the green gal

When is a courgette not a courgette?

Having been away for a few days I was keen to see how my courgette plants are getting on. I've eaten plenty of courgettes but never grown any so was a smidgen puzzled to see they looked a bit odd. Their skin has ridges and is quite rough and quite frankly, they look awfully like another vegetable. When I cut one open what did I discover?

It's a cucumber!

The lovely friend who bought me the courgette plant was mistakenly sold a cucumber plant, unbeknownst to us until today! Good grief. All this time I thought I was cultivating courgettes and all along I was unknowingly nurturing cucumbers. And I don't like cucumbers!

Good thing I'm off on holiday for a week and the neighbours can enjoy them instead. So long!

Adding oomph to a cardigan

Having received some lovely comments about my embellished cardie piccie (see the things I've made photo album) I thought I should credit where the beautiful butterfly fabric came from. My mum! A lovely parcel of fabric arrived in the post a little while ago and when I saw that cloth I knew I had to use it first. All the fabric my mum sent are pieces saved from the past, the 70s mostly. Some of it I recognise but I can't quite place where from – bedspread, curtains, clothing? It's quite literally part of the fabric of my life!

So, spurred on by my previous butterfly applique and embroidery attempt, I thought I'd have another go. This time I took my craft guru Kirsty's advice and used Bondaweb (properly rather than guessing) to really fix the butterfly to my cardigan before I started sewing. Damn that stuff is good!

What I need now is to find a new shape and experiment with different stitches and come up with something new! Suggestions welcome...

Sewing isn’t just for fabric

Buoyed by the success and enjoyment of embroidering my appliqué butterfly, I fancied stitching something else. The obvious choice would be to update another tired item of clothing, but no, not me. Why embroider fabric when you can sew on… card!

I found a pack of A6 lilac-coloured cards made from recycled cotton rags, bought years ago in Paperchase. I printed a message, in a rather fancy-looking font, and a star shape, filled in with a pattern, onto a page. To finish off the card I backstitched around the outline of the star and then made a small cross with two running stitches in the centre. And all in co-ordinating purple!

It didn’t take me long to make, it cost me nothing, I used recycled materials and it's a homemade card with a quirky, personal touch. I’m off to make more!

My top tip: if the card you’re using is quite thick, hold it up to the light when you’re putting the needle through the reverse side to make sure you poke through in exactly the right place. 

Face-lifts for clothes and wrist furniture

I've made an exciting discovery, two, actually three if you're being literal.
I can:
• embroider
• applique
• make a bracelet

Now, for those of you who are already versed in these skills it won't seem that exciting, but to little ol' me it's thrilling! (I seem to write this a lot, that's what comes of learning skills that have been around for donkeys but which I didn't apply myself to before.)

Armed with encouragement from my pal Kirsty and an ancient book of embroidery stitches (price: threepence) from my mum, I had a stab at running, back and blanket stitches as well as french knots. Once I stitched a few random shapes on my practice hankie (the humble hankie has a multitude of uses) I thought I'd try out my new skill on a proper piece of clothing. That's where the applique came in.

I fancied jazzing up a plain black cardigan with a cheerful butterfly cut out of yellow flowery fabric. The most secure way to fasten on the butterfly would be to sew it, which is where appliquéing came in! I used some bondaweb to help hold the yellow fabric on my cardigan and then embroidered blanket stitch around the butterfly’s outline. Using backstitch for the tail (is that what that little sticky out bit’s called?) and the same again with French knots for the antenna my cardie was complete! Only drawback was that I had pulled the jersey material of the cardigan too tight so the butterfly is a bit puckered, but hey, you live and learn.

What about the bracelet I hear you cry?

Having spent a v fun hour in The Bead Shop in Covent Garden, London, I had a stab at making jewellery. I threaded beads on to jewellery wire (found at John Lewis or haberdasheries) and then knotted the ends around a fastening (magnetic ones are the easiest to get on and off yourself). It’s a bit of a fiddly job as I kept measuring it against my own wrist while trying not to let the beads fall off, and it’s harder than you’d think to get the size/colour/style of beads right. Beads that look great on a table can look too big or garish on your wrist.

Anyhow, the results of my efforts, all both of them, are here, let me know what you think!

All in all I am quite pleased with my new craftiness. I gave an old piece of clothing a facelift and made myself wrist furniture for a bargain price.

