Harrogate and Baking

We went to the Harrogate Christmas Market yesterday, which was a lot of fun. Harrogate's a lovely town, and the market enabled us to get very close to finishing our Christmas shopping.

Today was a pleasant day of baking. Baking many things, many involving pumpkin (we have a pumpkin feast planned for Thursday evening).

Spiced Pumpkin Scones (© Ian 2016)

These we accompanied by spiced apple and pumpkin muffins, pumpkin and sultana cake, apple and Cheddar bread, and a pumpkin pie.

We also made several bottles of apple purée to store for later (hot bottled and heat treated), and a 4lb batch of apple butter (NT Preserves recipe).

The latter was delicious with crumpets, which were the other thing we baked.

Pumpkin and Sultana Cake

• 300g self-raising flour
• 300g light muscavado sugar (we used soft light brown)
• 3tsp mixed spice
• 2tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 175g sultanas
• ½ tsp salt
• 4 eggs, beaten
• 200g butter, melted
• zest 1 orange
• 1tbsp orange juice
• 500g pumpkin purée

Heat oven to 180°C. Butter a 30x20cm baking tin.

Combine the dry ingredients.

Add everything else other than the pumpkin.

Fold in the pumpkin

Pour into the tin.

Bake for 30 minutes.

Pumpkin Apple Streusel Muffins

• 2.5 cups plain flour
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• ½tsp mixed spice
• ½tsp cinnamon
• ½tsp nutmeg
• ½tsp ginger
• 1tsp bicarbonate of soda
• ½tsp salt
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 1 cup pumpkin purée
• 2 cups grated apple

For the topping:

• 2tbsp plain flour
• 2tbps white sugar
• ½tsp cinnamon
• 1tbsp butter

Heat oven to 175°C. Oil a 12-hole muffin tin.
Mix dry ingredients; combine wet ingredients separately. Fold together. Pour into tin.
Rub the butter into the other streusel topping. Sprinkle onto the muffins.
Bake for 35–40 minutes.


Spiced Pumpkin Scones

• 2 cups plain flour
• 1/3 cup brown sugar, packed
• 1tsp cinnamon
• 1tsp baking powder
• ¾tsp ground cloves
• ½tsp ground ginger
• ½tsp ground nutmeg
• ½tsp baking soda
• ¼tsp salt
• 225g unsalted butter, cut into cubes
• ½ cup pumpkin puree
• 3tbsp milk
• 1 large egg
• 2tsp vanilla extract

Heat oven to 200°C.
Combine dry ingredients. Rub butter into them. Mix the wet ingredients, then stir into the dry to form a soft dough.
Shape into 12 scones (either roll out and cut/punch, or just form them freestyle).
Place on baking sheet and cook for 10–12 minutes.

Christmas Cake

We started soaking the fruit for our Christmas cake earlier in the week, and it was ready, this morning, to make the cake. Last year, we used Mary Berry's recipe, instead of the Delia Smith recipe we've used for many (nine, I think) years. We've tweaked it slightly.

Dried fruit:

• 6oz glace cherries
• 1lb 2oz currants
• 7oz raisins
• 12oz sultanas
• 2oz mixed peel

Soaked with 150–200ml strong tea for three days.

• 9oz butter
• 9oz light sugar
• 4 eggs
• 1tbsp treacle
• 4oz flaked almonds
• 3tbsp marmalade

All beaten together, before folding in:

• 9oz plain flour
• 1tsp mixed spice
• 1/2tsp cinnamon
• pinch salt

The fruit is then stirred in, before it's spooned into a 9", double lined and greased tin. It cooked for 4:45, at 140°, covered from the start with a greaseproof paper lid.

Wiltshire Cured Ham

As I noted, we collected the half-pig from the butchers after getting home from Ludlow yesterday. As normal, we're turning some of it into bacon and hams, and leaving some as joints for casseroles or roasting. There are also a number of chops (which, it turns out, are huge), and we've also got a bag of 'bits' (tails, trotters, kidney, heart, liver), which need different processing.

In previous years we've also made sausages, but we've actually still got loads left from last year, so we're not doing that. (It must be said, we also don't really have time for sausage-making at the moment.) Instead, we're mincing the trimmed scraps of meat (about 5lb), mixing them into sausagemeat, and freezing them in patties. If we do run out of sausages before next autumn, and want to, we can always make them as needed, after all.

