I believe that we were very lucky last month to be able to run our workshop on 26th February! We had a lovely group of people and learned heaps ourselves, not least the great recipe below!
Now for those of you who have met our tortoise, you may recall that we were planning to build him a more permanent home and also bring home a friend for him. If you follow our Facebook page, you might have seen Tara make an appearance! We have now almost completed the pen and the corner plot is taking shape as a tropical food forest with Pawpaw, Avo, Banana, lemon thanks to Olivia:
The humble radish Step by Step – Garden to Table in around 4 weeks
I love radishes and so does my husband, but although they are a vegetable, we can grow all year round, I have struggled to get a good crop recently. Having scratched my head hard, I think I’ve cracked it! Not only that, but Karen Chretien who came to our last workshop in February, shared a recipe for ‘Radish Leaf Soup’ which I have tried and can thoroughly recommend so now we can use the whole plant in a waste free recipe! hurrah! Amy is so proud of me!
Step 1 – Choose a good spot - Radishes don’t like to dry out, so the secret to good radishes in the heat of the summer I’ve found, is to grow them in a pot or trough near your back door where you can tip your washing up water on them daily! Use eco dish liquid. This is Permaculture Zone 1 where you are often spending time.
Step 2 - Use good quality organic potting mix or your own compost mixed with old potting mix. Add a wire cloche to prevent the blackbirds hunting for your worms and heaving out your seedlings.
If like me, your back door is North facing, shade them with shade cloth, they like this! This has made the biggest difference as they never dry out with this regime and it is not a lot of work. If you feel like it, add some worm tea or bokashi juice to their water very so often.
Step 3 - The radishes will be ready to pick from 3 to 4 weeks.
Step 4 – Wash and separate the leaves into a soup maker or a pan, add half an onion, half a carrot, either a handful of lentils or a potato for thickening, two tsp olive oil, a knob of butter, salt and pepper to taste and the radish leaves along with around 3-400ml of stock of your choosing – I only had fish stock but chicken or vegetable stock will do.
Either leave to make in the soupmaker (around 15 mins) or blend once cooked in a pan. NB if in a pan, add onions and oil etc first and leaves last. I added a sour cream dollop, some sliced radishes, and a sprinkle of chives – it was delicious with crusty homemade bread!
What to do in the garden in Ma