Next step is to use vintage fabric my mum has passed down and pieces recycled to me by Kirsty rather than newly shop-bought cuts. And if I can find beads made from recycled materials I’ll be even happier. Perhaps I can take fastenings off old bracelets and reuse them…

The mental cogs are a-whirring!

The finishing line

So, the store cupboard challenge is over!

We ate well, most of the time, not too weirdly and a bit more thoughtfully. I've discovered that we keep quite a substantial amount of non-perishable food and my trips to the food shops needn't be as frequent as they have been. With a bit of thought we've made use of what we already had in the cupboard and the freezer and have actually had a more varied diet for it. It's easy to get stuck in your ways and rely on a handful of familiar ideas and forget what lovely dishes you could have if you took the time to think about it. 

The hubbie, who is head chef in our household, says he's quite enjoyed the Ready Steady Cook Challenge, as he named it. I think he might have blanked out the memory of the choice words he came out with on Friday night when he discovered that sour cream is no replacement for double cream. Separated cream doesn't look the best but the potato boulangere still tasted delicious!

Yesterday was a bit of a cheat as we were out all day with friends so only had popcorn with a movie when we got home. (Don't bother watching Iron Man but do pop your own corn, kids and adults alike love the exploding sounds coming from the pan.)

And tonight could be considered a bit sneaky as we ate last week's leftover veggie bean chilli from the freezer. However, we freed up space in the freezer and the accompanying brown rice came from the cupboard!

All in all the week was a success and I think we'll make it a regular every few months. We saved money, we made some space in the kitchen and used our brains a bit more. I hope that everyone taking part at myzerowaste.com and frugal-life.spaces.live.com enjoyed it too!

The winner is...

Finally found out how to generate a random number so the winner of the Grow Organic book is commenter number

Well done!

The challenge continues

Day 4 of the store cupboard challenge and we're still eating remarkably well!

Tonight we dined on the British staple of sausages – veggie for me, organic pork for the hubbie – and mash with onion gravy. Not a compromise in sight!

Admittedly we are thinking a bit harder about meals than we used to. A wintery dish like this wouldn't usually be the natural choice in August but with the four seasons in one day weather (hum Crowded House quiety) – why not?!

The sausages were languishing in the freezer and the potatoes were a too-big bag I bought which were starting to go a bit green. So all in all a good store cupboard challenge day! And there are enough leftovers for tomorrow's lunch.

Now, what Friday's dinner will be, who knows?

Store cupboard challenge

Inspired by Mrs Green at http://myzerowaste.com and Piper Terrett at http://frugal-life.spaces.live.com the hubbie and I have embarked on a store cupboard challenge!

The challenge is to make meals only from food we already have, for one week. Only fresh fruit and veg can be bought, all accompanying ingredients have to come from our home. Seeing as we only have two ripe tomatoes (but 47 green) so far, that limits us to the store cupboard.

Last night we had veggie fajitas.

Tonight it's pasta salad with stuffed peppers.

What will tomorrow's feast be I wonder?! If you've done anything similar or have any suggestions, let me know!

(PS You can still win a veggie-growing book if you comment on my post Gardening Lessons Learned!)

In a jam

I'm a happy woman. I have achieved something that I've never achieved before. I have made jam!

My mum has made it, my dad made it, I'm pretty sure my next door neighbour has made it but never before have I made a proper pot of jam, that tastes good and everything! And not just one pot, my friend, three, I made three pots of blackberry jam.

What makes it taste even sweeter (sorry) is that I didn't even pay for the blackberries. I collected them from the hedgerows I pass every day on my dog walk. I was determined to get in early with the blackberry picking this year after missing out on the majority of them last year.

Last year was not a good year for jam making in my household. 

Last year we didn't have a dog and so didn't take as many walks or take as much notice of the blossoming of the hedgerows. When I finally cottoned on I needed to get picking the only ones left were sited behind nettle bushes or at the top of the bushes. Ouch. Then, when I came to make the jam, for some odd reason I used two methods, rather than one, to decide if the jam was ready. I used a jam thermometer and the put-it-on-a-chilled-dish-and-see-if-it-crinkles methods, why, I've no idea. The end result was I became thoroughly confused and the jam set so hard you couldn't get a knife in it.