The sausagemeat made, we mixed up the curing brine for the bacon and hams. We're repeating the Wiltshire cure, which is a beer-based brine:

• 4l beer (again, the Harvest Mild I brewed a few months ago)
• 1900g salt
• 1000g black treacle
• 65g saltpetre
• 50g black peppercorns
• 50 juniper berries

Once mixed, that's brought to the boil, and simmered for 10–15 minutes. I'll chill it overnight, and add the joints in the morning. They're refrigerated, stirring whenever I remember, for 36 hours (the bacon) or 3.5 days (the hams).

Harvest Mild

Last summer, I made a batch of Young's 'Harvest Mild' beer, which was ready, I think, in August/September. We've really enjoyed it, and it made very good Wiltshire cured hams, so—as we're getting to the end of the barrel—I thought I'd make more. I've set it off this evening, having freed up the big 5 gallon fermenting bucket from the elderflower wine. The little barrel (3 gallon) still has a gallon of bramble-tip wine in it, which will go into a demi john on Wednesday.

It took a long time (two months) to be ready for a barrel last year, so hopefully it'll be a bit quicker.

Floor Finished

We made a list on Saturday morning of some things we wanted to try to do this weekend (a long one). Pleasing progress has been made, although, as it ever was, not quite everything happened.

Painting the last section (3/8ths) of the garage floor with bituminous sealant happened on Friday evening, Saturday lunch time, and Sunday morning. The plan was that the last coat (Sunday first thing) would then have a clear 24 hours to dry before we put the rest of the floor down.

Saturday morning, before we could do the second coat, we spent digging over a further section of knot garden. While I cut turves, and dug over the stony ground, Liz was busy clearing our stone dyke from last time. We've not worked on extending the herb garden since September, in order to get the overwintering alliums in the ground, so it's nice to once more make progress on it. Although we only did a couple of hours work (too hot!), we returned to the garden on Sunday, and have marked out anew the pattern. We needed to do this because we've changed our mind about the size of the squares (diamonds), which we decided were too small (roughly 1m edges), and needed to be 50% bigger. There wasn't quite enough space in them to allow planting, but still be able to walk through them.

The original (rough) plan for beds and edges in the herb garden (© Ian 2013–14)

That also means we'll only have two sorts of edge: lavender and step-over apples (which I'll try to graft over the winter). The box will be grown on to form box balls in the garden, instead of hedging: we think they might, for one thing, replace some of the Lady's Mantle that's really a weed in the long border. They'd occupy the same niche, of a rounded green mass, but with the advantage of year-round structure, and less invasive self-seeding.

The new pattern fits around the corner nicely, and finishes in about the same place, which is good. We then moved the part-painted climber supports into the beds, settling on a layout that has the taller of these forming a backdrop to the garden, in the boxes furthest from the house. There are only four of these at the moment, but I can always make more in time. The smaller are nearer the house, and there are squares that suitably frame views from the windows with supports. It looks very pleasing, and once the supports are painted, and sunk into the ground, I hope it's going to look really good.

On Saturday afternoon, we constructed a hinged roof that goes over the steps down into the wet cellar from the driveway, which will allow us to store bikes on the steps but keep the worst of the weather off them. It's a simple wooden frame, with tongue and groove cladding, but it looks quite smart...although it does draw my attention to the falling-apart (non-structural!) wall next to it, which edges the pathway. Another day's work there, I think. At the same time, Liz cleared the driveway of a pile of apple prunings that have been sat there drying: they'll be rather fragrant kindling next winter.

They've been sitting around for longer than they should (by some way, really), but we've bottled the five demijohns of wine that were waiting.

• Dandelion, from May 2013. For whatever reason, the dandelions rather passed me by this May, so I don't have a new batch on the go. This one seems good, though.
• Greengage from October (a more reasonable time-scale). This was slightly fizzy, so I added a Campden tablet, and bottled it a couple of days later. The taste seemed improved, too, after this.
• Elderflower from July: very good, this one.
• Blackberry from September, a predictably dessert-wine red. It was also slightly fizzy, but a tablet and 36 hours rest sorted this out.
• Chardonnay from a kit, in June last year. It's really rather Chardonnay-like!

