21st June 2011

17th June Veg for my dinner

Baby Beetroot . Boil for 10 minutes then roast in the oven with some olive oil for approx 40 mins. About 20 minutes before they are cooked I threw in some Mangetout, broad beans and new potatoes. Herbs, marjoram, fennel, thyme, oregano and God knows what else ( there was wine taken in moderation of course)

I had the strawberries for breakfast, sprinkled some oregano on them , Yummy.

Pearse College Allotments

Allotments on the 10th June 2011

A before and after shot of Pauls plot 96

Guerrilla Gardening

Sunday the 8th May 2011

A simple Pea Shoot Recipe

Stir Fried Pea Shoots Recipe with Garlic and Chillies(serves 2)

2 tablespoons olive oil
2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
a pinch chilli flakes
4 cups packed pea shoots, roughly chopped

Heat a large Pot or Wok to medium and add olive oil, garlic and chilli flakes. The oil should bubble around the garlic but not burn.

Cook the garlic and chillies, stirring them for about 3 minutes, or until garlic softens and starts to turn golden.

Add pea shoots and stir well to coat evenly in the oil and garlic. Stir them regularly as they will cook quickly and you want them to cook evenly.

They will take about 2 minutes to wilt down. Serve immediately.

Some pictures from todays visit of Paddy O Gorman.

Pearse College Allotments

Just to let everyone know, Paddy O Gorman of RTE will be visiting the allotments on Sunday morning 8th May. Your chance to get on the telly.

Nero di Toscanu

Just 6 weeks into the new coalition government of Fine Gael and Labour, Osama Bin Laden has been killed. This would never have happened under a Fianna Fail led administration.

Meanwhile the sowing of seeds continues on the plot. This week I sowed Nero di Toscanu kale.

It promises to be an unusual looking plant, its also called Black Tuscan Palm.

This year I am going to try unusual colours in the plot, with Romanescu, Nero kale and Swiss Chard to provide a bit of interest.

Romanescu

These have just started to germinate for me.

Roasted Romanesco


Romanesco, trimmed and cleaned as you would broccoli or cauliflower
Olive
oil
salt and pepper
sliced garlic
parmesan cheese grated
Preheat oven to 400.
In a bowl toss all of the ingredients and roast on a baking sheet for about 20 minutes or until just tender.

Todays Special

TODAY’S SPECIAL The beet is the most intense of vegetables. The radish, admittedly, is more feverish, but the fire of the radish is a cold fire, the fire of discontent not of passion. Tomatoes are lusty enough, yet there runs through tomatoes an undercurrent of frivolity. Beets are deadly serious.

Poem for a Dead Dog

Poem for a Dead Dog My dog has died. I buried him in the garden next to a rusted old machine. Some day I'll join him right there, but now he's gone with his shaggy coat, his bad manners and his cold nose, and I, the materialist, who never believed in any promised heaven in the sky for any human being,I believe in a heaven I'll never enter. Yes, I believe in a heaven for all dogdom where my dog waits for my arrival waving his fan-like tail in friendship. Ai, I'll not speak of sadness here on earth, of having lost a companion who was never servile. His friendship for me, like that of a porcupine withholding its authority, was the friendship of a star, aloof, with no more intimacy than was called for, with no exaggerations: he never climbed all over my clothes filling me full of his hair or his mange, he never rubbed up against my kneelike other dogs obsessed with sex. No, my dog used to gaze at me, paying me the attention I need, the attention required to make a vain person like me understand that, being a dog, he was wasting time, but, with those eyes so much purer than mine,he'd keep on gazing at me with a look that reserved for me alone all his sweet and shaggy life, always near me, never troubling me,and asking nothing. Ai, how many times have I envied his tail as we walked together on the shores of the sea in the lonely winter of Isla Negra where the wintering birds filled the sky and my hairy dog was jumping about full of the voltage of the sea's movement: my wandering dog, sniffing away with his golden tail held high, face to face with the ocean's spray. Joyful, joyful, joyful,as only dogs know how to be happy with only the autonomy of their shameless spirit. There are no good-byes for my dog who has died, and we don't now and never did lie to each other. So now he's gone and I buried him, and that's all there is to it.

Dan has finally arrived

The start of a new season 2011

Ronan's Parsnips

The Aardvark and the Parsnip


“Why aardvark? ” inquired the parsnip. The aardvark paused in his digging to consider this.“It doesn’t seem to sum you up very well”, This irritated the aardvark. “Well what’s so great about parsnip? ”The parsnip paused in its pausing to consider this, “It’s succinct. I don’t wish to cause offence. But why not have a name that describes you as a bow backed digger with a large nose…and very soft ears.” “But that doesn’t sum me up either.” The parsnip was confused and inquired of the aardvark what would in fact sum him up.“Frank, I’d like to be Frank. Frank who dreams about sunlight and warm rain. Who wonders what happened to all the other aardvarks And why ants taste salty And what it would be to be a bird or a fish and what are fish and can they fly. through sunlight and warm rain.” “I think you’re right aardvark is better” said the parsnip who doesn’t dream but if he did would probably dream about pink kangaroos and roots. Roots that just keep growingdeeper, so that they never stop that pass through the heart of all things and then reach sunlight and grow up becoming a tree, taller than the rest, that talks to other trees and not just parsnips and looks down at a parsnip and aardvark conversing and then wonders, does that parsnip dream of being a treeand can that aardvark flyand if not Has he ever tried?

Summer Allotment Party

Pictures by Jonathan O Neill plot51

Family day out

Prize giving party