Hazelnut spread.

While checking the hives this week I noticed the catkins on the hazel trees. It reminded me of all the nuts I picked last autumn. Each time I visited the bees I brought home a pocket full and now we had 2 1/2 jars that were still sitting in the pantry. I didn’t want to leave then there much longer for fear of them either drying out or being forgotten ( and drying out!) Either way I could see them being wasted which is never a good thing. Miss C patiently spent an hour shelling them all. Shells flew in all directions, she took a direct hit in the eye which she wasn’t best pleased about, and the kitchen surface was covered. In the end a bowl full of shells equalled 2 cups of nuts. Miss C felt the exchange rate seemed high and was not impressed. She brightened up no end when I took a block of chocolate from the cupboard and suggested she diced that while I roasted the nuts in a hot oven for 10 minutes or so and then gave them a good rub in a clean tea towel to remove some of the skins. It was more difficult than it sounds and we made do with just some coming off. We dropped the nuts in the food processor and blitzed them for 5 or 6 minutes, knocking them down from the sides regularly. The smell was divine. Although they got very moist they weren’t buttery so I added a tiny drop of olive oil before dropping in the 1/2 cup of chocolate. Blitzing it in in stages. It soon looked amazing.

When it looked fairly smooth we poured it into a bowl. The chocolate has melted and although it’s quite runny at the minute I think it will thicken a bit once it cools down.

Miss C tells me it tastes even better than the shop brought equivalent but as I’ve never tried that I can’t comment. I just know it’s pretty good and smells delicious. Less preservatives is an added advantage.

As I never like to miss an opportunity, I’m wondering what to do with all those shells. I wonder if they would keep the slugs away from something in the veggie garden this spring. Another blog offering later on perhaps??

I do love a bargain.

Last autumn I had the idea of picking up a bag of bulbs each week with my shopping. After 2 weeks I abandoned the idea, as I hadn’t planted the first ones, and the bags got left on the side in the utility where there were promptly forgotten. It’s now January and to late for them to go in the soil so I persuaded hubB that a trip to the garden centre to buy compost was needed.

As the compost is stacked up outside the store, I just pay for what I want at the end of my visit and take the car over to put it straight in. As we walked into the store for a coffee I happily told B we didn’t need a trolley. I could carry anything we brought. Famous last words!! 

The store had all autumn bulbs at 50p a bag. 50p! They also had all Christmas stock at 70 percent off. B took one look, turned around and went for a trolley, he knows me well. 

By the time we reached the coffee shop I had this little load.

While we ate our breakfast rolls and drank slightly dodgy coffee B rang his dad to tell him about the sale ( he’s a keen gardener) and took another order. Luckily Miss C was at horse riding as she would not have been impressed to have to go back and shop again. I on the other hand rose to the occasion and picked even more stock. 

Today has been spent happily potting up the 444 bulbs. I feel pretty smug that I was able to lay my hands on washed and sorted pots and labels. Standing in my new summerhouse out of the wind and placing the pots straight into my recently tidied polytunnel. Sometimes I’m so organised I amaze myself and it feels good! 

If I’m honest the 75 litres of compost wasn’t enough and I ended up lasagne planting lots of the bulbs in one big pot. I also didn’t need the extra 160 onion sets I now have in plug trays. 

But look at the savings. I’m one happy gardener today. 

Happy 2018

Can you believe that another year has begun? In just a few days I will be another year older. I remember, as a child, a lesson on the millennium and a task to work out how old we would be on that date. I started enthusiastically enough but when I realised it was more years than I had fingers I declared ‘ I’ll be so old I’ll be dead by then’ and stopped counting. Now we’re 18 years past that event and I can remember it like it was yesterday. Well to be honest yesterday is often forgotten to me but then I’m getting older! 

Our family tradition is to spend New Years Day at the coast. Hunstanton is fairly close to us and as the weather was fine we set off. 

It was already busier  than it often is in the summer and by the time we left, the queue into the town was a good few miles long. I’m glad we’d started earlier than most this morning! 

The beach was busy with windsurfing and a few hardy souls were even sitting and digging in the sand. We contented ourselves with a very brisk walk from one end to the other. Walking into the sun meant facing the wind and it was bracing to say the least. 

Heading back to the car we had the wind and the sun on our backs and the promise of a good lunch to haste our way. 

As we pulled into the drive, back home,  I noticed this rather lovely rose growing on the front wall. It inspired me to find some other treasures.
There’s a rather nice geranium still flowering in the summerhouse.

There’s a very brave Hebe outside the back door and a rather bedraggled marigold out the front. Nothing else has survived the almost constant frosty mornings and warm days of the last month. 

If I’m making one new year promise this year it’s to be more organised. I won’t keep it, I never do, but wouldn’t it be nice. I could start planning now but I have a good book, it was a Christmas present and it would be churlish not to read it while it’s still new. 

Happy 2018 to you all.