In the same vein, this evening we've made a five-pint batch of elderflower cordial. Different process to previously: a dozen flowerheads, a pared then sliced lemon, and then a boiling sugar solution poured over them (1 pint water, 1lb10 sugar). You add 2.5tbsp of citric acid, once cool, and allow to sit for 24 hours before bottling.

The batch of cider that we pressed last autumn has, in turn, finally been racked into two demi-johns. It's not tasting quite 'right', but as I understand it, cider often needs a decent maturation period, so I'll bear with it.

Sunday afternoon was spent, largely, making a hatch for the garage loft, and putting up the last of the insulation. Hanging the hatch will have to wait until I've found the right hinges.

Today, then, was spent finishing the garage floor. The sealant paint was nicely dry by mid morning, so we were able to immediately start work on laying the insulation, screwing down the battens, and filling the gaps with solid insulation. The plywood sheets went on with relatively little fuss, so by about 1530 we'd finished. An hour later, and the room was tidied up, rather than having everything stacked into the half that had a floor, and we've even managed to set out the two armchairs we've had stored in a corner since 2009.

Last thing for the weekend was getting some of the preparatory work done for our new patio doors, which arrived on Friday. They're being fitted on Wednesday (including breaking out the hole for them, replacing the garden window in the dining room), and we've done as much fitting of hardware, and so on, as possible.

Vegetable Planting

It's that time of year when the vegetable beds in the kitchen garden go from bare (or green manure covered), to filled, quite rapidly. The onions and potatoes went in about six weeks ago, and are doing well. We've now planted out a couple of blocks of beetroot (half a variety of mixed colours, and half Boltardy), 32 Brilliant celeriac, six courgettes (Defender), and scarlet kale and cauliflowers amongst the spinach. We've sown some more radishes, and sown a pot of scorzonera, as they haven't germinated in the bed. Some of the summer-sown brassicas (winter cabbage, cauliflowers, swedes) have gone into pots to germinate.

As a result, the kitchen garden's looking a lot more full. There's space, still, for leeks to go out (still in the greenhouse), and of course the potatoes get replaced as we lift them.

At the other end of the garden, the rhubarb had put on loads of new growth, meaning there was about 10kg of stems to pick. With such a large amount at once, it's been worth bottling, so we've preserved four and a half big Kilner jars.

While doing so, I've also made a batch of rhubarb vodka, with 8oz of chopped rhubarb, 4oz of sugar, and a 70cl bottle of vodka. Should be ready in a few months...

That was this morning: this afternoon, we sawed, split, and stacked a load of poplar.

Elderberry & Apple Jelly

After cooking the fruit yesterday evening, and straining for 24 hours, I had a pan full of elderberry and apple juice this evening. I think, in future, I might cook and strain them separately: I think the elderberry would have yielded more without the almost mucilaginous apple pulp. However, 450g of sugar per 600ml of juice, brought to the boil until it reaches 104°C, as normal. This one was quite exuberant, and almost boiled over several times, but we got there in the end. There was quite a lot of foam, which I managed to contain to one jar, which will be hidden away for us to eat on our own. The rest look rather presentable, with a dark, rich jelly.

Cider

We've been pressing apples for the last couple of evenings, scratting the apples, and pressing the milled pomace. A couple of trugs full of apples has been enough to put two gallons of juice into a fermenting bucket, which I've inoculated with 'Nottingham' yeast this evening, as well as bottle eleven 1l kilner bottles with pasteurized juice. The pomace is still in the press, dripping slowly, and there should be about another litre tomorrow evening.

I anticipate the cider fermentation to be a bit frothy and messy, initially, which is why the two gallons of must are in a five gallon bucket. Once it's calmed, I'll move it into a pair of demi-johns, to complete fermentation. I must remember to add pectolase, too, or it'll definitely be a bit hazy.

