Tere

On holiday? Tallinn is meant to be lovely

Delia's damson chutney recipe is excellent. Keeps and matures very well, too. I've used ground allspice in the past (getting berries is a pain) http://www.deliaonline.com/recipes/international/european/british/spiced-damson-chutney?utm_source=rd&utm_medium=d&utm_campaign=otn&utm_content=recipes/type-of-dish/chutney/spiced-damson-chutney.html

I really miss good corn from Japan. This thread has made me realise how much it's now off my rotation and how I should maybe give poor old UK corn a chance. Next year the corn beds happen though.

Well in fairness the OP posted and then IIRC hasn't reacted. I had assumed it was someone looking for a quick assignment credit.

On reflection, the wine packaging is pretty hardcore (like the individual wine pillow here ) but sounds like you have true craving emergencies covered

Love this! I could always post some I guess but how they would survive transit. Hmm. Wonder if some of the inflated wine packaging I have might stand a chance....

Hubby subscribes to the World of Fine Wine mag which I always think I should read if I am going for the WSET Diploma, then don't But at least the back catalogues are there. He says quite a few of the articles are interesting. There's been a few interesting articles in FT's How to Spend It, as well, which he has access to as a subscriber, so I in theory do, but am lazy Not a mag, but we have a Jancis Robinson sub.

Ooh, I didn't realise the flowers were edible! A good case for growing them again next year I think.

Thanks! That all sounds wonderful. I might have to stare at my many nettle patches some more

This is my first season but I don't see mould on them and I broke the first pod open to check on progress today and they were fine. No clue really, although I guess I am at lower humidity possibly? We do use fertiliser but don't really spray anything right now.

Torres obliges: http://www.torres.es/en/wines/sangre-de-toro - Garnacha and Carinena (with squiggle). I would hazard that could be the Spanish name for Grenache and Carignan. @DianaB was there a maximum distance for the free delivery out of interest? I've found the odd interesting bin end in Aldi and they often do Tokaji for cheap at Christmas. You guys nearly got the Ludlow Aldi pics due to train failure meaning I was stuck at Ludlow station for a while but the train started moving as I remembered to head there and take pics. The branding and store layout look pretty similar to rotuts' pics although on a smaller scale.

@ninagluck, that looks amazing! So many unfamiliar things to consider. How do you treat the strawberries to get the cardamom in? Calamansi was new to me but I looked it up. Looks tasty! When you say the char was cooked in bees wax do you mean the actual wax or wax paper en papillote? What does the tarhana taste like? When you say roasted nettle seeds do you mean https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urtica_dioica? How do you collect the seeds, how do you roast them, what do they taste like? Lovely to see your skills

I have to confess I've not cooked with it (yet) but I've had it roasted very successfully in several restaurant meals. It sort of tastes nutty, a bit like a cross between Jerusalem artichoke, parsnip and burdock root. This is a more experimental planting with some freebie seeds from a seed exchange, but the fact that each planting is only a metre long in the bed means we can try out more than a few things and not grieve too much if it doesn't work out (like the tree spinach).

Sunday dinner was Gordon Ramsay's pork belly cooked in the AGA, although I managed to forget the star anise and the garlic because I was doing it from memory. It really does need the time to cook and it had a little longer without fussing. I loved the caramelised fennel. The crackling was consumed as a pre dinner snack with a G and T. Green peas and carrots from the garden, Yorkshire, roast potatoes and cauliflower cheese. I'd used a Chilean Chardonnay in the pan (it needs a lot of liquid) so we had Shaw and Smith's M3 Chardonnay to accompany. Decent pairing. https://www.gordonramsay.com/gr/recipes/slow-roasted-pork-belly/

And here's garden mark 2, the revenge of garden. This garden runs at the north side of the stream that runs into our duckponds. I am standing in front of three small cold frames which are pushed up against the fence of garden mark 1. I have 7 more raised beds now, not all of which will be used in the short term I think. Next job is to dig in a LOT of manure and install some weed suppressant membrane until we need them. The bed closest to me is going to be the sweetcorn bed, and I could see the next bed becoming strawberry overflow given the amount of runners I have. Other things I need to find space for are some lovage plants, which I'll probably plant in the bed furthest away with some other perennial (fennel? Artichoke?). One bed will be given over to rhubarb, and one to unusual tubers, I have some oka to plant out and then perhaps some jerusalem artichoke and some new potatoes. That leaves me with a couple of beds spare. I'm probably not going to repeat the cut flower bed next year in quite the same way, so that gives me three to play with, which seems enough for any ideas that come to mind. The space right at the end will be where the beehives go eventually. It's a nice self-contained space which is making use of what was essentially derelict land. I'm pretty happy with it.

