Staying in the Warm!

This week, we stayed out of the bitter cold!  There are things to keep us busy.  On Wednesday, we were counting copper coins for Sense Scotland - the charity that helps deaf-blind children.

Our Sunflower Growing competition will be launched next month but already, Vicki and family have been collecting coins in one of the money boxes they sent us - just under £4 already - well done!

We also learned how to make an origami seed packet - one sheet of paper folded with seeds inside, so they cannot drop out.  We are preparing to give each primary school three packets  with a few pumpkin seeds.

Our Lewis MacKenzie competition this year is for them to try and grow the largest pumpkin so they each have three "Hundredweight" seeds.  They will also have two packs containing more unusual pumpkin seeds along with a great recipe to try with them in the autumn!

On Thursday, we started to make the seed packets with the seeds inside.  Here you can see Simona (and Vicki) labelling them.  We will need thirty in total!

Three Cheers and a Big Thank You to our Cooking Demonstrator Guests!

On Thursday, we had three guests who came to work with us: Quintin on the left, Jo in the middle and Shaun on the right.

Quintin and Jo are both from a local restaurant and farm shop (The Storehouse) that cooks wonderful food!  They got everyone busy straight away preparing fresh ingredients supplied by Jo who has a small-scale organic farm just a few miles away at Knockfarrel (click here for more about his farm).

 They brought a good selection of fresh produce: potatoes, kale, garlic, carrots.

 Red cabbages too, and some eggs.

 Amy and Vicki were tasked with washing the potatoes...

 ...and Sara was peeling carrots.

 Quintin helps with peeling the potatoes...

 ...Anaya and Jo were busy with potatoes too.

 After all the prep. work, Jo gave us a talk about his farm whilst the other two started some cooking.

 We talked about the extra goodness and flavour gained by local produce as they are so fresh.  They are also good news for the environment as have travelled very short distances (Jo's farm delivers within a twenty mile radius).  He showed us pictures of his tractor, poly-tunnels and rows of salad and seedlings.

 He gave us some seed potatoes for growing - we can start them off in a month or so.

 We also learned that everyone has probably eaten some of his produce already, as he supplies Highland Council for our School Dinners.

 Eating fresh means that food must be "in season".  If we wanted peppers right now, they'd probably come from abroad.  We can eat fresh Kale from our gardens right now as it lasts well in the winter.  Here, Sophia tastes some raw Purple Kale!  Chefs in the Storehouse plan their menus according to what produce is available that week.

 After the talk, it was back to kitchen activities.  Here, Jo asks us about different methods of cooking.  We must never over-cook our produce as it will lose all its best flavour and goodness!  All the ingredients we worked with are ones that we will be growing this year, so we can try these recipes ourselves next autumn and winter.

 Sophia prepares Purple and Green Kale by cutting out the tough stalks and chopping the leaves.

 Meanwhile Anaya keeps stirring some simmering pickled red cabbage - this contained white wine vinegar and sugar too.

Garlic and onions chopped ready 

 Shaun gets Danielle started with frying thin slices of potato.

 Sara joined in and before long... 

 ...there was a general sense of concentration as DiGGers took turns to look after the frying pans!

 Meanwhile, Sara and Danielle decided to see if we could tell the difference between a commercially produced egg and one of Jo's organic freshly laid eggs.

 The shells of the local eggs were thicker than the commercially produced ones...

 ...but which would taste the best?  They fried one each... 

 ...and sliced them up for folks to taste.

 Interestingly both eggs were very tasty - but also very different!  Jo suggested that what the chickens eat will effect the taste of the eggs along with their freshness.

Dale meanwhile is busy cooking Kale which will be mixed with creamy fresh mashed potato - truly delicious!

 

 Time to test the produce!  Here, carrots have been prepared in three different ways: boiled, steamed and roasted in honey.  All were tasty but many preferred the steamed ones for extra flavour and lots enjoyed the roasted ones - they were surprised to mix carrots with sweet honey!

 Next came potatoes, again cooked in different ways: thinly sliced and fried, mashed with Kale, and roasted.  All were delicious - the potatoes were lovely and fluffy!

 Sophia on the right blows on her potato to cool it before tasting.

 Three cheers for delicious potatoes...hip hip hooray!

 Still more to come, we got to taste slices of raw garlic (very strong hence the look here on Sophia's face!) and compare them with roasted garlic which was must softer and sweeter.  Shaun was still hard at work, and also created a garlicky "Kale pesto" which we ate with some pasta bows - another gourmet treat!  It consisted of garlic, rape-seed oil, roasted pine nuts, some parmesan cheese and chopped curly kale.

 At the very end, Shaun made an enormous omelette with all the left over ingredients.  Everyone tucked in and polished the whole thing off!!  We didn't need any lunch after all this.

 Danielle finds the omelette a bit hot!

Danielle and Dale take the compost waste out to our RIDAN sealed composter.  Everyone had a great time and we'd like to thank Quentin, Shaun and Jo for a great culinary experience.  Now we have plenty of reasons for growing potatoes, garlic, carrots and kale this year!  Watch this space to see us starting off seeds as the spring arrives!

The day before, on Wednesday, we worked more on our Sunflower Competition Posters.

We also called Sense Scotland (the charity who help deaf-blind people that we will raise funds for this year) to order some collection boxes.  We'll use them both at school and at home for collecting loose change and taking money for "guesses" once the seedlings start to grow and people need to guess which will be the tallest.

Blindfolded Bird Feeding and Sunflower Posters!

Welcome back to DiGGers and all our supporters after the Christmas break.  

We wish you a Happy 2014 and look forward to another productive year in the garden!

On Wednesday this week, Danielle was tasked with feeding the birds - but she was required to wear a blindfold!  Here she makes her way to collect the empty feeders...

...there was quite a mess in the shed to sweep up after her efforts!

"Why the lack of vision?" you might ask?  To give an idea of what it might be like to have no sight - we plan to raise money this year with another Sunflower Growing competition.  The money will go to the charity "Sense Scotland".  They help deaf-blind children - see their website if interested.

On Thursday, we stayed indoors in the warm and worked on the computers to start creating posters to advertise the competition.  We hope to launch it next month, so watch this space!