Chilli Oil

The chilli oil we painted onto the fruit trees in August seems to have worked, and we've not noticed any more deer/bunny damage on the fruit or pines. As the weather's starting to turn autumnal, and it's been a while, we thought we'd re-apply the deterrent. We mixed three heaped dessertspoons of hot chilli powder into about 700ml of oil, and worked round the orchard, daubing each tree with some. As we went, I sorted out a few too-vertical branches, and cleared weeds from around the trunks.

This afternoon, we've continued tidying the garden, getting it sorted for winter, and moving the last few things into the greenhouse, or workshop: the tuhlbergia, agapanthus, and pelargoniums all needed to come in. The three Bishop of Llandaff dahlias can wait a little longer, we reckon, as there's not been any frosts yet.

Our batch of spiced apple mincemeat has gone into its jars (one and about three-quarters of a 1.5kg kilner), and we then spent some time juicing apples. My mechanized scratter hasn't worked as planned (difficulty connecting axle with rollers), but the aluminium drums with screws set in them work really well as manual graters, and we were able to create good milled apples for pressing. The yield is pleasing: about 55% (ie, 550ml from a kilo of fruit), or nearly 5l from a filled (nominal 12l) press. The juice has been pasteurized (70°C) and bottled.

Spiced Apple Mincemeat

Most of today's been spent on odd jobs. A big garden tidy up has started, to put it 'to bed' for the winter, and we've planted the rest of the bulbs. The two apple jellies we started yesterday are now made (possibly slightly softer-set than intended, but still perfectly acceptable), and very tasty. We've added to this a batch (a rather large batch, in fact) of apple pastilles, which may turn out to be slightly more toffee-like than planned. And we've filled the slow cooker with the ingredients for the eponymous Spiced Apple Mincemeat, which we're trying for the first time. We've previously used a different recipe, but the method worked well. This has slightly more apples (and we increased it a bit further, using the 'pre-peeling' weight for the post-peeling weight), and a different balance of spices and fruits. It's all in the slow cooker to start to infuse/mellow/blend, and we'll turn it on in the morning. It'll slowing cook all day, cool overnight, and the brandy will be added right before jarring, on Saturday morning.

More Preserved Apples

Today we started by finishing the trench for the hedge. The last few metres were hard work, with a couple of monster stones hiding underground. We finally got them out, and then, perversely, have re-filled the trench. We added a few bags of sand/grit, and a little compost: the trench is now de-stoned and improved, and can (hopefully) have the bare-root hedging plants planted out with just a trowel, at high speed. We finished by covering the trench, and the surrounding ground, with a metre-wide strip of weed-proof membrane. That's, ultimately, to help ensure that the hedge establishes with less competition from the grass and weeds: for now, it helps kill them off before we have to cut slits in the membrane to plant through.

It does now look as though we've built some sort of toboggan run.

This done, we went into the garden proper, and did another set of bulbs. With over a thousand to plant, it's better broken up into a number of operations!

Last thing for the day has been starting some jellies: a plain apple jelly, and a 'fireside' jelly; also apple based, but with some flavourings (including lavender). The apples, now cooked, are in jelly bags to strain until tomorrow. While that's been cooking, we also prepared some pickled apples. Peeled, cored and quartered apples go into a hot spiced vinegar for five minutes, then into a bottle; the vinegar has sugar added, is reduced slightly, then poured on top. Unfortunately, we slightly over-cooked the apples, and some of them have started to purée. Never mind: we'll know for next time.

Bottled Apples

We made a late start to things today, as we had a team round to survey for wall insulation. That done, we donned boots, and got out to plant our spring-flowering bulbs.

• 100 mixed daffodils
• 70 mixed dwarf daffodils
• 300 Puschkinia Libanotica
• 100 Iris Reticulata 'Pixie'
• 200 mixed Chionodoxa
• 50 Narcissi Tête-à-Tête
• 25 Purple Blend Tulips
• 40 Ard Schenk crocuses
• 20 mixed hyacinths
• 200 mixed species crocuses
• 20 Camassia quamash
• 10 Fritillaria meleagris
• 12 Nectaroscordum siculum (honey garlic)
• 16 Allium aflatunese
• 24 Allium sphaerocephalon
• 50 Allium caeruleum, and
• 10 Allium 'Purple Sensation'

We haven't done all 1300 today, but made a good start. The daffodils have gone into the beds either side of the septic tank, and we enlarged the bed on the games-lawn side, making it more like the other one, and curving out into the lawn (less mowing!). The puschkinia, chionodoxa, and crocuses are for the sweet-pea/wildflower bed and the heuchera bed; the camassia, snakes-head fritillaries and honey garlic are for the copse bed; while the rest of the alliums are going at the garage end of the long bed. The irises will go at the kitchen end of the same bed, and the hyacinths and tulips are for pots.

