Saturday 1st March, Hands on Day in The Back Garden

Hi folks

We could really do with some physical help in The Back Garden on Saturday 1st of March, there are a few quite heavy jobs required to ready the garden for this season; if you have half an hour or more to help out it would be much appreciated and you will be rewarded with a warm cuppa of your choice and maybe even some home baking if we're lucky.

Please feel free to bring along any family and friends, all are welcome; even if you just want to find out what's happening and say hello.

We hope to see you in The Back Garden soon.

Christmas Veg. from The Back Garden Dec. 2013

I was so delighted with the Parsnip, Carrots and Sprouts from The Back Garden on my Christmas dinner plate this year.  Proof that the back and finger nail breaking, blood, sweat and tears were all well worth it.

Yyummmmy too!

I will be planning well a-head this year I can tell you.

You could also have delicious home grown goodies to adorn your plate, come along and see if you like what you see, become a member, put in as much time as you can muster (1 or 2 hour a week is not much) and you could be learning new skills, making new friends and enjoying time out doors.
As advertised; No Experience Necessary, I became a member a while ago and by no means am I green fingered, I am still learning, we all are.  Gardening is a never ending learning curve, with weather, pests and other things never doing what they did the previous season; it really is a rewarding past time.

Winter Opening

Unfortunately there will be no more Saturday gardening.  Hopefully evening and weekend times will resume in the spring.

As I am sure you can appreciate it is not the time of year for being out in the elements, so I am afraid The Back Garden will only be open weather permitting from now until the end of February.

Should you be passing and see signs of life please do pop in and say hello.

We hope you get through the winter warmly and the festivities festively; all the very best of wishes for the coming New Year.

Compost Care must be followed if we want the best quality for The Back Garden

COMPOST CARE

When composting, take an equal amount of Green Materials (vegetable & plant) and Brown Materials (shredded paper & card board), making sure everything is broken up quite small.

Also remember to crush up egg shells for addition.

When turning compost you could use the rotavator, a fork or trowel; this can be quite messy.

NO Plastic, Avocado seeds, Citrus or cooked food packaging to be added to the compost.

A plastic compost bin remains for woodier waste.

Happy Composting!

Back Garden - Autumn Cleanup Day

The annual garden cleanup is this Saturday, 26th October from 10 to 4.

We will be getting the garden in shape for the winter, as well as dealing with a large delivery of rock dust that we intend to spread over the garden.

There is still a decent amount of interesting produce and plants, so it's not all soap and dirt.

If you would like to come along, whether to lend a hand, say hello to most of the regulars, just have a look at the place or bring us some hot drinks to keep us going, you are very welcome.

Even if you just pop in for ten minutes we would be delighted to see you.

Spring Onion Soup

The garden has produced lots of rather large spring onions this year, and one of them provides much more spring onion than I'm used to. However, I found this recipe for spring onion soup by Yotam Ottolenghi, and it's delicious as well as very easy. Even better, it can be made almost wholly from ingredients produced in the garden.

Raspberry Meringue Pie

Kirsty found this  recipe from Delicious magazine, tried it out and wanted to share it with you all.

Raspberry Meringue Pie

By Matthew Drennan

This fabulous meringue pie recipe offers the essence of summer in every mouthful. Use the freshest raspberries you can find.

Serves 8

Takes 50 minutes to make and about 35 minutes to bake, plus chilling and cooling

INGREDIENTS

• 150g plain flour, plus extra to dust
• 25g caster sugar
• 75g butter, cubed and chilled
• 1 large egg yolk

For the raspberry filling

• 800g fresh raspberries
• 5 tbsp corn flour
• 100-125g golden caster sugar, to taste
• 2 tbsp lemon juice
• 5 large egg yolks
• 60g butter

For the meringue topping

• 3 large egg whites
• 175g golden caster sugar

METHOD

How to make raspberry meringue pie

1. Whizz the flour, sugar and butter in a processor, until they resemble crumbs. Add the yolk and 1 tablespoon cold water, then pulse until it comes together to form a dough. Wrap in cling film and chill for 15 minutes.

2. Preheat the oven to 190°C/fan170°C/gas 5. Roll out the pastry on a floured surface and use to line a deep, 23cm fluted flan tin. Line with baking paper and fill with baking beans or rice. Place on a baking sheet and bake for 15 minutes. Remove the beans and paper and bake for a further 10-12 minutes, or until dry and pale golden. Set aside to cool. Reduce the oven temperature to 180°C/fan160°C/gas 4.

3. Make the filling. Whizz the raspberries to a purée, then pass through a sieve to remove the seeds - you should end up with 675ml-700ml purée. Pour into a saucepan.

4. In a bowl, mix the corn flour with 100g sugar, the lemon juice and 1 tablespoon water to give a paste. Stir into the purée, place over a medium heat and cook, stirring, until just boiling. Cook for 1 minute, stirring continuously, until thickened. Taste and add the extra sugar if the raspberries are too tart. Remove from the heat and beat in the egg yolks and butter. Cool slightly, then pour into the pastry case and chill for 30 minutes to firm up the filling.

5. Make the topping. Whisk the egg whites to soft peaks in a large, grease-free bowl. Gradually whisk in the sugar, until you have a stiff, glossy meringue. Pile on top of the filling, swirling the meringue with a palette knife to get craggy peaks. Bake for 8-10 minutes, or until the meringue is pale gold. Serve immediately.

Tip: This is best served fresh from the oven, so the juice from the filling doesn't soak into the crisp pastry shell.

© delicious. magazine