But this year was different. I kept it simple and it worked, hurray! This is the method I used:

• 1lb washed blackberries in a pan with the juice of one lemon and 1/4pint water, simmer for ten minutes to soften and give it a bit of a mash with a wooden spoon.
• Add 1lb jam sugar (includes the pectin), give it a stir and then turn up the heat to get it boiling.
• Use a jam thermometer to see when the jam is ready, it needs to reach 105º but my thermometer helpfully has 'Jam' written next to the correct temp!
• When it hits the mark, take it off the heat and leave it alone for 15 mins.
• Skim off any bubbly scum and pour into sterilised jars. (Easiest way to sterilise jars is to put them and their lids on a baking tray in the oven at 100ºC for ten minutes.)
• Leave to set, try not to keep checking it, anxiously wondering if it's ever going to firm up. It will and it will taste delicious!
• Cheerful fabric covers and pretty ribbon ties are optional but do make the jars look pretty enough for presents.

As well as tasting delish, jam-making is an eco-friendly past-time. I reused the jars, zero food miles for the berries as they came from the fields at the end of my road, and I have no need to journey to a shop to buy jam next time I want a peanut butter and jam sandwich! Plus it is super satisfying. To make as well as eat, I mean.

Watch out hedgerows, I'm coming for more berries! I might try making apple and blackberry crumble next...

PS Don't forget to comment on the Gardening Lessons Learned post below, you could win a fab Grow Organic book!

Gardening lessons learned

Hello and welcome to my new look blog! It's a bit shinier looking than the last one and I've added a couple of extra things including some pics of things I have made. Does what it says on the tin. There's not a lot there yet but it will be added to in time! Hope you like it! BTW, anyone who had an RSS feed, I didn't manage to carry you over from my old blog so you might want to set that up again, sorry!

So, to gardening. As you will know I have ventured into the land of veggie gardening, with mixed results. Thought I'd give you an update as to how my little crops are doing and sum up what I've learned so far.

• Maincrop potatoes in their tower of tyres are still growing, had a few pretty flowers that my dog hasn't quite managed to jump up and bit off, little madam. They're hardy things as she REALLY wants to chomp her way through the leafiness.
• Onions are a bit sad, I'll come to that in a bit.
• Salad leaves were doing well till a few white cabbage butterflies laid their eggs and now the leaves look more like Swiss cheese than salad.
• Purple-sprouting broccoli are doing a great job sprouting enormous leaves but no actual broccoli. I'm reliably informed by veggie grower extraordinaire Emma Cooper (http://coopette.com) that they probably won't sprout till spring. 
• Peppers are growing v slowly, paint dries at lightning speed in comparison.
• Courgettes, only one plant left but that's got lots of little dinky courgettes growing on its very long stalk!
• Tomatoes, 43 of them to be precise, are okay, took some advice from Tuesday's Gardener's World and lopped off the top of one plant above the fifth truss (get me with my lingo). Two are turning orange so I have high hopes for the other 41.
• Strawberries served me very well but are now on their way out. Most of the leaves are red and the last two strawberries will be gobbled up tomorrow.
• Garlic is nearly done, stalks need to go a bit more yellow.
• Last three aren't technically veg but let's not be rigid!

So, what have I learned in first foray into gardening? A lot! To the experienced out there the below will seem pretty obvious but remember back to the first crops you planted, did you get it all right first time around? (Shush if you did.)

• A hanging basket is ideal for strawberries, no nasties get to them and they look pretty dangling in the air.
• When you fill a bed with compost, press it down because in time it will settle and look like you put in half the amount. Because I didn't do some bed squashing my onions don't have enough soil to grow in, hence their sad look.
• Purple-sprouting broccoli takes up a lot of space. I mean a lot. Courgette plant kind of amount. A lot.
• You have got to cover up salad leaves. Otherwise they will get eaten by the wildlife. For definite. (Any advice on the best and most practical way to do this gladly received.)
• Tomatoes look good, and grow well, in a window box, just be sure to fill it to the brim with soil.
• Growing potatoes in tyres works! Okay I haven't dug them up yet but look at the piccie, whatever's going on in there has to be good!
• You really do use a lot less water with a watering can rather than the hose.
• Growing your own veggies is fab. It's rewarding, it's cheap, it's interesting, it benefits you and your environment (local and global), you learn loads plus you get to eat the efforts of your labour. 
• People who don't garden are easily impressed with anything you have managed to grow. Or I have polite friends.
• Gardening books are inspirational (see below) but you can't beat advice from real-life humans too (thanks bruv!).

On the subject of tasty gardening books, I'm going to give you the chance to win a gardening book, hurray! Grow Organic is a sumptuous DK book (see here for an Amazon link http://good.ly/a82bt) and I shall give away a copy to a randomly selected person who comments on this post before midnight (UK time) Wednesday 12 August.