We got as far as the light would let us, and then came in to bottle some apples. Each 2l kilner jar takes a kilo of apples, peeled, cored, and sliced. They go in the oven at 140°C for 50 minutes, then you add boiling water and seal. Very straightforward, and they will hopefully keep for a year.

Pig Processing

Our half-pig went to slaughter this week, and I collected it from the butcher's yesterday morning. We spent most of the rest of the day outside, getting things a bit tidier, including a mammoth weeding session along the long border, filling the compost bin in the process.

Today's been a very long and busy day, processing pork into various finished products for the coming twelve months.

We started by getting the various bags of meat sorted, into those that needed something doing, and those that were getting frozen as they were, as joints. That's about half a dozen. Another half dozen, and a big piece of belly, went back in the fridge, ready to go into a curing brine once that was made.

I then started working on the bag of trimmings, and the joints we wanted to turn into sausages, cutting them up into pieces small enough for the mincer. That generated about 12lb of bits, which went back into the freezer, to chill. The mincer works well on nearly frozen meat, but as it gets warm, the fats get messy, and the muscle doesn't get cleanly chopped by the blade. As a result, you get stuck every few minutes, with sticky, stringy, sinewy bits getting clogged on the rotor.

And that's no fun. So, we put the meat back in the freezer, and got on with other things until it was really cold.

The next was brawn, which involved getting all the odds and ends, tidied up (I'm not persuaded of the virtue of putting quartered head into it), and putting in a big pan. Covered with water, and with a few onions and muslin bag of thyme, bay, and peppercorns added, it was set on a simmer for a few hours. Liz then picked over the solids, extracting a dish full of meaty bits. The stock is cooked further, to reduce by half, and then sieved over the meat. This looks much tastier, actually, than last year's: there's less of it (pickier about the bits), but I think it'll be more valued.

While the brawn pot simmered, we got on with black pudding. We made a very tasty boudin noir de Poitou earlier this year, and a British fry-up black pud last year. On the basis of these, we modified the fry-up recipe, hoping to make something better seasoned, and a little more structural, but on the same lines. The new recipe, then:

• 750g of onions, finely chopped, and sweated in an ounce of butter
• 250g pearl barley, cooked (for about 45 minutes)
• 250g rolled (porridge) oats
• 50g salt

These get stirred together over a low heat, which seemed to help prevent the barley lumping up. We then added:

• 1l light white sauce (or Béchamel)
• 2tsp ground coriander
• 2tsp ground pepper
• 1tsp ground mace
• 1tbsp brandy
• 2l blood

Stirred thoroughly, we poured this into six 1lb loaf tins (and a 2lb tin), which had been lined (but not greased: there's enough fat in the mix). These went into a bain-marie in the oven for an hour at 170°C. That was enough: it's a lot less time than the batch this time last year took, and more like the Poitou blood cakes. I think the Béchamel helps them set, whereas cream doesn't. Sliced, packed into double portions, and frozen.

After this, I ground the sausage meat, and we added 12-15% chopped apples, 10% blended porridge oats, and 1% salt. I didn't add any liquid, this time, as the mix seemed moist enough. This then went back in the fridge, while we made the cure for the hams.

We really enjoyed the two Wiltshire cured hams we made last year as a trial, and decided to do all our hams that way this time. The ingredients are brought to the boil, then allowed to cool, before putting the hams into the chilled mix. In theory, you can pre-brine the hams, but that seemed superfluous (and a waste of salt!).

• 3l beer (the Harvest Mild we've been enjoying!)
• 50g saltpetre
• 750g black treacle
• 1400g salt
• 30g black peppercorns
• 35 juniper berries

They'll come out in three and a half days (Thursday morning).

