the green gal

Too beautiful to indulge in

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Actually, what I wanted to write as the title of this post is 'Too beautiful not to indulge in' but that sounded a bit of a mouthful. And, speaking of mouthfuls (like what I did there?) everything in this image is right – scones (heart-shaped at that), jam, cream and a beautiful cup of tea all served on a beautiful rustic table. Yum.

Too beautiful to post

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Not that you'd want to (or be able to) but how fab is this cake decoration?! What is there not to love – it's cake, it's bunting, it's using colour co-ordinated postage stamps. Love it.

And while we're talking cakes, to celebrate National Baking Week I'm giving you 25% OFF ALL KITCHENWARE at the green gables! Just use code BAKE25 at the checkout before the end of Sunday 23 October to get your discount. Enjoy baking!

The end of Zero Waste Week

So, National Zero Waste Week has finished, how did you get on?

I survived the green soup (happy to report it turned out to be a very tasty broccoli and stilton soup) and have a decidedly empty freezer.

We barely touched the cupboards as it turned out we had all kinds of food hiding in the freezer that had been forgotten about, until Mrs Green's Week spurred me on to burrow about in the frost. Among other treats we enjoyed defrosted veggie bean chilli and sustainably sourced cod, and a couple of white russians. Not a bloke in a furry hat but an v yummy drink made from vodka (freezer), kahlua (cupboard) and milk (an excess of milkman-delivered milk is a great excuse for a white russian).

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Having spotted a tin of custard languishing at the back of the cupboard, and inspired by the local hedgerow blackberries finally ripening (a month later than last year), I made apple and blackberry crumble. (We ate it before I remembered to snap a piccie so found this delightful dish on flickr.)

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And, while I was foraging I collected some elderberries too and knocked up a couple of bottles of elderberry syrup. Apparently elderberries are packed full of antioxidants and vitamin C so the syrup is supposed to be helpful with colds and flu (although I'd rather not be ill to find out). Not sure how good it is but you can find the recipe I used here.

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The elder tree is so jolly useful. A few months ago I made delicious cordial from its flowers and now I have syrup made from its berries. What a helpful tree.

Zero Waste Week for this year may be over but there are another 51 weeks to work on trimming down the trash before Zero Waste Week 2011…

National Zero Waste Week

Tomorrow sees the start of National Zero Waste Week. Cutting down your waste to zero might seem like a tall order but reducing it is within everyone's reach.

The mastermind behind National Zero Waste Week is the inspiring Mrs Green from myzerowaste.com. Last year her family managed to only fill one bin with rubbish in a whole year! Pretty bloomin impressive.

So, as this year's theme is to cut down on food waste, my household is taking the store cupboard challenge for the next week. We did this last year, after being inspired by Mrs G, and it was amazingly easy to create tasty (and not at all weird) meals without nipping to the shops. For one week we only buy fresh fruit and veg, all other meal ingredients must come from our store cupboard.

In case you need a reason for why you should pay attention to the amount of food you're binning each week, here's a stat for you: the average family in Britain throw out £50-worth of food a month. Now, what would you rather spend that £50 on?

To find out more about National Zero Waste Week and to make your pledge go to myzerowaste.com. There are even prizes up for grabs!

Love Food Hate Waste's website has heaps and heaps of ideas on how you can cut down on the food you waste and the money you're throwing away.

I'm off to investigate a tupperware pot in the freezer mysteriously labelled 'green soup'…

Potato-tastic

I'm so pleased with my crop of second early potatoes that I wanted to share them (or at least a pic of them) with you! It may not look much in the enormous bucket but I counted 38 usable potatoes, and a couple of teeny not so useful ones.

Last year's crop wasn't this good and as I didn't get to plant maincrop tubers due to the garden studio builders taking over the garden this is it for potato growing this year.

Rooting around in the soil-filled car tyres and finding the pale gems of potatoes waiting to be discovered is so rewarding! I can't tell you how much I love growing our own food and knowing exactly what went into the food on our plates. The money we save is a big help too.

And in case you fancied a giggle, without me knowing the hubbie took a picture of me picking a few red onions…

In case you're wondering why I'm in such an odd position, we had to put up a wire fence to keep the doggie out of the veg beds and so I have to straddle it, placing a foot in between rows every time I need to get in there! We'd just come back from walking said inquisitive dog in the fields, hence the heavy duty footwear.

In other areas, the strawberries are totally finished, tomatoes are growing but a few yellow and brown branches look ominous, a few of the red onions have lost their stalks, and we have more salad leaves and salad onions than can cope with!

How's your veg and fruit growing going?

How to make elderflower cordial

I'm becoming quite fond of making edible treats from my local hedgerows. In the autumn I make blackberry jam and blackberry vodka and I'm summoning up the courage to snip some nettles to make tea. This week I thought I'd give elderflower cordial a go. I used the recipe from July's Country Homes and Interiors magazine and although it stated that 850ml of cordial would be produced, I somehow ended up with more than a litre…

In my haste to make, I forgot to take any pics of the elderflower, you can find this image on flickr here

It's really very simple. All you need to do is boil 600ml water in a pan and add 900g caster sugar, stirring until it dissolves. Take it off the heat and leave it to cool for about ten minutes. In the meantime, grate the zest of one lemon and juice it. You will need to have cut ten elderflower heads, give them a thorough look over to pick out any little bugs who have come along for the ride. Add the elderflower heads, the lemon zest and juice and 45g of citric acid (bought from a chemist). Give it a good stir, cover and leave overnight.

Then, simply sieve and pour into sterilised bottles. It should keep for about a month, I'm storing mine in the fridge. It's pretty strong stuff so you only need a little added to water, soda or anything else you fancy flavouring.

This has instantly become my favourite soft summer drink and I think Pimm's is hard to beat as a sunshiney grown-up tipple. What's your favourite beverage on a hot summer's day?

PS I've just added a few new items to my etsy shop, check out the bunting bags when you get a mo…

Scrummy choccie chip cookies

Think they look tasty? They taste even better than they look. Try this Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall recipe and find out for yourselves!

Handmade is heartmade…

…is my new mantra, so, fittingly, this…

… was given to me today by my dear friend Kirsty and sums up a lovely afternoon spent learning how to crochet this…

 

…small and imperfectly formed, but crochet none the less, and followed by…

 
…multi-coloured eggs from local chickens for my dinner!

Hope you all had an equally satisfying day.

Blackberry vodka

Nope, I've not opened a speakeasy, I'm making homemade blackberry vodka!

I found the recipe in October's Country Living magazine and it just seemed too simple to not try. Plus I had a surplus of blackberries and am partial to the odd vodka cocktail. We made sloe gin a couple of years ago so fancied having a go at another tipple.

The simple recipe:

• Fill a old clean wine bottle one third full with equal parts blackberries and sugar.
• Top up with cheap vodka (no need to splash out on expensive stuff when you're flavouring it).
• Give it a good shake to mix up the berries, sugar and vodka.
• For the next two months give it a shake every day or two.
• Then, sieve the mixture through a muslin cloth, pour into a clean bottle and enjoy!

I'll let you know how it tastes!

BTW, my post about how I made the cushion cover from old clothes is on daisygreenmagazine.co.uk now, check it out http://good.ly/du2yk and let me know what you think!

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!