The year is almost gone, and as with all years, seems to have gone faster than the last. Farm life accentuates the speed of the year – sometimes one is so incredibly busy that time just hurtles past. That is now! The garden (and the weeds) are growing (visibly), the trees are fruiting, the berries berrying and the lawns (and in our case paddocks) are still wildly growing. Days of 48 hours would be good about now. It is a time of plenty in the garden, which means we have to think like the grasshopper and preserve the surplus for the winter months, but also a time to continue planting so that the glut of December/January doesn’t just fizzle in February, leaving nothing but silver beet growing for the autumn and later. For us, in a temperate climate there is just so much to be planting to ensure that we have a varied diet to come. As we rarely buy vegetables (and when we do it is only from Farmers’ Markets) we do have a reasonably large garden. Even if you have no garden, as noted before, buckets can be filled with potting mix and placed anywhere they get a bit of sun during the day. Watering buckets and other pots is important so a daily water check is necessary.
For much of the rest of the world, this weekend will see a party to welcome in the New Year. We’ll be out there a-plantin’ rather than a-drinkin’ and a-singin’.
The to-do list:
Plant: (in most cases, we’ll plant a row of plants and a row of seeds. If we hadn’t been so busy, the plants would be our own seedlings, but this year, sadly, many are not).
Aubergine - (egg plant)
Beans - we planted lots earlier, but it is time to plant the next lot to ensure a constant supply. The runner beans have very cleverly planted themselves, even in the right place, under the tepees, all ready to grow up them again!
Beetroot
Cabbage
Carrots - we don’t grow carrots well here, so we will just plant a few so we can eat the thinnings
Celeriac
Celery
Chillies
Chives - a well-known seed company from the end of the alphabet sent me a packet of chive seeds so we’ll sprinkle a few of them in one of our herb pots
Cucumber
Kohlrabi
Leeks
Lettuce - this has to be a constantly planted vegetable otherwise you may find that the ones planted may have bolted
Pumpkin - this is something we can plant from our own seedlings – the poor little things have spent many many weeks learning to be bonsai pumpkins, even flowering in the seed trays. I am sure once given some freedom they will embrace life and go forth and produce lots of pumpkins, or they may get such a shock and die.
Radishes - like lettuce, you should have been planting these continually. If not, then a few seeds planted every week or so will make sure that all your radishes don’t turn into massive red hot burners
Silver beet - we no longer tend to plant this deliberately as it pops up everywhere it gets a chance. Still, this is great for the hens and the rabbits and the goats, so we don’t mind.
Sweet corn
Tomatoes - it is getting late (I know) but I still want to put some in, so will have to bite the bullet and plant pot grown ones.
Zucchini - even one plant will give you beautiful fresh versions of the tired things that you often see in supermarkets.
In the herb garden, we need to replant coriander, mustard greens, oregano, parsley and salad burnet. Most of the herbs have now gone to seed and need to be pulled out. The fennel has been left to go to seed deliberately, to provide us with enough seed for cooking as well as replanting. Any herbs that have gone to seed are however, still being useful. They tend to encourage the beneficial insects who may be feeding on these plants.
Our red currants have been wonderful this year. The extra rain has meant that they are ruby red, glowing and bursting with juice. They are good for you, so it is worth making the effort if you have a bush to pick the fruit, even though it is plain hard work. Do it with a friend or take the radio or as I did yesterday, take the dogs, and just do it. They are full of active antioxidants, which means they help combat the free radicals which age us and cause general age related degeneration. Other supposed benefits include fever-reducing, sweat-inducing, menstrual-flow inducing, mild laxative, astringent, appetite increasing, blood-cleansing, diuretic and digestive properties (phew). It is also thought that tea made from dried red currant leaves will ease symptoms of gout and rheumatism.
On New Year’s Day a slow start and a delicious (and good for you, kind of) breakfast will be a good start to the year.
French toast with Chantilly Cream and Red Currant Sauce
French toast:
2 free-range eggs
100ml cream
100ml milk
1 T icing sugar
½ t ground cinnamon
2 slices white bread
25g butter
Chantilly cream:
150ml double cream
1 T icing sugar
Redcurrant sauce:
85g redcurrants
50ml red wine
1 T icing sugar
To serve:
sprig redcurrants
fresh mint sprig
French toast, whisk the eggs in a bowl together with the cream, milk, icing sugar and cinnamon until well combined. Soak the bread slices in the mixture.
Melt the butter in a frying pan and fry the soaked bread for 2-3 minutes on both sides, or until golden-brown and crisp. Remove the fried bread from the pan and drain on kitchen paper.
Chantilly Cream, lightly whip the cream with the icing sugar until soft peaks form when the whisk is removed from the bowl.
Red Currant sauce, place the redcurrants, wine and icing sugar in a food processor and blend until smooth. Push the mixture through a sieve to remove any pips.
To serve, place the French toast on a plate, top with the cream and spoon around the redcurrant sauce. Garnish with the redcurrant sprig and mint.
Using red currant jelly as an accompaniment to meat is not unusual, but add it as a dressing for a meat salad for a burst of summer flavour.
Redcurrant dressing
4 t redcurrant jelly or red currant and raspberry jelly (Martinborough Manner make this)
2 t red wine vinegar
4 T extra-virgin olive oil
salt and freshly ground black pepper
Place the redcurrant or red currant and raspberry jelly into a small bowl, add the
vinegar and olive oil, season, to taste, with a little salt and freshly ground black pepper and whisk together until smooth and emulsified.
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