I then mixed up a batch of 'Ray's Liver Pâté' (HFW's River Cottage Cookbook), scaled to the amount of liver we'd received (about 450g), which went into the oven (another bain-marie!) along with some baked potatoes.

The sausagemeat having chilled, we set to with the mincer, and turned out 96 sausages, running out of skin just too soon. The last of the meat made 12-sausages worth of patties, which will be useful for stuffing, and similar. Arguably, we didn't run out of skins too soon, really.

Last, and late, we settled down with our baked spuds (very tasty Druids), sausages, and black pudding. A very tasty reward at the end of a long day.

Autumn Preserving

Last week, I started a batch of greengage wine, which was ready today for straining, sugaring, and inoculating with yeast. Into a demi-john it's gone, with 1.7kg of sugar, yeast and nutrients: it appears from my recipe that this one takes a good while to ferment, and the lower temperatures will probably increase that further. Never mind: it's tucked away in the airing cupboard.

On Sunday night we made a batch of apricot and peach chutney (with, inevitably, apples, onions, spices, and so on, too!), which is probably the last batch of chutneys for this year, having already made Windfall chutney and a date and apple one. The cores and skins joined a bag of frozen lemon halves (which I've been collecting over the last six months: zesting and juicing them, then freezing the 'discard' husks) in a big pan. Covered with water, and simmered for an hour, I've strained them, and made the juice into Compost Heap Jelly (450g sugar per 600ml juice).

That was last night: tonight has been the turn of rosehip and apple jelly. Another batch of apples were cooked down, and pushed through a sieve. 300ml rosehip syrup (from two years ago!) and 600ml of apple 'sauce', meaning 900g of sugar: cooked to 104°C, and jarred.

Of Steps and Stones

We continued digging out the herb garden/knot garden a week ago, in order to get the elephant garlic and normal Pink Germidour garlic into the ground, but couldn't get any further in the time, because it's such hard work digging out all the stones. We went back to it this weekend, and spent both Saturday and Sunday mornings on the task. I'd already lifted sufficient turf, so we just had to dig over the ground to make space for three more 'diamonds' of the design, in order to plant out the Radar over-wintering onion sets (36 per diamond). There were a few massive stones, and a lot of middling and small ones: red bricks, and dressed stone as well as random field stones.

Finally, we had the ground ready, and in went the onions. Yesterday afternoon was then a plumbing/electrics session for me: replacing the instantaneous water heater, which blew up while Ann and Alan were with us, with a new 10l storage heater. Although this requires a bit more notice (about 20 minutes to heat through), it has the big advantage of only drawing 2kW, instead of 9.5kW: 2kW can, realistically, be provided by the solar panels a lot of the time, which means hot water for free. (Obviously, 4kW of solar panels would only rarely make a contribution to 9.5kW, and never meet it.) It's also rather well insulated, and the water stays hot for a few hours, so it can be run off the solar panels mid-afternoon, and used that evening.

While I did that, Liz made two chutneys: the Windfall chutney we made two years ago, and a date and apple chutney that's new to us. Both seem tasty, but of course most chutneys improve (sometimes considerably) with 12-24 months maturation.

This afternoon, we finally got round to building some terracing steps from the back patio (outside the workshop door) down to the middle lawn. The grass slope there, aside from being impossible to keep mown, becomes impossibly slippery when muddy and wet: given that it's my route from wood shelter to boiler, this was a problem. I cut level bases for two sleeper sized risers, and filled the tread with a stone/brick retaining wall (so the sleeper isn't taking the weight) and topped with soil. We've then spread weed-proof membrane over the top, and put down chipped bark. It looks an awful lot smarter, and should be much nicer for walking over. At the same time, Liz sorted out the main path through the kitchen garden, where the uncovered membrane had rucked, and spread a few barrows of chippings on that, which has been planned for years.

Lastly, this evening, we've cooked down 4kg of elderberries to 4l of liquid, as the first part of making spiced berry cordial. We've only used elderberries this year, as it's a whatever-is-to-hand recipe. In the morning, I'll add the pectolase, and then we can strain, spice and sugar it. The recipe's for 500g of sugar per kilo of fruit (so, 2kg), and two cinnamon sticks, 27 cloves, and 9 teaspoons in total of ginger, allspice, and nutmeg (proportions as I see fit!). It's simmered for five minutes, and bottled.

