also means lots of water carrying (our house has a single outdoor tap situated just outside the kitchen. Needless to say, most of the stuff that needs watering is quite far away...)

The lockdown, which has transformed visits to the supermarket into SAS-type operations of swoop and gather, has meant that not everything is as readily available as before.  During the last week or so, this has meant some experimenting in the search for alternatives. The first was an attempt to make yoghurt. As an individual, I consume quite a lot of natural yoghurt (which could explain why the jeans don't get any looser - but that's another story), but as a family, it wasn't a priority on the supermarket swoop, so was forgotten. Some days into the yoghurt dilemma, I remembered my grandfather used to make emergency yoghurt by adding lemon juice to whole milk. It works - in a manner. The lemon juice curdles and thickens the milk. It doesn't look much like yoghurt, but it tastes quite yoghurty , with a lemon aftertaste which is fairly pleasant. However, this method needs lemons, which can be difficult to source because of reasons above, so I attempted to stretch the yoghurt I did have - with some success Essentially, this method requires some live yoghurt (natural yoghurt, full-fat is best) and a couple of pints of milk. The milk is heated and added to the yoghurt starter. The resulting mixture then needs to be left in a warm spot for about 8 hours. I used these instructions from farmdrop, which were the most straight-forward: 

https://www.farmdrop.com/blog/make-yoghurt-scratch-5-easy-steps/

I was a little impatient, so my yoghurt wasn't as thick as it might have been, but it certainly tasted right and did the job!

A less successful experiment was the making of nettle pesto. I have been reliably informed by all sorts of blogs and a knowledgeable teacher friend, that nettle pesto is easy to make and good to eat. So, pesto being yet another luxury to fall off the shopping list, the Child and I spent our daily walk collecting nettles ( I can see your faces from here - we went out into the fields to try to avoid the dog-pee'd versions!)

With a sizeable haul in hand, we returned home to separate leaves from stems and then blanched the nettles. So far, so good. The issue was, I think, in the execution. I didn't have pine-nuts and I didn't have a specific recipe. I was also advised to clobber the mixture with a pestle and mortar, but I don't have one of those.....So I threw in a clove of garlic, some cheese, some salt and sunflower seeds and blitzed it all with my stick blender.

The result was pesto-ish, mostly in the fact that it was green. Not unpleasant, but not good enough to try again. However, nettles are very good for you...so maybe next year. With pine-nuts and a pestle and mortar.

More successful was the fridge substitute for Skipper's dentistix - a carrot. My sister has used this root vegetable as a tooth cleaner for her dogs in the past and, although initially a little bemused at the changed face of his morning treat, Skipper tucked into the carrots quite happily.

So there you go... As the South Africans say: n boer maak n plan (a farmer makes a plan). There are always options out there - although maybe not nettle pesto!

Stay safe!