Garden update: Herbs seem to be growing visibly! Blueberries and whimberries are still struggling. Cranberry is very happy but no sign of berries. Perhaps the most successful thing in the berry patch is, surprisingly, the lingonberries, which are sturdy happy bushes easily outcompeting the grass with a fair few berries on them. No aronia berries this year (not pictured). I may need to move them next year to somewhere with more sun perhaps, but I thought I'd let them get bigger first. How the cut flower and veggie plots look now from a distance. Courgette are just starting to be ready to harvest. I see courgette in my future at the weekend. I am watching out for zucchini recipes with interest! Cornflowers from the cut flower border ready for picking. I will take some to my Estonian friend (it's their national flower). Nigella, zinnia and cosmos are close. Scabious is being drowned by the cornflower. Asters are sort of OK. Sweet peas are still rubbish. Nasturtiums are going crazy which is great as that's more of a salad and seed crop than a cut flower. You can just see sunflowers forming, again I am growing that more as a crop than a cut flower. My dill has gone beserk and needs harvesting. This plus the coriander and parsley are keepers. Tarragon didn't germinate. Basil is now doing OK but only 5 or 6 plants have germinated and I get through so much basil I think I am better off buying the little containers of fresh basil from the supermarket rather than using lots of space to try and keep up with demand. Will have to evaluate at the end of the season though. Time to sew some more salad crop and raab. The tree spinach will become a sacrificial dinner tonight since being vetoed by hubby, along with some more chard and spinach beet. Runner beans, borlotti and dwarf french beans are all in flower. Peas are just about ready to start picking. Carrots are doing well, as is the salsify. Parsley and leeks are starting to get away. Broad beans are swelling nicely. I can see a few flowers coming on the tomatoes. Gooseberries! First of the peas and carrot thinnings with Sunday dinner.

Prawn and tomato curry from BBC Good Food pressure cooker cookbook, cooked in the Instant Pot. Served with Madhur Jaffrey's pea and coriander curry and home made paratha, one of my favourite Indian breads. Plus some home made mango chutney from the pub down the road, as you do. I need to diversify my chillis in my stockcupboard, I could only find a few dried ones of unknown heat, and even the smallest was too hot really. Still tasty though.

Prawn and tomato curry from the weekend, plus accoutrements. More in the dinner thread.

Caramelised onions sound a wonderful idea. I might have to buy some onions!

Prawn and tomato curry from the BBC pressure cooking cookbook. Saute the onion, quick saute the ginger and garlic, spices, chopped tomatoes and some malt vinegar in, 4 mins pressure then natural release, then prawns in and stir through till cooked. Pics will go on the dinner thread when I can find the camera. Not bad!

That produce looks lovely!

Actually the UK has a fantastic cheese culture with lots of regional cheeses and many small local cheese makers, at least as good as that in France

I love how little overlap there is. From my collection I think I've seen French Regional Cooking, Nigella's How to Eat, the two Keller books (less surprising), a Tom Kerridge, and the Harold McGee. And possibly one Nigel Slater. That's it.

Oh my.

I tend to buy cookbooks as holiday souvenirs when I can find a decent one in English, and in French if pushed. I have dar Moha's cookbook http://www.decitre.fr/livres/la-cuisine-de-moha-9782849420614.html and a coffee table French cookbook from Morocco, Flynn's Second Helpings from Ireland https://www.amazon.co.uk/Second-Helpings-Further-Irish-Adventures/dp/1903464846, a wonderfully vague one from Venice, Movida from Melbourne https://www.amazon.co.uk/MoVida-Frank-Camorra-Richard-Cornish/dp/1921259396/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1469039465&sr=1-1&keywords=movida, others include offerings from Austria and Japan, of course. I like doing that as it reminds me of the holiday