Tidying Up

It's been a busy weekend of mostly tidying up, meaning accumulated progress, rather than any particular thing getting very far.

We've sown some more seeds: Dianthus amurensis 'Siberian Blues' (for the rockery wall in the front); Polemonium boreale 'Heavenly Habit' (Jacob's ladder); two aquilegias, 'Magpie' and 'Royal Purple'; and a mixed selection of hostas (hopefully some of which will be pretty!).

We've planted out half a dozen rows (about ninety plants) of carrots, and another block of beetroot (about forty plants) in the bottom bed.

Liz weeded the bed at the front of the copse, and we've done another prune/tidy of the shrubs in the bottom bank, which were hit by the cold east wind.

The pots on the patios, and sitting on the old shed base, needed some attention, so we've sorted through them, removing the dead/empty pots to the back patio, and weeding, tidying and fertilizing the rest. Another heuchera's been hit by root-eating grubs (which seem to focus their predation on primrose and heuchera roots, for whatever reason), so that needed cleaning up and re-potting, in the hopes that it might survive.

We dug up the buddleja that we planted in one of the front beds in 2010 (I think: I don't appear to have a note!), and is the bottom right of this photo (from April last year). Liz has never been sure about it, and we found a pretty acer that will replace it, and go well with the other, older acer that's the centre point of the adjacent bed.

I took the opportunity to add new guide wires to the wall behind for the Virginia creeper to run along. It's almost reached the ivy at the bottom (which I had to cut back earlier this week, as it was encroaching on the windows, again), and is looking pretty with its new growth.

Front garden (© Ian 2012–13)

We re-planted the hanging baskets, with bronze carex, cinereria, trailing nasturtiums, and petunias, and I re-hung the bracket that came off the wall late last year.

Liz potted up another 96 lavenders which arrived this week, into modules. They'll grow on ready to be planted into the herb garden edges later this year, hopefully.

The two clematis (C. florida 'Alba Plena') we bought at Tatton Park last year, and which are growing up the trellis sides of our arbour, are growing well. However, we want, if possible, to move the arbour later this year, in order to dig out and lay the paving that's going under it. That will be well-nigh impossible with clematis entwined up both sides. To solve this, I've used a couple of blocks of wood, and wire, to space two 1'x6' trellis panels, one behind each plant, away from the main trellis. We'll twine the climbers up these, instead of the arbour, so it'll still look good, but when (if) we have to move things, they can be transferred safely and separately.

To finish the weekend, we made use of a prolific spinach crop (very pleased with the spinach: it's 'Lazio', which is effectively new to us, as it didn't grow in last year's horrible conditions), and made a batch of spinach black pudding ('boudin noir du Poitou'). It's made with a kilo of spinach, a pint of light bechemal, half a pound of onion, four ounces of breadcrumbs, a pint and half of cream, and eight pints of blood; the seasoning (salt, pepper and mace) is extended to include nutmeg, too.

As with our batch of 'fry-up' black pudding (with pork fat and oatmeal, instead of spinach, bechemal, and breadcrumbs), we cooked it as cakes, in loaf tins.

It's frankly delicious, and a fine conclusion to a weekend of hard work.

Test Run Bakery

We've got visitors next weekend, and want to try something new for dessert; having been inspired by The Great British Bake-Off, we thought we'd try a Gateau St Honoré. No, neither of us has made crème pâtissière before. No, we've never made choux pastry. Nope, not made spun sugar before. What could go wrong?

As it turns out, the caramel. Which, on quenching in the saucepan, solidified. Tasted good; much too solid to do anything with. I shall have to attempt it again.

Anyway: we found a recipe that uses an almond pastry for the base; a crème pâtissière recipe that isn't too extravagant on the eggs, and uses (whole) milk instead of cream; and I picked my mum's brains about making the choux buns (she's made profiteroles before, I haven't...).

It wasn't the most artistically perfect, but by goodness did it taste excellent.

Gateaux St Honoré (© Ian 2012)

In other news, I've almost finished the boiler room work, and we pottered in the garden for a bit. We pulled up another parsnip (similarly large, but tasted much better and sweeter, I think due to the colder weather since the last one), and also replanted the hanging baskets ready for winter. Out came the petunias and lobelias, and in went supplementary cineraria, and new primroses. They're looking good, and will improve as they grow on.

