Spring is galloping away at quite a pace and I’m very aware that I haven’t updated these posts as regularly as I’d like (save yesterday’s Bird Cow Tree post!)…so I thought I’d write a a very little review for you, just a hint, before I disappear into the next big black hole (next week’s lovely event!).
It’s thrilling to see the first globe artichokes come in. How I love their deep cut, grey leaves as structure in the garden, and purple-flushed buds. Now the decision must be made…to cut & eat or leave to look pretty for next week’s visitors? Decisions, decisions….
We pulled out the main crop broad beans last week and gathered a good yield of pods, which I subsequently double-peeled and turned into scrumpitous broad bean & mint smash (thanks to Anastasia Georgeu’s recipe from her class here a few years ago).
I so look forward to making (and eating!) it just once a year – this is seasonal food at its very best. It may be a lot of work, but is such a treat. And if you’re not too greedy, it does keep in the fridge for several days. You know what we’re enjoying for lunch this week!
There are beautiful asparagus coming in, half a dozen or so each day. Exquisite spears of purple thrusting through the earth, not far from the Elder who’s flowers have been prolific these last weeks….
Which has given me cause to make batch after batch of Elderflower cordial. It always seems so tragic to pour boiling water over the delicate flowers, but they must steep for 24 hours. Their deep, almost smokey odour engulfs the senses as they wither in the big ceramic bowl. (There are so many folkloric stories attached to the Elder, it always feels like making a witch’s brew!).
There is blossom-a-plenty, we have the first luscious roses of the season, and the peony poppies have begun (I promise a post in the next couple of days!). We’ve seen the passing of the bluebells, built our structures in the Kitchen Garden, had a sensational leek harvest; the garlic is making good progress and the potatoes have sent their first shoots skywards. Bean seed is sprouting, the tomatoes are in and a host of other things are on the boil….but there is one thing I MUST mention today, as it’s a rather auspicious one: today, our first bees arrived!
I’ll tell you more in the coming weeks, but this has been in the planning for some time! We’ve decided to have two different kinds of hive: you can see the first box of the Langstroth, on the left, and the Warre, on the right. Alex has been busy piecing them all together, making frames, painting them pretty colours, and this last week, engaged in mysterious telephone conversations with a bee-keeper about hive-splitting & swarm catching. In the wee hours this morning, he collected our first bees, and brought them out here in the dark. We weren’t even awake & it was his day off. I’m nick-naming him the stealth apiarist! I dare not make a close inspection ’til he’s on hand, so took this very first pic on zooooom!
We’re all VERY excited that the Bee Journey at Glenmore has begun, this 14th day of October, 2014. This won’t be the last you hear of the bees, that’s for sure! We’re all a-buzz…(sorry, couldn’t help it!).