Because the likelihood of proper frosts is increasing, we also lifted all the geraniums and potted fuchsias from the front, and took them into the workshop, where they'll overwinter. In doing so, we discovered that several pots had chafer grubs in them, which had eaten a lot of the roots of the affected heucheras and primroses (fortunately, only two of each, I think). The affected plants have been re-potted (having checked through the roots!), and the soil from those planters is in the compost bin, having squashed as many grubs as I could see.

Blood Cakes and Sausages

One of the new things we wanted to try this year with our half pig is black pudding, which is hard to find in a 'happy' form. Because the pig's from a local smallholder, abattoir, and butcher, it was possible to collect the blood on slaughter day.

I froze this, because I needed fat from the rest of the pig (only collected a week later), and defrosted it above simmering water this morning.

To make the puddings:

• The night before, cook 500g of pearl barley (done in advance as it takes about an hour to cook), and set 500g of oatmeal (I used porridge oats that went through the blender) soaking in enough water to make a porridge.
• Chop 1kg of back fat into small pieces. Put some of this in a big pan (I used an 8l stock pot, which was just big enough), and add 1kg of finely diced onion. Sweat this very gently, until the onion's translucent, then add the rest of the fat. Cook this gently until the fat's running.
• Add the oatmeal, the barley, 600ml of double cream, and plenty of seasoning. We used coriander, cumin, mace, salt, pepper.
• Stir in the blood. Preheat the oven to 170°C.
• Cook until it start to thicken, then pour into lined & greased loaf tins: we needed about twelve 500ml tins. Cover loosely with greased foil.
• Put in water baths in the oven, at 170°C, for about 80–90 minutes, until a knife goes into them cleanly.

Once cool, I've sliced and frozen ours. These aren't, strictly, black puddings, but blood cakes. You can funnel the mix into large sausage skins, and poach them, but this runs the risk of explosive mess, which I didn't want on our first attempt.

Verdict: extremely good. Could do with slightly more seasoning, though.

Alongside this, we also made two dishes of brawn: basically, put all the 'bits' in a big pan, cover with water, add a big handful of herbs, cloves, mace, salt and pepper, and simmer for 4–5 hours. By bits, I mean anything you have left over. In our case, I put in the trotters, bones, ears, and some of the cheeks (I took off the properly meaty bits for sausages).

Once it's cooked, you can pull apart the meat, and put everything you fancy eating into a flat dish. The remaining stock gets boiled down by 50–60%, and then poured on top. We had disproportionately many trotters (we got the spares), so the stock was properly gelatinous, and set really firm. The brawn gets chilled, and I'll then cut it into portion-sized pieces, and it'll go in casseroles or other dishes where a little meat is useful.

Last thing was the sausages. We decided to limit ourselves to pork & leek, and Welsh Dragon (leek and chilli), which were the most successful (and versatile) of last year's trials.

The basic recipe for sausages is a mix of meat (not too lean or too fatty), to which you add 1% salt (10g per kilo of meat); 5–10% cereal (100g/kilo: I use chopped up porridge oats); 5–7% water; and 0.1% pepper.

I think that 10% oats, and 7% water, is about right. Cereal isn't a cost-saving filler; it's really important to the flavour and texture. Last year's batch had 5%, and was actually too meaty, and too greasy. I say 'too': it was, in fact, delicious, and that was my only criticism.

To this, you can then add anything you fancy. Spices should be around 1% (again, 10g or 2 tsp per kilo); fruit or vegetables (apples or leeks, for examples) should be 5–10%. Therefore, the Welsh Dragon sausages are:

• 1kg ground pork, mixed lean and fatty
• 100g chopped oats/oatmeal
• 75ml cold water
• 10g (2 tsp) salt
• a few twists of black pepper
• 100g chopped leeks
• 10g (2 tsp) chilli powder

The leek ones just omit the chilli. Tasty? Oh, yes. We started the sausages yesterday, and will finish them shortly: we've just tried the black pudding, bacon, and some of the sausages for a cooked breakfast, and they're really, really, good.